Blue Ribbon group and city, county staff push shared services for parks and cultural funding

City and county staff and a community Blue Ribbon Committee on Tuesday outlined next steps to expand shared services for parks, recreation and cultural arts funding, proposing a unified registration platform, a joint parks master plan and a study of a combined cultural funding model.

Reggie Davidson, Wichita park director, told the joint en banc that the city’s centralized registration platform could be extended to include county parks — “a one‑stop shop for being able to access service throughout the city and different departments,” he said — and that staff are exploring shared programming at Lake Afton and the Northeast Sedgwick County Park.

Lindsay Bananca, director of arts and cultural services for the city, described a city effort to redesign cultural funding toward measurable outcomes and multi‑year support. She said the city directly funds nine cultural institutions and the competitive grant program typically supports 40–50 recipients, while the county supports seven organizations and five groups receive both city and county funding.

Harvey…