Impact on Moran Park to be Determined
From The Olympian
By Jordan Schrader
The state Parks and Recreation Commission … says 83 of the state’s 189 full-time park rangers stand to lose their current jobs.
Sixteen of 76 construction and maintenance workers also will go, the agency says. Plus, the equivalent of more than 23 full-time jobs will be eliminated at parks headquarters in Olympia and in regional offices around the state.
Many of the employees being let go will be offered other work, says the agency, which didn’t have exact numbers on total layoffs. But to stay on, most rangers would have to take a major pay cut and work as little as five months of the year in one of 63 new seasonal jobs being created.
The layoffs are proceeding despite a plea from a dozen lawmakers to hold off. Those legislators and the union that represents parks workers were alarmed earlier this month when 160 parks employees received notification their jobs were at risk. They complained that front-line maintenance workers and rangers are taking larger cuts than administrators. But parks commission Chairman Joe Taller says support staff and management have been hit harder than rangers over several rounds of cuts.
(To read the full article, go to: theolympian.com/1920672/details-emerge-on-parks-layoffs
This is very sad. Our parks are precious and under resourced at best. The safety of the rangers and visitors will be at additional risk.
You can help us help our park! Friends of Moran Membership fees and general donations help us to maintain three emergency phones within the park, where cell phone don’t work. We create interpretive displays to educate our visitors and recruit volunteers for park preservation and maintenance. Your funds can help us pay to reimburse ferry costs for our much needed camp hosts and or the necessities for our Kokanee fish in the Moran Creek Hatchery. You can volunteer to work in our gift shop or history science center in which all funds raised go to park projects-like the new play structure. We work tirelessly each year to raise money for all these projects. If you are passionate about our park-get involved or visit us online.
I hardly know where to begin, the commission and the director are appointed by the governor and not hired.
The short of 10 million or more dollars was split as follows-1.2 administrators, 1.4 mid-management and 8 million from the employees’ in the field.
General funds from taxpayers was eliminated, this is when they implemented the Discovery pass. Taking parks away from the public and creating a fee for service operations i.e. privatization!
These lay-offs began right before Christmas (Happy Holidays) when our legislature’s were out of session. The parks director & commission ignored the plea of our legislatures to hold off on this decision. And are still proceeding in a confusing, unaccountable/unacceptable way.
I encourage anyone who cares to write to your legislators, asap.
With all due respect to the Friends of Moran (You are Wonderful!) volunteering will not keep water running and clean, trails clear, buildings safe and up to code, fires from burning or the hatchery open with only one CMS and a couple rangers on 5,000 acres.
In response to the Olympian article: The cuts the Dept. of Parks is making are all from field staff. This will have serious impacts on safety in the parks, servious in the parks, and maintenance of the precious resource that is our parks. The agency will collect less revenue from Discover Passes across the state.
As for Moran, three employees will lose their family wage supporting jobs. The park staff is being decimated. Please write Sen. Ranker, Rep. Morris, and Rep. Lytton today to express your opposition to these cuts. Writing to all Members of the Senate Energy, Natural Resources, and Marine Waters and the House Environment Committees will help too.