MPA on Healey-Driscoll proposed FY2025 DCR Budget
— DCR Stewardship Council to hold park friends listening session
— Mass Central Rail Trail group calls for trail completion
After reviewing the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s FY2025 budget proposal for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Mass Parks for All (MPA) thinks it is a good spending plan that will continue progress toward a 21st Century state park system.
To recap our budget alert from earlier this month, the Administration is proposing an $8.5 million increase in two accounts that fund day-to-day operations, Parks and Recreation Operations (2810-0100: $4.4 million to $109 million), which funds most park operations, and DCR Seasonals (2800-0501: $4.1 million to $28.5 million), which funds part-time seasonal employees who bolster DCR full-time staff during peak use periods.
The seasonal account has not seen an appreciable increase for many years. The proposed increase recognizes that our parks need additional staff during peak use periods. With increases from the last two fiscal years, and an increase in the number of positions DCR can hire included in the FY2024 budget language, DCR has been staffing up as quickly as it can.
DCR Commissioner Brian Arrigo, in his monthly report to the DCR Stewardship Council on Feb. 15, said that overall staffing at DCR just passed 1,000 employees, a level of staffing not seen since 2011.
Additionally, the Administration has given DCR $100 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for various capital projects, along with a $148 million bond spending limit in FY2024. DCR is currently building a capital spending dashboard map, that when finished, will give the public detailed information on ongoing and planned capital projects.
You may remember that in the past we have called for a $10 million annual operations increase at DCR for 10 years to set a reasonable recovery rate from more than a decade of subpar budgets at our essential parks agency. Pragmatism, borne of the on-the-ground fiscal reality DCR and the entire state is facing has prompted us to moderate that position.
First, several months of unexpected declining state tax revenues forced statewide FY2024 mid-year budget cuts in which DCR was held harmless. Also, the progress we see the agency making with the resources the Legislature and the Administration have provided over the last few budget cycles gives us cause to believe the agency is moving forward at a reasonable, steady pace.
We feel the Administration’s proposal is more than adequate to maintain the progress and not outstrip the agency’s ability to move projects forward, especially capital projects aimed at eliminating the $1.0 billion deferred maintenance backlog.
Stewardship Council Stakeholders Listening Session
Following up on its successful budget listening sessions, the DCR Stewardship Council Stakeholders Committee will hold a virtual listening session for park friends and partner groups. The meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, Feb. 26, from 6-7:30 p.m. This will be a good opportunity to share information about what is happening and what needs to happen at your parks with fellow stakeholders, the Stewardship Council and DCR. With some 500,000 acres under management, DCR facilities are as varied as the people who visit them, with diverse needs and differing amounts of stakeholder support.
After a brief introduction, those who sign up to make public comments will have between two and three minutes to speak. If you or someone in your group wishes to speak, contact the Council’s staff person Matthew Perry, and register your group.
The Stewardship Council will use this session to inform its plan to hold an in-person Stakeholder Meeting later this summer at a location, date and time to be determined. We encourage stakeholders to take advantage of this opportunity to share information.
Group Poised to Make Completion of Statewide Mass Central Rail Trail a Priority
On January 19th, MPA attended a day-long workshop with 40 other fellow travelers from all over Massachusetts at the historic Publick House in Sturbridge to brainstorm the completion of the Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT). Part of MPA’s mission is to support existing trail connections between state parks and other open spaces and facilitate new ones so park visitors will not always need motor vehicles to move between parks.
The event, sponsored by the Norwottuck Network, created the Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT) Coalition. The coalition, in turn, of which MPA is a member, will help advocate for the MCRT to be completed by 2035.
The MCRT traverses the old Massachusetts Central Railroad right of way, connecting 26 communities along its 104-mile run from Boston to Northampton. Currently, more than 90 miles of the right of way are in public hands or in another protected status, while 55 miles are open to the public. The goal is to complete another 20 miles over the next two years and finish the entire project by 2035.
When completed, it will be the longest rail trail in New England and will connect to 18 other biking and walking trails. Studies estimate that the trail will see four to five million users per year and generate $200 million per year in economic impacts, in part because more than 60 percent of the state’s population lives within 10 miles of the trail. However, the capital needs for completion will be considerable as several bridges need replacement and a 1,000-foot-long tunnel needs renovations.
Norwottuck Network Executive Director Craig Della Penna welcomed the group and introduced among others, facilitator Julia Riseman, who led the group through several knowledge and team-building exercises aimed at cultivating ideas and strategies to overcome roadblocks to make completion a reality. Input from the session is being compiled and will form the basis for further action in support of the trail.
Watch this space for more developments as the Coalition moves forward with this worthy project.
Doug Pizzi is executive director of Mass Parks for All