Director of parks asks for 51 more workers

The request that recently landed on Glenn Trowbridge's desk seemed perfectly reasonable: Sandy Valley, a desert community of 1,500 residents, wants a public swimming pool.

But then another petition arrived at the Clark County parks and recreation director's office. The public pool in the Parkdale area is in bad shape and must be replaced. That swimming pool serves 90,000 residents.

Trowbridge's decisions when figuring out his department's budget needs doesn't get any easier as more and more neighborhoods blanket the desert floor.

In order to care for existing parks, staff recreation centers and prepare for 90 acres of new parks and a community center scheduled to open this year, Trowbridge is asking for 51 new positions in the 1999-2000 fiscal budget.

And, he emphasized, he's not aiming high to get more staff than he needs.

"If they want to call me to the carpet on position No. 51, I can fill a stadium with people who will say this is the position that they want to be filled," Trowbridge said.

Ideally, the parks division would like one staff member per 10 acres of park land; currently one maintenance worker handles about 14 acres. That person applies pesticides, trims trees, maintains the irrigation system, replaces worn equipment and repairs cracked pavement.

"We're not just talking about 10 acres and one guy mowing it," Trowbridge said. "And it's not like we have winters off, it's a year-around operation."

Trowbridge told county finance leaders he needs $94 million on top of the Parks and Recreation Department's base budget of $16 million to fund not only new staff positions, but projects.

The most significant projects on the department's wish list are adding meeting rooms to the Sunset community center, replacing the Parkdale pool, expanding the Heritage Museum and the Desert Breeze community center.

Trowbridge, however, is not counting on the funding; last year he asked for about the same amount and received only $18 million.

What he does know is which parks will open during the next fiscal year.

Joe Shoong Park near Charleston and Lamb boulevards will expand by five acres, seven acres will be added to Alexander Villas Park, park land at Desert Breeze will increase by 15 acres and more acreage will be added at the fairgrounds.

One-acre parks will be built near Sahara Avenue and Paradise Road, and also on Vegas Valley Drive. Along the smaller green spaces, two 20-acre parks will open at Lake Mead Drive and Wigwam Avenue and adjacent to Charles Silvestri Middle School. The Lone Mountain Park, the first county-built park in the northwest, opened Saturday.

Trowbridge said the 20-acre parks not only require two maintenance workers, but staff members to answer calls, order supplies and organize recreation programs.

Then there are the park police. The county would like to have one officer patrolling the large parks at all times. That becomes even more important during special events like the Fourth of July, when parks draw thousands of visitors.

"As the number of people who come into the parks increases, we need the number of police to increase," Trowbridge said. "Anything that can happen in the community can happen in the parks."

In addition to the parks, the 43,000-square-foot Cambridge Community Center is opening, a senior wing is being added to the Parkdale Park and Recreation Center and a pool is being built at the Desert Breeze facility.

The Parks and Recreation Department already has a staff of 215 full-time employees and 1,070 part-timers, but that is only enough to keep facilities open during the day. In a 24-hour town like Las Vegas, that's not good enough.

"Not a week goes by when people don't call and ask why a community center can't be open at midnight when they get off work," Trowbridge said. "Ideally we'd like to do that because a significant amount of the population work non-traditional hours."

While promising voters new parks is a favorite campaign strategy for most candidates, Trowbridge realizes it is not that simple. His department will not likely receive enough money to hire 51 employees or accomplish the projects residents would like to see in their neighborhoods.

He is also aware that parks and recreation are discretionary services the Clark County Commission does not have to fund. It's not a mandated service like fire, police and roads, but it is important to county residents' quality of life.

"When I drive by a park I say I'm glad to see that there, but I don't always drive by a street and say that," Trowbridge said.

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