Flower power in the city budget
| July 14, 2009 | 6:28 PM
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Although Denver faces a $120 million budget deficit in the next 18 months, Mayor John Hickenlooper’s State of the City address offered few new ideas on what the city can do to trim costs.
The city already has taken taken some cost-cutting measures, such as saving $16.8 million by keeping vacant personnel positions open, and saving $22.2 million by deferring equipment purchases and reducing the cost of services and supplies. But that’s still a long way from closing the budget gap.
“This means there are more tough decisions to make,” Hickenlooper said in his address. “All of us will feel the impacts. Everything is on the table.”
But Hickenlooper wasn’t very specific about what the city should do to cut additional costs.
He did speak at length about different ways city officials are promoting economic growth, including backing the full scope of the FasTracks project, and the development of Union Station as a multi-modal hub. He spoke of the benefits that the city offers to children and students, and how a number of residents facing foreclosure or eviction were able to stay in their homes.
While all those are laudable accomplishments, it still doesn’t address the key question: What would Hickenlooper suggest the city do to have a balanced budget?
He did mention a suggestion made by a resident at a community budget meeting last month.
“We heard from Marygael Meister in northwest Denver about how planting perennials instead of annuals in our city parks could save money, water and personnel costs,” he said.
Hickenlooper didn’t say whether it was an idea that he embraced or that the city should adopt. But it was the only new cost-cutting idea mentioned in his speech.
So, how much money would the city save if Meister’s suggestion was implemented?
As it turns out, the Parks and Recreation department is already considering a similar idea, but on a smaller scale: switching out 25 percent of the annuals planted in city parks. That plan is included in the department’s 2010 budget.
“We would be replacing those with Oriental grasses and some perennials,” said Jill McGranahan, spokeswoman for Parks and Recreation.
Almost all of the city’s 200 parks have flower beds, but only three have showcase flower gardens: Alamo Placita, Washington Park and Civic Center. Denver spends $55,000 annually on flowers, fertilizer and botanical supplies. Most of the flowers are annuals — that is, they have to be planted every year.
If the city switches one-fourth of its annuals to perennials, it wouldn’t be much of a savings the first year, since it would still cost the city money to buy the plants.
But in the years to come, Denver would save $13,750 in materials and at least $94,000 in labor costs annually.
“That’s just on the greenhouse side,” McGranahan said.
On the park maintenance side, the switch likely would save the city an estimated $115,000 a year.
“We will have fewer seasonal staff,” said McGranahan, adding that the city uses seasonal workers to tend the flowers.
Denver doesn’t have an estimate of how much water it would save by going perennial, but McGranahan said that perennials use “significantly less” than annuals.
According to Russ Shrigley, horticulturist with the Denver Botanic Gardens, most annuals need to be watered three times a week, compared with once or twice a month for a perennial such as yucca.
However, he was quick to point out that some plants, such as miscanthus, a perennial grass, may require as much water as annuals or a regular lawn.
Annuals can be counted on to provide color during their lifetimes, while perennials may produce flowers for a short period, then go dormant, Shrigley said.
The difference can have economic impacts — on tourism, for example — and that’s why McGranahan said the city probably will never completely convert all of its flowers to perennials.
“It will not be a well-received idea,” she said. “Can you imagine walking into Civic Center Park and see that all the flowers are gone?”
Plus, Denver’s “natural areas,” where native grasses and plants are allowed to grow, are not always well received by residents, despite the cheaper watering and maintenance costs.
”They’re used to seeing the bluegrass lawns,” McGranahan said. “But the cost of a big lawn is more than the cost of a natural area.”
She said the department will see what residents say in the city’s budget survey before considering other cost-cutting moves.
In the meantime, McGranahan said she wasn’t surprised that Hickenlooper mentioned Meister’s perennial idea.
“There were a lot of suggestions from residents, and the mayor thought this was a good one, and we agree: It is a good suggestion,” she said.
So, apparently flower power in next year’s budget will save the city $222,750 ($13,750 plus $94,000 plus $115,000). That leaves $119,777,250 to go.
Read the text of the mayor’s speech on Denver’s Web site.
annual, budget, denver, flowers, parks and recreation, perennial, shortfall
