An agenda from a La Pine Park & Recreation District emergency board meeting on Wednesday is seen posted near the door to the organization’s office in La Pine on Thursday. The last three district board members resigned during the meeting.  

After the final three members of the La Pine Park & Recreation District board resigned last week and informed staff they would be let go by mid-October, the Deschutes County Commission began the process of finding a new board.

The commission opened applications for all five park district board positions on Tuesday morning, to be submitted by Sunday. The board plans to review applications early next week and hold interviews Oct. 23.

The park board’s five appointees will all serve through June. All five seats will be on the May ballot, with Positions 1, 2 and 3 for four-year terms and Positions 4 and 5 for two-year terms. The board asked that interested candidates apply with a letters of interest and résumés to the email address lapineparks@deschutes.org.

“People asking us to do something, or save a program or give them clarity about what the future’s gonna be, and we’re not in that domain,” said Commissioner Tony DeBone. “Appointing board members quickly is the goal at this point in time.”

DeBone said Tuesday afternoon that the county has already received more than five applications, and he’s excited people are engaged. Board positions are not paid and, aside from this instance, are elected. He also encouraged people to serve on the budget committee if they did not want to join the board.

The county has no affiliation with the park district, but such special districts are in the county’s purview when they don’t have a board.

The County Commission has no authority to hire an executive director or staff for the park district. Once the board is in place, it becomes its job to hire an executive director.

All La Pine Park and Recreation District board members resign

“We have heard from a lot of people in the community about the need to get services started again, and not have any interruptions in service, especially in child care,” Commissioner Phil Chang said during the meeting. “This situation’s a mess; there’s some serious issues here. If we don’t dig to the bottom of those issues and understand what’s going on, we cannot effectively appoint new board members who can solve those issues.”

La Pine parent Renee Carpenter is glad the commissioners opened applications. Though she hoped the commission would be able to revoke the park district’s impending layoffs, she’s hopeful for the process ahead.

“Now we just need to get some individuals in position who have drive, passion and definitely some financial background to get our Parks and Rec district up and running again,” she wrote in a text message. “The future is bright; we all just need to have a little more patience while the commissioners do what they do best and then the newly appointed board members will be able to work on the rest of it from there.”

Finances and shuttered programs

The park district has dealt with financial difficulties for years, according to park district grant writer Teri Myers, and has been assisted financially by the city of La Pine. It has a tax rate of 30 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. In November, taxes will start to roll in.

Myers said the commissioners did the only thing they could in opening applications to quickly appoint board members.

“They were stuck between a rock and a hard place,” she said. “It’s crucial that they get somebody in here as an interim executive director or as an executive director that could do the work that it’s going to take to make the district go forward.”

Earlier this month, the park district’s then-board shuttered all programming aside from youth football, which was taken over by the South Oregon Sports Association.

As of the adoption of the 2023-25 budget, the park district employed an executive director, seven part-time employees, four contracted services and 300 volunteers. The adopted budget was $1.4 million, with $703,000 in taxes.

The park district offers youth sports, after-school and summer programs and adult recreation and education programs for people in La Pine and the surrounding unincorporated areas.

The adult programs included archery and Tai Chi. Three Rivers Archery partners with the park district. President JR Lorimor said the closures have had little affect on the organization and that archery is still open.