A room full of people came out to support the organically managed parks program at the Durango City Council meeting Monday, and many spoke passionately about the issue.
The council had discussed removing Brookside, Folsom and Riverview parks from the organic program at a budget meeting in October. The other six parks are slated to remain in the program.
Folsom and Riverview are both sports complexes, and beginning in October, the city started receiving complaints that the turf was deteriorating, said Cathy Metz, the director of Parks and Recreation.
The program began as a compromise after Organically Managed Parks Durango organized a ballot initiative, which would have banned synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.
The second it is revoked, it would become a petition again, said Jeff Hamner, one of the activists.
The city has been treating all the parks with organic treatments, like molasses, for a year so far. Some activists questioned why the city was taking parks out of the program before the end of the three-year trial period that the city consultant recommended.
“It does feel like the city is breaking their commitment,” said Tricia Gourley, an organizer with Organic Parks Durango.
They argued that more education is needed to help the public understand the dangers of herbicides and pesticides and the benefits of plants like dandelions.
Brookside has been organic since 2008, and in the beginning, no organic herbicide was used on the park. Metz said this might be part of the reason why it has more weeds.
Taking the three parks out of the program will save $52,483 in mineral costs and $13,566 in labor, Metz said. The total cost of running the organics park program in 2014 was about $85,000.
“I don’t think we need to be spending as much money as is being claimed that we’re spending,” Gourley said.
Mayor Pro Tem Dean Brookie assured the audience that the decisions about the parks was not about the money.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
