Swimmers at state parks to feel heat from budget cuts
By DREW KERR
dkerr@poststar.com
Updated: Thursday, April 9, 2009 10:34 AM EDT
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The Peerless Pool at Saratoga Spa State Park will be closed on Tuesdays this summer as a result of state budget cuts, officials announced today.
Alane Ball Chinian, the regional director for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said that date was selected because it is the day the facility sees the least number of visitors.
Several other swimming outlets in the region, including the beaches at Cherry Plain State Park, Thompson’s Lake State Park and Grafton Lakes State Park, will also be closed for two days each week as a result of budget cuts.
"When you reduce the days down to five or six here or there, that helps us quite a bit overall," Chinian said.
Overall, 100 parks and historic sites in the state are seeing reductions in hours or a shortening of their seasons. None will be closed in full, however.
But the Victoria Pool, also located in Saratoga Spa State Park, will remain open seven days a week. Both pools at Saratoga Spa State Park will be open from June 27 through Labor Day as usual.
The beach at Moreau Lake State Park will also remain open as normal.
All swimming outlets in the region will close an hour earlier, however, leaving them open eight hours a day instead of nine hours a day, officials said.
Fees for pool admissions and other park services such as pavilion rentals are also likely to be changed as a result of budget cuts, but specifics have not yet been released.
A draft proposal that was circulated earlier this year showed entrance fees for the Victoria Pool going from $3 to $4 for children and from $6 to $8 for adults.
The parks themselves, though, will keep their admission rates at $6, officials said.
Read more on the cutbacks in Friday's Post-Star and on poststar.com.
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5 comments:
The Peerless and Victoria are already open eight hours a day anyway minus weekends when there is an extra hour. I doubt that losing that extra hour is going to be any big deal.
I think the price increase is great. Victoria pool lovers have been paying so little and getting so much. The money goes to support the NYS Parks system so I say increase the fees. Everything else is going up why not make it complete? If they were really smart they would charge a rental fee for the umbrellas and chairs. So many people including this society hog all the chairs and umbrellas and tables.
Since there is no transparency for where our money goes now to support nys parks, no fees should be charged for the pools or to enter nys parks. All we have ever been told when we asked for an accounting is to FOIL us! It is all public money to support the Parks Department.
That is an outrageous statement to make and you should be highly embarrassed for making such a fool of yourself. Not charge any fees? What do you think keeps the place running lady? Oh and by the way the above anonymous was right your pack of thirty plus always hogs all the chairs and umbrellas. You live in fairy land if you think it should all be free. If it were free it wouldn't be in as good a shape as it is in. The upkeep has to come from somewhere. But you don't care about that, you just want want want.
wow you people are just stuck in a delusional world. The admission fee hasn't changed in years. NYS is simply keeping pace with inflation and the cost of renovations at the pool.
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