City lawmaker proposes cheaper way to keep parks clean

It’s a program that looks to communities to help keep their local parks in good shape. Now a new bill being introduced by a Honolulu city councilmember could help implement this program across the island.

Cedric Gates grew up in Leeward Oahu and takes great pride in his community.

But one area he wants to improve on are community parks.

“Our facilities are really bad out there and it could use a lot of improvements, but again with no funding that is really tough,” said Gates.

It’s no secret that some parks are in need of repair, but a recent bill introduced by Honolulu City council member Kymberly Pine aims to empower the community to take action.

The idea is to allow individuals or groups to Adopt A Park for two years.

In that two years volunteers will remove litter, graffiti as well as remove weeds, but the program takes aim at more than just upkeep.

“Tax payers can only pay for so much and so we really need to come up with a program that gets the public to get more involved,” said Pine.

Pine says that by creating a strong sense of community and taking pride in the parks people use, can take the burden of upkeep off the taxpayers.

While still in it’s early stages Pine hopes the idea will spread across the island.

“We hope that we create a very strong adopt a park program with policies that enable people to make very large contributions to improving facilities, as well as providing free programs in every district,” said Pine.

But for now the goal is to start small and make one change at a time.

“I think that’s the ultimate goal for us right now is to instill that pride into our community residents especially our youth,” said Gates.

From KHON NEWS

http://khon2.com/2014/09/29/city-lawmaker-proposes-cheaper-way-to-keep-parks-clean/