A federal fund that has helped fund recreation projects throughout the country is in jeopardy, Peterborough recreation director Jeff King said Thursday.
The Peterborough Recreation Department teamed up with the NH League of Conservation Voters Thursday for a community cleanup of town parks to raise awareness of the Land, Water and Conservation Fund and what it does, said Lindsey Perry, New Hampshire Field Director for the League of Conservation Voters, at Adams Playground Thursday.
“We decided to come here because Adams Playground has been partially funded by LWCF, which is the Land, Water and Conservation Fund,” Perry said. “We are making sure the community understands what that is and why it deserves to be protected.”
The group of 25 volunteers, including adults and children, cleaned up Adams Playground as well as downtown parks Thursday afternoon before gathering at Adams to share a meal.
King said in Peterborough the program has helped fund conservation land, the basketball courts and tennis courts at Adams Playground and a ball field at Adams.
Amherst recreation director Craig Fraley, who attended the event with his two children, said Amherst has several LWCF projects including two full-sized soccer fields and two tennis court projects.
“It’s essentially the one federal program that funds public parks and recreation. There really isn’t anything else,” King said. “It’s funded by off shore oil revenues. So it’s not general taxation.”
The fund has been around for about 50 years, King said, and provides matching grants for recreation and conservation projects.
“The program has to be authorized for funding every year. But there have been years where it isn’t authorized cause Congress decided to do something else with the money,” King said. “Under the Bill Clinton years, he made a push for deficit reduction and balanced budgets. … The current administration is looking to not even reauthorize the program itself, never mind the funding. So if the program itself doesn’t get reauthorized, even with no funding, that’s a bigger problem, then the fund ceases to exist.”
Perry said a proposal to do away with the fund altogether is coming before Congress next month.
“We are talking about a government funded program that is basically backed by both sides of the aisle. This isn’t a Democrat thing. This isn’t a Republican thing. This is everybody. This has been backed for years,” Perry said.
King said the fund benefits municipal recreation projects across the country as well as funds National and State parks.
“Obviously with the off shore oil drilling there is an environmental impact so the thought process was that the LWCF was created to provide for environmental projects to offset the impact that would have, the oil drilling would have,” King said. “98 percent of counties in the U. S. have all had an LWCF project. So basically the whole country has in one way or another benefited from LWCF funding.”