What Happened?
Officials in Glen Falls and Queensbury, New York, are considering merging their parks and recreation departments to save money and optimize resource use. The cities’ major parks already provide a border between the two cities, as well as a connected, half-mile walking trail leading from Queensbury into Glen Falls.
So What?
Glen Falls and Queensbury, like many other municipalities nationwide, are facing tightened budgets and reduced state support for many public service programs. While some cities opt to fully consolidate certain departments to reduce overhead, optimize spending and make better use of all manpower and resources, Queensbury and Glen Falls are considering a less drastic option.
While total consolidation of recreation departments might increase the amount of savings for each city in the long-term, both municipalities feel collaboration on programs and special projects would be more feasible. However, no strategy has been rejected yet, and both cities are looking to research their options and compare costs.
Queensbury already has an established Shared Services Committee that will oversee the feasibility study and initiative conversations between both municipalities to determine which option would best suit their needs in 2014. Neither city is interested in rushing the process, and would rather be sure to conduct extensive research prior to implementing any merging or collaboration strategy.
Allowing time for due diligence is important for potential consolidation tactics. In Topeka, Kansas, a parks and recreation departments merger took place last year to simplify operations and reduce overall costs. However, officials failed to keep proper records of all funds funneling into the project, resulting in The Shawnee County Commission having to return more than $77,500 to the city of Topeka in overpaid fees.
In fact, the topic of consolidation between Queensbury and Glen Falls departments was first brought to light in 2005, and then shelved until after the economic recession subsided. Originally, the thought was both cities could save significant money by merging parks and recreation departments that would share landscaping and mowing equipment without eliminating the unique identities of each city’s services.
Collaboration was an obvious option for both cities as residents in each often used parks and recreation services from the neighboring municipalities’ departments and neither locale is interested in eliminating their own services.
Don’t Stop There
Not only is Glen Falls interested in merging its parks and recreation departments with Queensbury, but is also part of a feasibility study for police service consolidation with Warren County. The New York Division of Criminal Justice Services launched the feasibility study to analyze what factors will lead to increased savings if Glen Falls were to merge its police services with those of Warren County.
The factors being looked at in the study include:
- Calls for service
- Average response times
- Supervisory structures
- Special assignments
- Union contracts
The study’s results will guide development of several consolidation options for city officials to consider. Glen Falls departments and Warren County will review the study together and determine which option to pursue based on available resources and estimated costs or savings.
Bring It All Together
Gov1 has monitored a wide variety of consolidation strategies from police mergers to library shared services.