Ventura– The Board of Supervisors, Tuesday, July 27, approved a resolution declaring July Parks and Recreation Month in Ventura County.

THE County Parks’ mission is to enhance the life of Ventura County residents and visitors through the equitable provision and promotion of quality recreational facilities and parklands and improve physical and mental health through outdoor recreation.

Parks De­partment Deputy Director Colter Chisum made the presen­tation and said they want to expand op­portunities through par­­­t ner­ships, gran­ts, efficient busi­ness op­portunities, and program expan­sion.

“We want to enhance service delivery through expanded recreational spaces and service hours,” he said. “We want to market and promote our county parks to better reach and serve the diverse communities throughout the county and improve service through upgraded reservation management to better align with current hospitality standards.”

He said the county has 15 regional parks with lots of camping opportunities.

“We have trails, six local parks, three exceptionally popular golf courses, five community centers, three historic properties, and a pretty small staff,” Chisum said.

He thanked the team and said they’ve grown significantly in the last couple of years.

“This group has done tremendous adapting to the shrink and swell of Covid and the expanded use of our parks,” he said.

The Parks Department hovers around the 75,000 uses for camping, and other trends have followed them.

“Since FY 18-19, we’ve had a 34 percent growth,” he said. “Technically, we can have as many as 164,000 use nights, but that includes a tent camping site used on a Tuesday in the middle of winter. Our functional saturation is about 133,000, so we’re starting to approach our functional saturation.”

He said they have a $1.7 million grant to improve Oak Park, and they’ll be adding 29 campsites, disc golf acquisition, and partnering with Rancho Simi Rec and Parks, which will give them free access to Los Alamos Trail.

“The CalFire Prevention Project will be $358,000, but the whole project will be $580,000,” he said. “It will remove the distressed nonnative trees and replace them with native species trees and some other park improvements.”

He said the American Recovery Act is funding the Nyeland Acres Community Center and Saticoy Park for $5 million each and $300,000 for Lewis Road Park.

“Just a few weeks ago, we got word that we got another…