Pro Parks Levy Environmental Stewardship, Maintenance, and Programming

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Environmental stewardship, enhanced maintenance, new teen programs, Learn to Swim, senior services and Zoo programs are all included in the Levy's program funding.

ENHANCED MAINTENANCE

Cleaner Parks, Comfort Stations, Community Centers and Pools: In 2003, we continued to provide cleaner parks and facilities by funding extra hours of maintenance during peak summer use of parks. Our park inspection program showed consistently higher ratings, i.e. cleaner parks, during the summer. We also spent some Pro Parks funds on "green" cleaning products, which were used effectively at many community centers.

Ballfield and Landscape Maintenance: Added staff has been instrumental in enhancing park landscapes and ballfields throughout city. Sites that were improved in 2003 include Alki Playfield, Gilman Playground, Loyal Heights Playfield, Seward Park, Ritchie Viewpoint, Hutchinson Playground, Matthews Beach, and Golden Gardens Park. Due to the record number of days without rain last summer, we needed to water recently renovated landscapes.

ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

Tree and Natural Area Crews: The added Pro Parks tree crew enables us to perform preventive maintenance on selected trees. In 2003, the crew worked at Mt. Baker Park, Mt. Clair Park, Beer Sheva Park, Gilman Playground, Rotary Viewpoint, Sunset Hill Viewpoint and many other sites. Among the accomplishments of the Natural Area Crew in 2003 was participation in 131 volunteer projects in 38 parks, cleaning out two transient encampments and two illegal dump sites, removing noxious weeds and planting more trees.

Environmental Stewardship: Our Pro Parks-funded Environmental Stewardship Unit continued working, in 2003, toward our goals of being a better environmental steward in our development and operations, and creating more environmental stewards among our users. Highlights included more and better environmental education programming in summer day camps, a new program to reduce idling time for Parks vehicles, increased recycling at 43 facilities with the installation of 92 recycling stations, and increased the use of "green" cleaning products in all department facilities.

RECREATION PROGRAMS

The Levy is making a difference in the kinds and availability of myriad recreation programs. In particular:

Wading Pools: We used Pro Parks funds to extend the hours of wading pool operation at 10 sites in 2003. Overall we provided more than 2,000 additional hours and served 10,000 additional users.

Kids Program Access: In 2003, we provided 927 months of scholarship time for before- and after-school programs, serving a total of 123 elementary school-age children.
Senior Adult Programs: We exceeded our goal of increasing programs for senior adults by 5%.

Teen Programs: For 2003, programming for teens continued to grow. The Pro Parks-funded Teen Development Leaders offered a variety of programming with emphasis on alignment with Seattle Public Schools academic learning goals, building self-confidence among youth, and leadership skills. Program areas include but are not limited to sports and fitness, arts and culture and environmental stewardship. We serve primarily middle school-age kids with about 20,000 to 25,000 participants per year. All-city teen events included Week Without Violence, Youth Appreciation Week, and MLK Remembering the Dream. Our STEPS job readiness-environmental stewardship program (Steps Toward Environmental Partnerships) employed 54 teens, 14-17 years old, with 20 different funding partners. We also awarded 13 grants to aid youth and teen programs in 2003.

Learn to Swim: We initiated a voucher program for free swim lessons for third and fourth graders in both public schools and private schools. In 2003, we saw a 10% increase in vouchers used as compared to 2002. We served a total of 604 third graders and 472 fourth graders. Two thirds of these kids were totally new to swimming.

Woodland Park Zoo

Pro Parks at the Zoo: The Pro Parks Levy supports core operations at Woodland Park Zoo, including education programs, animal care, horticulture, admissions, facility maintenance, and security staff.