Getting the Word Out

Bringing the park closer to home 

Oakland County residents hope millage passes

By BILL LAITNER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

On Tuesday night, Oakland County Parks boss Dan Stencil plans to speak to Pleasant Ridge leaders as colleagues a mile away in Huntington Woods talk about why voters should renew the county’s parks millage Aug. 3.

On Thursday, county parks workers will hold a free out door concert of Motown at their newest park, Catalpa Oaks in Southfield, which opened in 2007.

Each event is part of a multi year campaign to show that Oakland’s sprawling park sys tem has ramped up communi cations, programs and facilities in the county’s southeast quad rant, where residents have long resented paying for parks far from their homes. Now, with more programs nearby, that resentment has eased, al­though the county should do more, said County Commis sioner Dave Coulter, D-Fern dale.

“What happens after this millage passes? Will we be ig nored again?” Coulter said.

He and other south-end leaders favor what Wayne County did to spread park re sources across the county, ear marking 15% of funds to munic ipal parks, in effect handing money back to budget strapped communities through proposals made by county commissioners and local lead ers.

“We don’t just send them a check. It has to go for capital improvements to a park,” As sistant Wayne County Execu tive Alan Helmkamp said.

Macomb County’s park sys tem lacks a millage or other revenue to support it through the county’s budget cutbacks.

Of Oakland County’s 13 parks, nine are near or north of M-59, about 15 miles north of the county’s urban south end.

Stencil said that he and his staff have spoken in more than a dozen communities south of 14 Mile and east of Telegraph since May, asking voters to re new the county’s 10-year parks millage.

The .2415-mill property tax costs the owner of a $175,000 home about $21 a year and ac counts for 60% of the county parks budget, communications director Desiree Stanfield said. The proposed renewal would raise $12.4 million in 2011, she said.

At Thursday’s concert, county workers plan to hand out pro-millage yard signs in a park the county almost sold to a developer in 2006, until County Commissioner Helene Zack, D-Huntington Woods, spoke out.

Although the south end lacks big swaths of wild land, there could be compact dog parks and bike paths, she said. “But we keep seeing parks expansion in the north.”