Budget Shortfalls Crimping State Parks

The Central Mall at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island is the gateway to 6.5 miles of beaches. About eight million people visit the state park each year. New York state officials say this popular state beach and parks at Niagara Falls could close.

Some New York state parks may soon close because of budget shortfalls. Such an occurrence would be a first for the 125-year old park system, the oldest in the U.S.

Peter Humphrey of the N.Y. State Council of Parks predicts up to 100 of New York's 213 state parks and historic sites could shut down because of the state's financial woes.

Robin Dropkin, executive director of Parks & Trails New York, a nonprofit advocacy group, expects it to be “pretty bad.”

Currently in New York, 100 of the state's 178 state parks and 35 historic sites have reduced services and shortening hours of operation, but none have entirely closed.

Carol Ash, the commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, believes park closures are unavoidable this year, given the state’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

It’s estimated the cuts to the state parks in N.Y. for 2008 through 2010 will amount to about a 40 percent reduction. The parks system will reportedly employ 1,100 fewer people than it did just a few years ago.

It has also cancelled its park police training academy for the third straight year and will cut park police staffing this summer to 266 full and part-time uniformed officers, about half the number employed in 2003.