Lipscomb Proposes $100,000 for County Parks

MILWAUKEE – County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb, Sr., is proposing to boost the sPark matching fund by $100,000 to provide additional resources for the maintenance and repair of Milwaukee County park facilities.

“Our park facilities are in desperate need of repair and maintenance and we should be providing additional funds for this purpose any time there is an opportunity,” said Lipscomb. “When I learned that $100,000 we had previously set aside for a non-park capital project was no longer needed, it made sense to transfer this money to sPark – which was unfunded in the proposed 2020 budget – so this program can continue.”

The sPark initiative empowers local parks “friends” groups to request county resources for parks maintenance and repair if they can provide matching funds.

Although the County Executive did not allocate any resources to sPark in three of the past four years, the Board of Supervisors amended his proposed budgets to direct more than $500,000 to sPark over that period, funding 34 parks improvements projects.

Supervisor James “Luigi” Schmitt has included Chairman Lipscomb’s proposal on the agenda for the Finance and Audit Committee’s January 30 meeting. It is expected to proceed to the full Board for consideration on February 6.

Previously known as the Parks Amenities Matching Fund, sPark was created in 1994 to provide additional resources for the improvement and upkeep of county park facilities.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.