WIVB CBS-4
Sedita: Erie County Parks Can't Do Much with No Budget
April 6, 2006 09:20 PM EDT
(April 6, 2006) - - Erie County parks are preparing for another season, but Senior Correspondent Rich Newberg reports the county's bare-bones budget leaves little or nothing for recreational programs.
The annual Easter Egg Hunt scheduled for Saturday at Ellicott Creek Park has been cancelled, along with the Sprague Brook Fall Crafts Festival that attracts 50,000 people.
In fact, all planned Erie County park recreational activity has been cancelled because of the on-going budget crisis.
Erie County parks commissioner Angelo Sedita said, "Without any budget, there's really nothing that we can do."
Erie County lawmakers are even using $60,000 set aside by the parks department in a recreation trust fund, to help close next year's budget hole.
Democratic legislator Thomas Loughran of Amherst said, "The county needs to prioritize, and, balancing this budget, we're going to need those funds."
Sedita said, "There's a fine line there, to what's excessive spending, and what's sort of necessary to give people a better quality of life in this county."
To try and maintain the quality of life, non-profit groups have been asked by the county to fund special events, like Santa's Park last year at Chestnut Ridge.
The groups Revitalize Buffalo and the Western New York Coalition for Progress came to the rescue.
Alan Bedenko of the Western New York Coalition for Progress said, "Concerned citizens can step into the breach, and sort of make [up] some of the loss, in terms of our quality-of-life issues, when the legislature can't come up with the money to fund them."
Senior recreational programs have also been impacted.
Sedita says some taxpayers are demanding restoration of the programs.
Others believe more criticial services should take priority.
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