Dear Members,

As I begin this message for the July-August newsletter, I hope all of you are enjoying a great summer and surviving the many hot days!  Great time to be hitting the pools, and I hope many are seeing heavy attendance at your pools. 

As noted in the last Update, I did get a chance for a little vacation at the end of June with one of the annual trips to Pigeon Lake located in Ontario northeast of Toronto.  It was a great time, and I even had some success fishing. 

Legislative Update

However, even before the trip ended, PRPS became engaged in the struggle to protect park and conservation funding as the Commonwealth's 2010-2011 State Budget was finalized and adopted.   We did this as part of a larger coalition of conservation and environmental groups.  A plan was put on the table that would have reduced the Environmental Stewardship Fund (Growing Greener 1), the Keystone Fund (Key 93) and farmland preservation by around $182 million in the 2010-2011 Budget.  Our coalition, the Renew Growing Greener Coalition, with the help of calls from many of you to your legislators, was able to defeat this proposal and save all of the ESF and Key 93 funds.  Thank you to all who heeded our webnews alerts and helped!

Unfortunately, DCNR fared less well with the General Fund allocation.  They took about an 11% hit, and State Parks, which has its own line item, was reduced about 7%.  There are other smaller funds in the State Budget that may help so we are waiting to learn the final impact on DCNR.  Also, the fate of additional federal funds anticipated for the state budget as you've seen in the newspapers will also have a big impact.

Earlier this year, many of you helped with calls and letter relative to the moratorium on drilling in state forests and to the implementation of a severance tax.  Thank you for your help on those items.   Although a very large portion of the state forests are now under lease for drilling for Marcellus Shale natural gas, we understand that no further leases are mandated as part of this budget.   DCNR is also allocating more staff to the areas where drilling is taking place, and the Bureau of Forestry staff are rising to the occasion with a very professional response to oversee the drilling activity from what I have personally observed.

With regard to the severance tax issue and the desire to return some funds to conservation and environmental needs as well as to local government, I can report that the State Budget adoption process included an agreement to pass a severance tax in PA by October 1, 2010.  All the proposals under consideration will provide a level of funding to the Environmental Stewardship Fund (Growing Greener) which is good news from the perspective of reinvesting funds from the depletion of natural resources back into environmental and conservation programs.  The natural gas drilling is not going away so we need to manage the process well and realize benefits where we can, in my opinion.  PRPS is continuing as an active participant in the process to reach agreement on the severance tax which will include how the funds are allocated and the rate at which the tax is implemented.  Again, we are doing this as part of the Renew Growing Greener Coalition.

Relative to the regulations for the natural gas drilling, I am happy to report that tougher new regulations were approved in May 2010 that impact the way drilling wastewater (frack water) is treated and disposed that make PA perhaps the toughest state in the US.  More information is available from the DEP website as that agency regulates the drilling and related activity.

I've mentioned Renew Growing Greener several times in this message.  This is the organization that has been established to work at replacing the funds from Growing Greener II that are now depleted and enhancing Growing Greener I (now being used largely to pay for the interest on GG2 bonds) as well as expanding funds available to meet a wide range of park, conservation and environmental needs in PA that would help older communities including park rehabilitation, conserve open space and farmland, clean-up acid mine drainage and future pollution, enhance our greenways and trails, support heritage areas, and more.   We will shortly be distributing information about RGG and asking for recreation and park agencies and organizations to sign-on as supporters.   The success of the group during the recent round of budget negotiations is an indication of the future potential.  The coalition is chaired by long time PRPS member Larry Williamson.  It now has a office in Harrisburg staffed by RGG Executive Director Andrew Heath, and the PRPS Board of Directors has committed funds to help support RGG.   We are moving forward from the more "quiet" planning stage to a more public effort.   There are a lot of good things happening here!

Finally, as I'm writing this message, there is hope that federal legislation may be passed this week to greatly enhance the funding available from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.  If you saw the PRPS legislative alert on the subject, you know that we are also working to support greater funding for the stateside of the LWCF.  It remains to be seen if this provision will be part of this bill or if the issue will be decided annually by the appropriators in Congress.  Either way, this could be a big win on the LWCF front.  Again, thanks to those who have made contacts with their members of Congress including those who have made annual trips to Washington to lobby on the LWCF. 

Retirement - Judi Deitrich

On June 24^th, PRPS lost a valuable employee through her well deserved retirement.  I'm talking about Judi Deitrich, our finance director, who retired after 15 years of quality service to PRPS.  During that time, she was responsible for the financial recordkeeping, budget reports, payroll and related taxes, insurance policies, banking, licenses like small games of chance, mortgage payments, grant records, and more.  With gross receipts of nearly $3 million per year when counting the funds that pass-through for discount ticket sales mostly in smaller transactions, you begin to understand the scope of her job and of the PRPS finances.   Working with the rest of the office team, Emily, Kim, and Tracy, she was able to keep the financial process in good order.  She also did a good job of providing the necessary financial reports to the Finance Committee and the PRPS Board of Directors.  In addition to her responsibilities with finances, during her tenure with PRPS, she supported the Professional Certification Board until NRPA took over the certification records, and she was responsible for the exhibits at the Conference.

The PRPS Board of Directors honored Judi with an award during the Board of Directors Retreat in May, and a staff luncheon was held on June 28 with a couple photos included later in this newsletter.  We hope she is enjoying her retirement and the margarita mixer that we gave her at her lovely home in Snydertown!

42^nd Annual PA Therapeutic Recreation Institute

In June, a very successful PA Therapeutic Recreation Institute was held at the Harrisburg-Hershey Holiday Inn under the leadership of Teresa Rash and Lil Shine.   The featured speaker was Susan Newell who did numerous sessions throughout bringing the latest expert information on long term care.  Many other quality sessions were also included on topics like MDS 3.0, and "I" Care plans.  These topics may not mean much to many of us now, but they will if and when we become clients in long term care facilities.   We also did a session on the PA SCORP to address how we can do more to include persons with disabilities in outdoor activities. 

Each year, the TRI includes the fundraiser featuring gift baskets coordinated by Becky Kandrac.  This year was again very successful with $1,510 raised. 

I also want to publicly thank the PTRS Board of Directors chaired by Jennifer Koehler for the honors that I received at the Annual PTRS Awards Dinner held at the TRI when I was presented with the 2010 PTRS Professional Service Award and also had this award renamed for me.  A very humbling experience to say the least after having worked with so many quality TR professionals over the years-Jack Snyder, Marie Gutjahr, Art Geisler, Ed Moyer, Bernie Thorne, Bill Dayton, Debbie Hutchins, Ray West, GT Thompson and many others-who helped me to appreciate the importance of providing quality recreation to all of our citizens.   I had a great time at all those TRI's!

I'm going to wrap this message right there as I get ready for guess what?  Another Canadian fishing adventure this time to Bear's Den.  Photos of big fish to follow in the next Update though not necessarily caught by me.

Best regards,

Bob Griffith