City Of Tulsa, County Consider Joining Forces To Run Public Parks

The City of Tulsa and Tulsa County could join forces to run public parks.

Leaders in both governments said they're open to hearing more, and they will Wednesday.

The city and county both struggle to pay for parks but might be able to do it by combining some operations, maybe even with a private management deal like the Tulsa Zoo and Gilcrease.

Tulsa County's LaFortune Park is popular and it's right in the middle of the City of Tulsa.

The two parks departments maintain almost 9,200 acres of land while they're used interchangeably by city and county taxpayers.

"When you have a city parks system, a county parks system, RiverParks and the Gathering Place, it really seems like the time is now to look to the future and decide if we can maintain all those systems with good quality," said Terry Simonson with Tulsa Leadership Vision. 

The City of Tulsa has a few crown jewels - like Woodward Park - but struggles to pay for maintenance and continues to downsize the parks department.

Tulsa's new mayor said he's open to discussing a new model for parks during an overall review of core services.

"A top to bottom analysis of all the things the city and county do, all the services that each of us provide and see what makes sense in the 21st century to be providing these services," said Mayor G.T. Bynum. 

Tulsa has several compact parks like Centennial - and the county has fewer parks - but they're larger, with open space like Chandler Park.

The question yet to be answered is if they could work together - and find new money to operate.

"Not just city-county, but how can the private sector be involved when we have all of these great park systems that are going to be in the community and can we maintain all of them," Simonson said. 

The city council will take a look at the research on the plan so far.

It's a private effort, and that group wants to create a joint master plan.

They'll ask the council to give their blessing to that study.

The City is also close to offering a compromise on the dispute over the Tulsa County jail.

The County wants the City to pay more for jail operations and the cost of keeping city inmates. Bynum said Monday that he hopes to give the jail authority a new offer as soon as next week.