A Tiny Breakthrough
The AZ Republic, which editorialized against our parks proposal before they had even seen it, gave us a brief mention today:
Separately, a Senate committee on Monday recommended passage of Senate Bill 1349. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Barbara Leff, would allow the parks board to lease the parks to public or private entities without going through normal procurement procedures.
That freedom could allow the parks to be leased quickly.
The lessee, who would be responsible for maintaining the park, could then charge admission fees and earn additional money through concessions.
"I'm trying to find a way immediately to make sure those parks do not close," said Leff, R-Paradise Valley. "There are private companies that will manage those parks for us."
Phoenix-based Recreation Resource Management, which operates 175 public parks around the country, has written a letter to parks officials offering to take over at least six of the parks.
While it shouldn't be, this is the last thing AZ State Parks wants to do. However, with their options narrowing, they may be getting down to the last thing. The outlines of the proposal we made is here.
