Donating to the Missouri state parks division just got easier this week as the Department of Natural Resources went live Wednesday with a new page on their Web site.
While accepting donations is not a new thing to the parks division, DNR Communications Director Judd Slivka said the Internet will expedite the process.
"We've always given people the option to donate to individual parks, but they would have to be at the park to donate," he said. "No longer are the donations place-bound."
Slivka said the parks division received about $58,000 in 2009 and this has the potential to improve the revenue streams available to maintain the park systems.
The division saw many challenges last year after water-quality issues at Lake of the Ozarks's public beaches sparked controversy statewide, along with a budget crunch resulting from tax shortfalls. Eliminating nearly 100 positions at the parks in November was slated to save the state $3.75 million in the remaining fiscal year and $6.3 million per fiscal year thereafter.
Despite those savings, the parks still have a long road ahead.
"Do we have a funding challenge? Yes," Slivka said. "Being dependent on sales and taxes, we have to look at the revenue streams possible. This one is promising.
"I think it's more creative than desperate. We're tapping into a technology that wasn't possible 10 years ago. Now we have secure transactions, high-speed Internet and a consumer base that feels comfortable with that medium."
As for the donations themselves, the money will be spread out among the parks and there is no feature on the site to donate to just one in particular.
"Imagine the state park that had no donations," Slivka said.
According to the new page on www.mostateparks.com, the donations are tax-deductible and will help "repair and maintain existing buildings such as orientation centers, lodges and historic structures as well as provide new public facilities and services such as boardwalks, educational exhibits, upgraded campgrounds and interpretive programming."
As of Thursday afternoon, Slivka said the only donations made to the site were in house, including his own, but expected that to change rapidly as word got out about the site.
