Acting under a mandate from City Hall to chop 3% from their budget, the Parks Department has put the Senior Parks and Trails Planner position on the chopping block. The BTA is concerned about the loss of this position and is urging City Council to reinstate this position.
According to the BTA this is a position that would “have significant impacts on the City’s ability to improve trails and parks.” From a recent post on the BTA blog:
“The BTA is partnering with other non-profit organizations to urge the City of Portland to reinstate the Senior Parks and Trails Planner position that has been proposed for cutting. These planners are key personal coordinating the regional trails and greenway acquisition and construction. Such trails include the Vera Katz East Bank Esplanade, OMSI to Sellwood Trail, and others.”
The BTA is urging the bicycle community to back them up on this. Jessica Roberts, Metro Area Advocate for the BTA has laid out all the details and included a sample letter and key contact information in this post in the Forums. If you value regional trails and greenways, please consider lending your voice of support this issue.
“The BTA has stepped up its voice in urging the City of Portland to reinstate the proposed cut of a key planning position in the Parks Department.”
Suggested edit – replace “reinstate” with “prevent”. “Proposed cut” is the object being acted upon. By arranging the sentence and using the words you have, it sounds like the city has decided not to cut the position and the BTA is trying to reinstate the cut. Kind of the opposite of what’s actually happening.
Sorry for being nitpicky – I’ve been doing a lot of professional editing lately and I just want to do my part to keep this the quality site that it is. (Helping through complaints!) 😉
Whoops! Make that “abandon”, not “prevent”.
Thanks for advice Matt. I agree it didn’t come out right…I’m working on editing it right now.