No! They will, still, find a way to increase my, already, high property tax! You know when a politican is lying? Their lips moving. Never, never give money willingly to a politican.

Anyone who thinks that more money should be raised for parks is free to write out a check whenever the spirit moves them.

One significant reason that parks are underutilized is because of the suburbanization of the United States.
.
Why go to a park when one has an acre (or in many cases here in Rock County, acres!) of your own green, green grass? Likewise, why go to Lions Beach or Rockport Pool or Palmer Park if you or your neighbor has a pool?
.
We are victims of our own successes!
.
I would have never thought this way, having grown up in Janesville; however, living seven years in Tucson, Ariz. and another seven in Los Angeles, the amount of "park" that each person owns right around their own house in Wisconsin is actually a bit astounding.
.
Let's flip the question around: is it worth $60 a year to have someone else do all the mowing and pool cleaning and other maintenance? :)

LadyLynda, this doesn't involve any park within city limits. These are county parks that aren't maintained by a city or township. I agree on your observation of Jvl's city streets. I'm glad to see many on the east side are getting resurfaced.

I moved from Janesville 8 years ago but still visit my relatives who live there. I cannot believe the deterioration in the city over the past few years. I agree the streets need a lot of work, I'd think that would be a priority over the parks first. Not to say parks aren't important, but prioritize. Like someone else said, make sure the $5 goes to the parks and not somewhere else. But to a lot of folks, especially with GM's fate being up in the air, this extra money could be a burden, even if it doesn't seem like a lot, it adds up. And it's a shame people can't clean up after themselves or their pets. Common courtesy is gone and that is a shame.

What? Have the gay men complained about the conditions for "cruising"? People don't use the parks because of the reputations they've developed over the years. If the $60/year meant that the parks would be monitored and safer as well as cleaner, then I may feel better about it. But what happens when we pay this increase and some other department sees "all that money".....so the parks budget is cut to pay for something else and our $60 buys nothing. I'd rather pay $60 more per year for good roads.

Why don't we cut the pay and extras politicians get and then maybe we can afford to take care of the necessary business that our politicians don't take care of, ie: police, firemen, teachers, roads, etc. We keep cutting costs where we need it the most while our politicians keep getting great pay increases and all kinds of incentives!

What are you trying to ask? are you asking would you pay $5 a month for parks as in a FEE for a sticker? or as in taxes? I would as long as you actually use it on the parks TO MOW and keep clean and then maybe youll include rotary gardens. that would be a neat idea. get a park pass vs taxes. then if peopel dont go use parks they wont have to pay. remember this cover rock county not just janesville.

Kimbo - i do agree on the sell some of th eparks! a square foot of grass on empty lot DOESNT HAVE TO BE A PARK. example sumac drive down by holiday- i think the road is lucrene that goes off of sumac and heads towards pontiac. there is a park there WHY!!!!

It is sad that people can not see the forest through the trees. Thank goodness Theodore Roosevelt was able to. To spend that small amount of money every month to ensure that the parks survive is well worth it.

Do we really need our taxes to go up $60.00 a year to have more parks ??

Long_Time_Gone--
If you are out cruising on the bike check out Magnolia Bluff(very nice and a good scenic drive there on the motorcycle). Also the public access to Happy Hollow Park is nice if you like a shorter drive. I am sure someone has another opinion, but these are enjoyable county areas.

I can't believe that there are so many people who don't appreciate parks!!! What about green space, forests, prairies? Can't we have natural parks, not just ones to play in or with boat launches? I don't understand....I guess you would rather look at pavement and factories, overdevelopment, chain stores/restaurants, and chintsy subdivisions. Lets try to get Janesville to live up to its name-the City of Parks! Come on people!!

It seems to me that the parks are to preserve the land that has unique character of Rock County. I have to admit I do not understand way we would want to develop an area we already chose to preserve.

(Phoque is French for "seal" (the animal, family phocidae). It's a favorite word of first-year French students for obvious reasons.)
.
ca2642, you've noticed that too.

No talk here at all about how businesses, people, etc. choose to move to towns with green space, and I hate to tell folks but parks, whether used or not, are green space. The alternative is to pave the whole darn city, and have a place that is very unpleasant to live in.

I was going to post this on the article, but phoque (is that phonetic for what I think it says?) has it quite right.
*
I had the Harley out on a cruise last weekend and decided to make a run west over to the Anchor Inn.
*
On the way, I stopped at Dallman Park. Good park, it appeared heavily used due to the landing and Lake Koshkonong. I noted the sign that said it was a Rock County park.
*
Later I stopped in Indiandford, and noticed a sign near the dam that again said, a Rock County Park. But there is nothing there. And, it seems a bit dangerous to have a park right on top of the rushing waters flowing over the metal spikes on the concrete dam.
*
Then, riding a short distance from Indianford, was another Rock County Park, Murwin Park. It was clean but looked like no one had used the park, other than the droppings left behind by someone's dog.
*
So of the 3 county parks I passed, it looked like the only justified expense was Dallman.

Parks in their day were a great asset to any comminity, but in today's day and age, first of all, they aren't safe. I wouldn't allow any of my kids to go to a park unsupervised. Even your fellow classmate (i.e. paintball incident) could be a threat, not to mention preditors. Also, there is really no respect from citizens, which means people don't clean up after themselves most of the time, so the parks either become an eye sore, or people need to be employed to take care of them on a full time basis, which is something our country can't afford to do. We are in enough of a crisis as it is, we don't need to be adding ANY FINANCIAL BURDENS TO THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER!!!! Period.

There's nothing cheap about not paying for something you don't use.

These results are not surprising the people in the Rock County area are some of the cheapest people I have ever met.

The county can't afford to take care of the parks they have. They need to sell off the parks that get little or no use.

Though I am betting the results will be ignored and taxpayers will be spun the survey results stating more parks will bring more jobs to the county.