LAKEPORT — City hall is initiating a new volunteer program that could bring their costs down and help the Lakeport pool during troubling financial times that manager Jerry Gilham says has the city operating on a “bare bones budget.” It is the first balanced budget in two years?and with the city paying down a $1.5 million deficit, working on a variety of road and sewer improvements, and overseeing operations of the newly reopened pool?the volunteer program could be the solution to an over-worked city staff, officials said.
Although common in many cities, Lakeport has never had a volunteer program other than with the Lakeport Police Department, according to city councilman Bob Rumfelt. And the program he and former councilman Bill Knoll envision would be simpler in design than LPD”s program in order to accommodate participants” interests and schedules. “We won”t have to do a background check; they can just fill out an application, get a badge and get started,” Rumfelt said.
He and Knoll started brainstorming almost two years ago, and after collaborating with council members and city departments, they are ready to jump start the program.
“The department heads are all enthused about this. They see it as a way to save money and get things done,” Knoll said. To track how much money the city will save, each volunteer will log their hours, which can range from only a few hours of sporadic service to a full eight hour day, depending on how much a volunteer is willing to do.
“Our volunteers can do a whole range of things?gardening and landscaping, maintenance, mechanics, painting and cleaning, billing and filing or communications if they want to do office work. They can be park rangers to patrol the park and let people know what the rules are. They can just come to city hall and sign up, tell us what they”d like to do, and it”ll take off from there,” Knoll said.
Rumfelt said he anticipates most volunteers will be retired citizens and young people. “High school age kids can get credit if they have a program where they need to do community service?I think that looks better on a resume than even an internship does. They can help the park guy rake leaves and get credit for it.”
One goal is to accumulate a list of willing volunteers so when a project pops up, extra hands can help out. “We”d call them up and say ?hey we need help.” One example is the road construction in Lakeport?those projects could really use people to volunteer as flaggers. It would help save money, and they”d only be helping out a few days,” Rumfelt said.
Alternatively, people can commit entire days of service doing what they like best. “Anything from gardening all day to helping set up before an event in the park,” Rumfelt said. “They could use someone up at the pool every day in the summer.” He added that volunteers at the pool would alleviate lifeguards from having to do other duties such as daily admittance of patrons, helping save money for the pool that the city is struggling to find enough money to keep open.
The pool was a subject of discussion as Public Works Superintendent Doug Grider encouraged the city council at their last meeting not to slash funds from the pool. Rumfelt said the crux of the situation is a new contract the city has to maintain the pool?the city needs track a full year of operations in order to budget for it. “I think that”s the main thing?we”ve got to get some time so we know what it”s going to take to run the pool. The next time we look at it in November, we”ll talk about that.” Knoll added that helping the pool via the volunteer program is an ongoing collaboration, and he plans to work with Grider in upcoming weeks.
To sign up, prospective volunteers should visit Lakeport City Hall located across from Library Park or call 263-5615.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
