Parks Merger: ‘Citizens Need and Expect More’

By Uriah Kiser

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — The largest employer of youth in Prince William could today become apart of the county government.

The county’s Board of Supervisors at 2 p.m. will hold a public meeting to discuss dissolving the Prince William County Park Authority and replacing it with a county parks and recreation department. The independent Authority’s Board, which was first created in 1971 and is responsible for managing 67 properties over 4,000 acres, voted Feb. 7 that it wanted to be enveloped by the county government.

Prince William officials in documents related to the merger state times have changed since the inception of the Park Authority, whose job back then was to manage just three properties.

“The Park Authority merger into the county government structure reflects the growth and changes in the community since the Authority was formed in 1971…since then Prince William has grown tremendously in population and diversity,” stated Prince William Deputy County Executive Susan Roltsch. “Our citizens need and expect more and more types of recreation services and the provision of these services requires a significant outlay of funds from the taxpayers of the county.”

The county would assume ownership of all park properties and obligations, including debt.

Last year the Authority went into debt after developing golf courses. County officials stepped in and helped refinance their debt, and then reduced the amount of money regularly transferred to the Authority from the county’s general fund in lieu of making payments directly for the Authority, documents state.

Currently, 45 percent of the Park Authority’s funds come from monies generated internally, but the larger remaining portion comes from the county and the general fund, according to county documents.

The Park Authority employs more than 500 full-time or full-time equivalent positions, as well as 1,900 part-time seasonal positions making it the largest employer of youths in the county. If the merger is approved, those employees would become county government employees, but documents do not state if the new parks department would maintain its current staffing levels.

If the merger is approved, management of the parks would transfer from its current eight-member to a newly formed Parks and Recreation Advisory Board by July 1.