What was once a patch of weedy sand at Seaside’s Highland Otis Park is now a mulched circle, with a cheery play structure for little kids and a climbing web for the big ones.
Despite the panoramic view of Monterey Bay, it’s humble as playgrounds go. But the neighbors are proud of it: The banner declaring it a “Community Built Playground” reflects three years of work by the Otis Park Neighborhood Association.
Consider it the not-so-new normal in a city that’s had little funding for park upgrades since the economic downturn five years ago. The 2013-14 budget, which the City Council approved June 20, includes only $45,000 for park improvements – all of it sourced from grants.
Most of the city’s 24 neighborhood parks are not irrigated; volunteer groups instead rely on visits from the city watering truck or even hoses stretched from neighbors’ yards to maintain drought-tolerant landscaping.
Councilman Dennis Alexander, the council’s liaison for Seaside’s half-dozen park associations, says the city needs to prioritize “bread and butter” services like public safety for now. “Given the budget situation, the city is not going to have as much money as it would like to put toward the parks in the near future,” he says.
The latest budget uses $183,263 from reserves to offset the deficit, a decision city leaders chose over layoffs. The city staff has been cut by a third over the last four years – “as low as [staffing levels] can be in order to deliver an acceptable level of service to our citizens,” City Manager John Dunn writes in the staff report.
The state-mandated dissolution of the Redevelopment Agency last year leveled a significant blow to city finances, and the city’s also absorbing a $150,000 hit with the end of a shared-police-services contract with Pacific Grove. Across-the-board fee hikes, program reductions and hiring delays are expected to make up for some of the losses.
But the budget includes notes of optimism, including estimated revenue increases – mostly from sales tax on vehicles sold in the Auto Center. “I think everybody’s hopeful the economy has taken a turn for the better and will continue in that direction,” Deputy City Manager Daphne Hodgson says.
The tight city budget leaves park associations to rally volunteers and look for grant funding. Alexander, whose wife Laurel Lee-Alexander directs grants programs for the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, says that’ll be easier with an umbrella nonprofit established for all Seaside parks.
Otis Park Neighborhood Association is currently the only 501(c)(3), but it’s planning to change its name to Friends of Seaside Parks and open up its nonprofit status to other groups, according to association chairwoman Carol Mikkelsen.
It took about three years of grant-writing to amass the roughly $85,000 needed to pay for Highland Otis’ new ADA-accessible pathways, playground equipment and weed barrier. The bulk of the funds came from the Community Foundation for Monterey County, Monterey Peninsula Regional Parks District and the Peninsula Foundation.
The work at Highland Otis isn’t done: The park association plans to install a new barbecue and picnic tables, and apply for a $10,000 grant for a bocce court.
City staff have been supportive, Mikkelsen says, but the upgrades at Highland Otis would never have happened without the neighbors’ fundraising and elbow grease. “It’s a labor of love,” she says. “You get encouraged to see things are actually happening.”