Soon after beginning her career as a park ranger in 2011, Lisa McLeod said budget cuts threatened her job. Fifteen years later, she again brought the St. Louis County Council the same message about the role park rangers play in keeping parks safe and accessible.
"The county executive of that time period believed that cutting our jobs and closing down parks would somehow be accepted by the public. He was wrong," she said at Tuesday's council meeting. "The public rallied behind our parks department, and my job, along with many others, was saved. Now, here we are again."
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page's proposed budget would eliminate 28 park ranger positions, leaving just six rangers.
Eric Johnson, acting director of the Parks and Recreation Department, testified at a Budget Committee meeting on Tuesday. He said the proposed budget already pauses projects including updating Queeny Park's Jarville House, defers maintenance like repairing Cliff Cave Park's bathroom and eliminates programs like summer camps and community celebrations.
"I fear for 2028 and what is next for parks," Johnson said. "We are fast becoming a passive-use parks department with very few services."
During the Budget Committee meeting, councilmembers said they would like to explore alternative funding options. District 7 Councilman Mark Harder proposed selling small or unused parks to bring in revenue.
"Giving away some of those fringe properties, or selling those fringe properties, will help us keep the bigger properties," he said.
Johnson said selling properties is not a long-term solution.
"What do we do the next year, then, when we're out of small parks and floodplains?" he said.
Lease agreements with park partners that may be sapping the budget also came up. Johnson said the park provides staff or sponsors repairs through partnerships with Laumeier Sculpture Park and Missouri Botanical Garden's Butterfly House. But he said the county doesn't get revenue from tickets or events at those facilities.
"(Are) they going to share and be a partner, a true partner, or are they going to be squatters?" said Harder. "Everybody asks, 'Why are we broke?' and we start to find these out when we start to ask these questions."
Johnson said he would like to renegotiate the long-term agreements if possible, with 25 more years on the Butterfly House lease.
Park ranger Mike Keithley welcomed the council's effort during its meeting.
"I appreciate that this council has made clear that these are the county executive's cuts and not yours," he said.
Nearly a dozen St. Louis County park rangers and supporters shared their concerns about the county executive's proposed job cuts during a town hall Wednesday night in Clayton.
But County Council Budget Committee Chairwoman Shalonda Webb said before the meeting that park rangers don't have to worry. She said of the 28 proposed job cuts, 19 are vacant and only nine are currently filled.
"The council will make sure that they are taken care of, and I need them to know that because I feel really horrible," Webb said. "(Page has) created angst in people's livelihoods for show."
Keithley said park rangers are essential for public safety in the park. He said rangers have responded to more than 8,500 calls this year that police officers may not have the time or knowledge to answer.
"Rangers patrol more than 70 parks and 180 miles of trail. We know those parks. We know the trail where your child disappeared. We know which locked gate gets us closest. We know the service road that can save 10 minutes when someone's bleeding," Keithley said. "A ranger's presence has made the difference between life and death."
Some parks are in unincorporated St. Louis County, he said, so municipal police departments do not have an obligation to respond to calls from parks and sometimes do turn down those calls. He said the calls redirected to the already overburdened St. Louis County Police Department could lead to longer response times on crucial calls.
McLeod said she has seen frightening Facebook comments from people who may take advantage of rangers' absence by parking in grass, poaching deer and killing elk in Lone Elk Park.
"The most ominous one I read was 'Don't go to the park alone, ladies,'" she said. "Is this what we want St. Louis County parks to become? Dangerous places to avoid? I truly hope not."
This story has been updated with comments from Councilwoman Shalonda Webb.
Reporter Lacretia Wimbley contributed to this report.
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