LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - State parks and recreation areas shut down last fall so staffers could perform deferred maintenance amid budget woes will reopen nearly two weeks earlier than scheduled, officials said.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission said work crews reassigned from the closed parks completed their projects ahead of schedule. The parks and recreation areas will reopen on April 18 rather than on the expected date of May 1.
The department announced Aug. 30 that 29 state park areas would temporarily close. Management of one park area, Oliver Reservoir, has since reverted to its owner, the South Platte Natural Resources District.
Game and Parks has reduced services before but has never closed so many parks for so long, officials said. Several communities, civic groups and local governments provided volunteers and funding to keep some of the park areas open for varying periods of time.
The closings were designed to help the commission tackle some of the projects on its multimillion-dollar list of deferred maintenance projects and help the commission comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Work groups of two or three employees were located at six sites across the state. Among their accomplishments was the construction of 42 double-wide vault toilets to replace deteriorated ones. Their goal was 36. The new toilets will be distributed to parks around the state.
This spring the Legislature agreed to provide more money for the commission, earmarking $15 million from state cash reserve and $2.4 million from the State Recreation Road Fund. Senators also agreed to divert tax revenue from the sales of motorboats, personal watercraft, all-terrain vehicles, and utility-type vehicles into a Game and Parks maintenance fund. Those combined taxes are expected to generate an additional $3.1 million in the fiscal year that starts on July 1, and $3.7 million the year after that.
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