23 Mar Glendale News-Press: Playing Defense for City’s Parks
Commissioner’s foundation works to find funding for open spaces.
By Melanie Hicken
GLENDALE — With city funding for parks becoming increasingly limited, Community Services & Parks Commissioner Dottie Sharkey wanted to find a way to keep maintenance and programs off the chopping block.
Sharkey began the process last spring of forming the Glendale Parks & Open Space Foundation, an independent nonprofit community organization that will raise money to supplement city funding for parks and community services.
“Parks are always kind of first to go,” said Sharkey, who serves as president of the foundation’s board of directors. “I don’t think our community realizes how much the city, and parks and recreation do here.”
While the foundation’s formation comes at a time when many local nonprofits are reporting dwindling donations, Sharkey said the struggling economy motivates her.
“In a tough economy, why not start a foundation, get it all into place, and hopefully as things start turning around, we will be ready to go with something to help Glendale parks,” she said.
Marc Stirdivant, a senior administrative analyst for the Community Services & Parks Department, said many cities have created similar foundations.
“It’s exciting for us to have something come online in Glendale as we face all of these challenges in the economy,” said Stirdivant, who serves as a city representative on the foundation’s board.
For its first fundraiser, the foundation will partner with local nonprofit Art from the Ashes to create an exhibition benefiting the restoration and rehabilitation of Deukmejian Wilderness Park.
The park has been closed to the public since last year’s Station fire, which scorched nearly all of the park’s 709 acres, leaving most of its trails unsafe.
Source: Glendale News-Press