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Lakeside Park and Beach April 16, 1980 Page 4 alternatives to review for that system, as well as different potential revenue sources. Lakeside Park is a small park with simple facilities where the oper- ations and maintenance costs are easily estimated. Moreover, it is a fully developed park, which the regional parks are not. In other words, the regional park system is an entirely different level of service> and Lakeside Park should be viewed alongside existing county beaches and parks, not alongside the far more complex regional system. In sumnary, the only significant reason not to assume responsibility for LakesideParkisthatitwillprobablyrequireexpenditw•e of an additional 830,000 to 40,000 annually for operations, maintenance and capital improvement af the park. This expenditure should be weighed against the request of citizens in the north- west corner of the county for service assistance. It may be worth noting also that the above $30,000 to $40,000 is not a net increase in taxes paid by citizens. Rather, the City of Mounds View and the City of Spring Lake Park should be abletoeitherreducetheirtaxesby817,000 or provide $17,000 in other localservicesasaresultoftransferringresponsibilityforthisbeachtothe County. If the Comnissioners decide to assume responsibility for Lakeside Park, they should direct the Parks and Recreation Department to: a) Negotiate with the Lakeside Park Commission and the two Cities to reach agreement on ownership, operations, maintenance, and activities direction for the beach a d park. At present, the Lakeside Park Commission sponsors numerous activities, such as swimming lessons, which are not part of county beach programs. The Cortmission should be fully responsible for continuing these if Ramsey County becomes responsible for operations and maintenance. The negotiated agree- ment would be returned to the Doard for final approval. b) c) MT:gb Review the present allocation of county maintenante and operations staff to determine if, in fact, the addition of another full-time person is requTred to handle this beach. It may be possible to reduce the net cost to the taxpayers of the county to 1lttle more than the present $7,300 deficit of the CommlSSion 1f present staff could be allocated in a more efficient manner to service this beach and park. Inctude any additional security costs in the final cost esttmates for the beach. cc: Comnissioner Robert Orth Larry Brown Tony Crea Bernard Edmonds " Bruce Anderson -