Tubac vows to keep park open

Undaunted by a planned March 29 closure for the Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, community members have pledged more than $28,000 to keep the facility open to the public — and the fundraising isn’t over yet.

A letter detailing the monetary support and the proposed operations guidelines, including decreased hours of operation, was submitted by the Tubac Historical Society and other groups Wednesday to Ren/e Bahl, director of Arizona State Parks.

The proposed budget for 12 months is $60,000. Of that, about $30,000 will come from entrance fees, said Shaw Kinsley, president of the Tubac Historical Society. The additional $30,000 is to be raised locally.

Bahl didn’t return a request for comment Thursday. Ellen Bilbrey, public information officer for Arizona State Parks, said there had not been enough time to review the request.

The board of Arizona State Parks has a regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday at the Apache Junction City Council Chambers. The Tubac park issue wasn’t on the agenda published last week, although agreements with local governments or organizations working to keep other state parks open were.

Those include Fort Verde State Historic Park, Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park, Riordan Mansion State Historic Park and Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.

Kelly Jones, vice president of the Tubac Chamber of Commerce, said the financial support by Tubac business owners was “absolutely wonderful. We didn’t hear a negative remark. Everybody thought it was a wonderful cause.”

He said about 90 to 100 people were contacted in the past two weeks.

“It took an effort on a number of people’s behalf,” he said. “We manned the phones and had some face to face meetings. We were pretty busy picking up checks.”

Jones said more money is needed. Not everyone could be contacted in the first round, he said. “It’s still ongoing. The effort isn’t over.”

Jones hopes for a positive response from Arizona State Parks. “It appears we met with the criteria to go forward” with keeping the park open, he said.

The letter from the Tubac Historical Society said the park can be run by one half-time paid employee and by volunteers. That would include a volunteer coordinator, visitor center volunteers, interpretive volunteers, grounds volunteers, and volunteers to work on repairs and maintenance projects.

The Tubac Historical Society will recruit and train volunteers, and total volunteer effort will be about 120 hours per week, the letter says.

Until April 2009, the park was open seven days a week but since then it’s been open five days a week. The proposal says it will be open seven days a week from Oct. 1 to April 30, five days a week from March 30 to May 31, and four days a week from June 1 to Sept. 30.

The state Legislature swept $8.6 million from six different state parks funds, officials said, in the past year to help deal with massive statewide budget deficits. Four state parks were closed due to previous budget reductions. Two state parks were closed Feb. 22. Six parks are to be closed March 29, although most of those will be reconsidered at the March 17 meeting. Five parks are to be closed June 3. Nine state parks are slated to remain open.

Reach the writer at kathleenvan@msn.com.