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City's 'crown jewel' fading

Snyder Park’s decline a snapshot of what ails entire parks system

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By Samantha Sommer, Staff Writer Updated 11:59 AM Sunday, August 23, 2009

Old black-and-white photos of Snyder Park show manicured lawns, flourishing flower beds and idyllic water flowing.

The current pictures aren’t so charming — potholes, inoperable restrooms, stagnant water.

A lack of funding has led to park maintenance landing on the back burner, said City Commissioner Karen Duncan, liaison to the National Trail Parks and Recreation District.

“Snyder Park is in fact the crown jewel of the park system and it has been deteriorating over time,” she said.

The city has directed $300,000 of its $1.9 million in parks funding go toward capital projects in the parks.

The county commissioners also approved spending stimulus dollars on an Opportunities Industrialization Center program putting people to work cleaning up and restoring parts of Snyder Park this summer.

But Duncan acknowledges Snyder Park and the other facilities can’t be fixed overnight.

At least $5 million could easily be spent in Snyder Park alone to return it to its former glory, recently resigned National Trail CEO Doug Nist estimated.

And Snyder Park is just a snapshot of what’s going on in the entire parks system.

National Trail maintains more than 1,300 acres of parks, playgrounds, athletic fields and trails. The Clark County Park District has more than 700 acres to keep up.

Ten years ago, a plan was devised to address the parks problems. The city, county and Clark County Park District came together to form National Trail to save money, improve Snyder and the other parks and secure independent funding through a levy. But four levy attempts failed.

The city and county, the major funders, each have their own budget difficulties and must balance the parks against other needs such as safety forces, road repairs and a jail. At the same time, how parks are used has evolved.

“I’m very disappointed that we were not able to have a countywide levy to support this and really fulfill a vision of what this could really be for families in Clark County,” NTPRD Board President Darrell Kitchen said.

Linda Bender of Springfield agreed. She is disappointed the levies failed because she would like to have seen Snyder Park — which she called a Springfield landmark — spruced up.

Bender remembers 40 years ago when the park was a gem instead of having dirty water and neglected structures.

“This is the most beautiful park,” she said. “It always has been. But it definitely needs work. It’s really going downhill.”

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