Flag woes at parks just part of funding issue

The American flag no longer flies over the entrance to Fort Griswold State Park in Groton, the state's only Revolutionary War battlefield.

Since Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year for the state, state parks no longer had money for flags, so the flagpoles at the entrance to the fort where the U.S. and Connecticut state flags once flew stayed bare after the last flags had tattered into rags. Another flagpole inside the battlefield site still flies the Stars and Stripes, thanks to a donation from a local group.

By the reckoning of Shirley Dunbar-Rose and fellow members of the fundraising and volunteer group Friends of Connecticut State Parks, stripping parks budgets of money for flags is just one glaring example of the "penny wise and pound foolish" approach the state has been taking to funding its public recreation areas and historic sites.

"Here we are, a national battlefield, and we do not have flags," said Dunbar-Rose, who is president of Friends of Fort Griswold. Using its own funds, the group recently bought five American flags at about $50 each and donated them to the park. They are designated for the flagpole at the center of the battlefield site, she said, but the poles at the entrance will remain empty. Due to high winds at the hillside where the fort is situated, each flag lasts no more than three months.

Joined by the Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Dunbar-Rose and other members of the Friends group tried to make their case to state lawmakers Wednesday that some bad budget decisions were made last year that need to be undone, or state parks and residents will suffer. Trying to save money and raise new revenues to help close the state budget gap on the backs of state parks, they argue, will backfire.

"We're outraged for many, many reasons," Eileen Grant, president of the 6,100-member Connecticut Friends group, said, standing in a corridor between the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building where her group had set up displays and waited to buttonhole passing legislators. A stuffed coyote at one of the displays had a sign around his neck with the campaign's main message: "Please Ease the Fees."

With the doubling of park entrance fees and camping fees, the siphoning off of park revenues into the state's General Fund and inadequate park staffing and funds for maintenance and operations, Grant predicted, park attendance will decline, residents will be angry and the state won't realize any new income. The changes took effect Oct. 1, but since most parks only charge during peak season from Memorial Day to Labor Day, residents haven't yet experienced the impact.

Under the new fee schedule, the entrance fee to Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford will be $14 per car on the weekends; the fee to go to state beach like Rocky Neck in East Lyme will be $20 on the weekends, and season passes will be $100. To enter the museum and fort at Fort Trumbull State Park in New London will cost $10 per adult.

"Residents will be so upset, when they realize that they're not going to see any benefit from the increased fees because the money will be going into the general fund," she said.

Eric Hammerling, executive director of the Forest & Park Association, said park fees should have been raised no more than 20 to 25 percent last year, not doubled, and the revenues kept to run the parks.

The park where the revenue issue is most egregious, said Grant, is Harkness Memorial. About $750,000 that had been saved from several years' worth of revenues from the approximately 300 weddings and receptions that take place in the mansion there each year. It was to have been combined with about $550,000 raised by the Friends of Harkness to restore the greenhouse at the property.

But the $750,000, Grant said, is now "in limbo, frozen" by the state.

"The park cannot access it, or any future revenue," she said. "The greenhouse project is dead."

Reneging on agreement

A bill pending in the legislature introduced by state Sen. Andrea Stillman and state Rep. Betsy Ritter, both of Waterford, calls for creation of a special fund for Harkness rental income that would be used for repairs and maintenance of the mansion. The bill is pending with the legislature's Government Administration and Elections Committee.

Taking Harkness revenues into the General Fund reneges on an agreement the state made with the Friends of Harkness 18 years ago when the mansion was restored, said Chris Callahan, group president.

"The agreement was that it would be saved and accumulated," and used for maintenance and restoration, he said.

In return, the Friends group volunteers its labor to work in the flower gardens and serve as docents in the mansions, work the small park staff doesn't have time for, Grant said.

"We're donating 12,500 hours a year," she said. "It's stealing from us" to take park revenue into the General Fund.

Other Friends groups are chagrined that the state parks are turning to them for basic items that should be in the operating budget. The Friends of Fort Trumbull, for example, supplied $600 worth of paint to the park in the past year, Ed DeLaura, group president said. It was asked by the park supervisor to help raise money for flags. The group also stages re-enactments and other events at the park, and serves as guides for school groups. Recently his group has grown concerned, he said, about a water leak inside the fort, fearing it will go unattended for lack of funds and cause serious damage to the historic structure.

As for the flags at Fort Griswold, DEP spokesman Dennis Schain said Wednesday that the agency is trying to find a way to make sure the battlefield flagpoles don't stay bare.

"The Friends of Fort Griswold have raise a legitimate issue and we share their concerns," he said. "Unfortunately, windy conditions at that site do tatter flags quickly, and given budget constraints we are not able to keep pace by providing replacement flags. We appreciate the efforts the Friends have made to secure flags and we will keep working to identify the funds needed to secure more flags for this season."

j.benson@theday.com