Modesto City Council Votes to Privatize Park Maintenance

The Modesto City Council has voted to begin soliciting bids for a five-year contract for the maintenance of 66 parks and 150 other landscaped sites, according to the Modesto Bee. The city expects to pay about $1.2 million a year for the services. Modesto is a central Calif. city on the Tuolumne River in the northern end of the San Joaquin Valley. It?EUR??,,????'???s a farming and fruit-growing area with a population of about 175,000. Tightening city budgets prompted the privatization plan, developed and presented to the city council by parks director Jim Niskanen and Duane Frederick, superintendent of park operations. The city already pays private companies to maintain 10 city parks. The city council also approved beginning negotiations with the unions representing the dozen or more employees who will lose their jobs to the privatization.