Parks and Recreation budget hearing covers staff FTE conversions, Wi‑Fi expansion, cabins, deferred maintenance and International Peace Garden grants

The Appropriations - Education and Environment Division opened the hearing on House Bill 1019 on funding for the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department, with agency officials walking the committee through a lengthy “long sheet” of recurring and one‑time requests.

The most immediate personnel request was funding to cover the agency’s contribution to retirement and other employer benefits for nine employees the department proposes to convert from temporary hourly status to full‑time equivalents. Cody Schulz, director of North Dakota Parks and Rec., said the conversion would add primarily the agency retirement contribution and a small increase for the employee assistance program; he told the committee that “the incremental cost increase, from converting them from that temporary status to FTE status is what's in that line item,” and that the total is $269,000 for the biennium for all nine employees.

Committee members asked about several operating and information technology lines. Schulz and agency staff said a statewide NDIT rate formula accounts for an IT increase applied across agencies; the Parks and Rec request includes both recurring IT rate funding (about $110,228 in one discussion) and one‑time funding to extend Wi‑Fi to park shops, cabins and outbuildings. The committee heard two separate Wi‑Fi items: a recurring/ongoing line discussed at about $150,000 to extend service to agency buildings and a one‑time appropriation listed later on the sheet for $350,000 to bring Wi‑Fi to additional park facilities. Schulz clarified to Representatives Martinson and Hansen that the Wi‑Fi funding was meant to reach staff buildings and operational sites, not to provide public consumer Wi‑Fi service.

The department also…