Having been on the local town park commission for a few years in two stints, as well as volunteer involvement with parks for over 30 years, I've learned a few things. One is that parks can be seen as a big pain. They require constant maintenance, and rarely bring in any revenue, except for the odd grant or donation once in a while. And about the only time municipal officials hear about a park is when there's a problem. A tree fell down, some playground equipment needs repair, or some kids are causing trouble.

The only hard numbers they see are on the expense side of the ledger. Parks are also frequently in areas where the land would be valuable as housing or other uses, such as extra parking lots, retail, or fire stations. When a municipal official wants land for something, the park land is an easy target. Why go through the trouble and expense of searching and negotiating for land when we have this pain of a park sitting right here?
What is not in bookkeeper's ledger is the ability for people to get out and walk their dogs, for kids to get exercise and play in a safe area, and open space for the community. How do you put a price on the dozens to over a hundred walkers each day on the trails in Okee? In this time when people are tending to stay indoors to doomscroll on their phones or binge on Netflix, not having those spaces makes it just that much easier to sit at home and isolate yourself.

Since Okee Conservancy Park was created 28 years ago, through donations from local residents, it has had periodic threats like this. Why not build the town hall? There's lots of open space there, let's put in a high capacity well. How about a big parking lot? Parking gets really crowded during summer weekends with the expanded restaurants nearby. And on and on. The threat is always there.
Just remember, once park land is gone, it isn't coming back. An official will tell you "don't worry, we'll take the money we saved and add it to the park fund for the other parks." This is a classic sleight of hand. The same thing happens when a developer donates funds in lieu of park land for a new subdivision they want to create. That money will likely be offset by lower annual contributions from the municipality over time, and will eventually disappear. In the end the money will be gone, along with the park land.
Why Cave Bluff will never be a municipal park
When we and my parents bought the first 50 acres of Cave Bluff in Okee in 1991, our initial reason was to preserve the bluff and restore some of the native habitat. At the time there was a lot of development pressure in the area, and many of the bluff tops were being covered by houses. We wanted a bluff that was left natural amidst all that development pressure. We also got lucky in that the developer who owned it wanted to get out of the business.
Our long term idea was to possibly donate the property for a town park. This was before I was on the park commission and before I learned all these interesting things.
Cave Bluff will probably never become a public park. Having been through battles in defense of parks over the years, unfortunately I don't trust a municipality to take care of or preserve park land for the long term.
At times there will be officials who are park advocates and recognize the value not directly reflected in the ledger. But that will not always be the case. It only takes one vote by a commission or board to hit the "easy button" and take park land for something else. But remember, once it's gone, it's gone.
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