Westminster parks, recreation and libraries outline $47M program, new homeless-services funding and capital projects

At the Feb. 3 study session, acting Parks, Recreation & Libraries (PRL) Director Eric Oselberger presented the department’s 2025 operating priorities, capital pipeline and recent program highlights, emphasizing the department’s size, revenue performance and role in community services.

Oselberger opened by framing PRL as a central quality-of-life department for the city: “If core services and infrastructure is the muscular skeletal system of the city, PRL is the soul of this city,” he said.

Key facts and figures

- Budget and staffing: PRL’s operating budget in the presentation was shown at about $47,000,000 with 219 full-time equivalents; including hourly and seasonal staff, the department’s workforce approaches roughly 1,000 people during peak seasons. The department reported a 35% revenue-recovery rate over the last five years, which Oselberger noted is above the national average.

- Homelessness and human services: The 2025 budget includes two additional navigator FTEs and about $1,000,000 added to human-services programming aimed at people experiencing homelessness. Oselberger said the human-services team permanently housed 64 people in the last year, supported roughly 5,000 hotel room nights and provided 18 individuals with temporary housing.

- Capital pipeline: PRL manages extensive parkland (several thousand acres) and listed roughly $32,000,000 in capital projects in planning or construction, including phase 1 of England Park (~$6,000,000), Center Park (a roughly $11,000,000 project), irrigation and trail projects and other park improvements financed from a mix of public-land-dedication cash and grants.

- Recreation and libraries: The department operates two libraries (College Hill and Irving Street) and multiple recreation centers and reported 1,100,000 guest visits across facilities in 2024 with roughly $6.2 million in recreation revenue. Golf operations reported $6.7 million in revenue in 2024, an increase of about $1 million from 2023.

Council questions and follow-up requests

Councilors asked about grant exposure if the city were judged nonconforming with state planning rules, park maintenance expectations for the Westminster Hills area and the department’s volunteer and stewardship plans. Oselberger said the department relies on state Conservation Trust Fund and other grant sources for capital projects but was not aware of any immediate ineligibility tied specifically to state planning conformity. He said the city has about $5.2 million in public-land-dedication cash for uplands projects and that conceptual design and first-phase park work for the Uplands area is planned for 2026.

Oselberger and staff also outlined a proposed district model for parks maintenance intended to create geographic teams for irrigation, forestry and routine park maintenance and said a request-for-proposals for an area-management plan for Westminster Hills would close in the coming weeks.

What was not decided

There were no formal votes on budget adoption or capital projects at the study session. Staff said the department will continue to develop designs and bring project-level proposals and budget requests through the regular capital and operating budget processes.

Quote

"PRL is the soul of this city," acting PRL Director Eric Oselberger said. "It’s a differentiator. It’s quality of life."

Next steps

PRL staff will finalize procurement and design schedules for the listed capital projects, proceed with the Westminster Hills area-management procurement, and return project-level budget requests to council during the coming budget hearings.