Some Marshall Center swimmers upset about Sunday closure

? Marshall Center: Closed on Sundays (seven evening hours were cut in July 2009).

? Firstenburg Center: Closing one hour earlier. Closing time as of Jan. 1 will be: Monday through Thursday at 9 p.m.; Fridays at 8 p.m.; and Saturdays at 7 p.m.

? Parks: With the parks maintenance budget being cut by half, rolling brownouts (therefore reduced mowing) and drastically lowered maintenance levels are expected. No new parks will be developed, although dedicated park acquisition funds exist to buy new parks land. Response time to service calls will be longer, as well as longer periods between trash collection and other servicing of the parks. Restrooms will be open on a reduced schedule April 15 to Oct. 15.

? Recreation: Fewer recreation programs are planned; which classes will be cut hasn’t been decided, but decisions will likely be based on attendance. The cost of many programs — classes, swim lessons, sports programs and annual/monthly/ongoing passes — will go up 5 percent on Jan. 1. Fewer scholarships will be available.

Bharat Kumar is a new member in a line of Vancouver residents who will lose something as the city’s major budget cuts begin to go into effect.

The Fisher’s Landing resident is a devoted lap swimmer who uses the pool at the Marshall Community Center at 1009 E. McLoughlin Blvd. daily. Or he will until Jan. 1, when the center is set to close every Sunday due to budget cuts.

Already, with the closure of Hough Pool, the crowds at Marshall have grown. Now they’ll have one less day to swim.

Kumar is willing to pay extra to swim on Sundays, and has turned in a petition from 16 other swimmers who would do the same.

“They should be flexible, sympathetic and supportive of the public’s desire to use the facility; they are public servants,” Kumar said recently.

City officials say they have received the petition, and are looking at setting up a weekly private rental with the swimmers.

But the cost to open, heat, provide security and power the facility may be prohibitive.

“The reality is, we have to be responsive to the majority of the needs,” Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation Director Pete Mayer said. “Not everyone is going to have their needs met.”

Mayer said he had to make cuts in areas that would be the least onerous — the result of his department absorbing part of the $9.1 million in citywide budget reductions.

Closing Marshall on Sundays was picked because the facility is only open for five hours that day, and no classes are held there that day.

Firstenburg Community Center, at 700 N.E. 136th Ave., will remain open Sundays, although Kumar called the small pool there “a joke.”

“It’s very impactful; we’re doing our level best to keep services intact,” Mayer said. “Even programs that generate revenue are being impacted by this.”

It’s the latest in a series of losses for the department since 2002; since that year, Vancouver’s general fund support has fallen from nearly $4 million to $1.5 million this year.

Clark County’s contribution has held mostly steady at around $1.1 million each year, while the city’s capital fund pays $1.5 million a year for debt on the Firstenburg construction and Marshall’s 2007 renovation and 10,000- square-foot addition.

The 2011-2012 biennial budget, which the Vancouver City Council is set to approve Nov.1, was the result of nearly a year’s worth of deliberations.

This spring, the city broke down its services into six “strategic commitments,” and spent months contacting residents, stakeholders and city employees about which they viewed as the highest priority.

Residents gave public safety their top marks, but the majority of respondents also said they want a full-service city, Assistant City Manager Eric Holmes said.

“This budget affirms the city’s commitment to provide an array of services, ranging from parks and recreation to public safety,” Holmes told the city council Oct. 18 as they reviewed the budget. “The budget does continue to provide that suite of services.”

Just at a much lower level.

“We need to change our culture in the city, we need a list of things citizens can expect,” City Councilor Pat Campbell said during the workshop.

The cuts to Vancouver’s public safety this go-around have been called drastic — 28 sworn (but unfilled) positions from police and fire. And if the city doesn’t get a federal grant to save 13 firefighters, Fire Station 6 will be indefinitely shuttered. Those cuts represent a 6 percent reduction to the 485.5 workers classified under the city’s “safe and prepared community” category, which largely contains firefighters, police and those who support them.

To contrast, the “healthy, livable and sustainable Vancouver” category, which is mostly comprised of parks employees, will lose 32.4 of its 111.6 jobs, or a 29 percent loss. (The biggest hit is to the city’s “transportation, mobility and connectivity” commitment, which is losing 51 percent of its 46.6 of its workers).

Last year, parks and recreation reduced teen center hours; spent less to hire help at customer service desks; cut the number of special events offered at both centers; eliminated two management positions; reduced ball field maintenance; and increased prices.

At the same time, use is up — the trails and centers saw more than 1 million visits last year, a 16 percent increase over 2008, Mayer said. And the city’s recreation centers actually recover about 80 percent of their costs, he said.

The system, the parks and recreation director said, is broken.

The fix is to reimagine how parks and recreation — along with numerous other city services — are delivered.

A Blue Ribbon Commission was created this summer to bring together Vancouver, Clark County, Camas, Washougal, Battle Ground and Ridgefield to discuss combining resources and creating a regional parks and recreation district. The commission is expected to present its findings early next year.

“It’s having a conversation around that in a new economic reality,” Mayer said. “There is a place for public parks and recreation; I think the community believes that as well.”

Andrea Damewood: 360-735-4542 or andrea.damewood@columbian.com.