parks

Morning headlines: Monday, Sept. 3, 2012

Julie Bierach, Tim Lloyd and The Associated Press — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 14:26:12 +0000

Isaac dumps rain, but Mo. drought persists

The National Weather Service says large parts of rural Missouri and Illinois had between three-to-five inches of rainfall this weekend.

In St. Louis, Oakville received three and a half inches of rain, the most in the metropolitan area. But National Weather Service Meteorologist Jayson Gosselin said it will take much more rain to snap this summer's historic drought.

Retirements leave gap at Ill. state parks

The Associated Press — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 19:19:27 +0000

Since late last year, almost a quarter of Illinois state park superintendents have retired, taking with them in many cases 30 or more years of experience that will be hard to replace.

The loss of that institutional knowledge is one more cost of the state's deep financial crisis. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is among state agencies hit hard by years of budget cuts.

St. Louis County Parks Department business plan shows a $500,000 budget shortfall next year

Tim Lloyd — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 02:30:02 +0000

The St. Louis County Parks Department presented its business plan to the County Council last night, and for now, no park closures are being discussed.

Officials with the parks department said they’re doing their best to cut unnecessary expenses and uncover new revenue streams, but currently the department has a $500,000 budget shortfall for 2013.

The budget outlook could get much worse in 2014, and Parks Department Director Tom Ott said they would need to make drastic cuts without adequate funding.

WiFi service being added to Mo. state park campgrounds

Marshall Griffin — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:10:09 +0000

People who go camping at state parks in Missouri can now add laptops and iPads to their lists of camping gear and supplies.

Prior to this year, only Bennett Spring State Park had WiFi service, which was used mainly for live trout cameras during trout season. Renee Bungart with the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says WiFi service has now been expanded to eleven state park campgrounds.

Morning headlines - Monday, June 4, 2012

Rachel Lippmann, Illinois Public Radio and Tim Lloyd — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:31:59 +0000

Ill. DNR director cannot rule out park closures

Amanda Vinicky contributed reporting from Springfield.

The director of the Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources says his department will do all it can to keep the state's parks open after the failure of a $2 increase in license plate fees that would have provided a funding stream the the DNR.

But Marc Miller says he can't rule anything out, because the department has seen its budget slashed by 50 percent over the last decade.