OKLAHOMA CITY — From cave-ins to broken sewer lines, the maintenance needs at Oklahoma state parks are only getting worse and more expensive.

The new interim director of the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation gave an overview of the large-scale maintenance needs of the state parks to the House Tourism Committee on Wednesday.

The study was requested by Sen. Darcy Jech, R-Kingfisher, and Rep. Carl Newton, R-Cherokee, who both requested a similar study last year. Sterling Zearley, who was recently appointed interim director of the agency by Gov. Kevin Stitt, began his presentation by sharing a little about himself and his devotion to Oklahoma state parks.

Zearley has worked at the department for 23 years and shared that he lived on site at the Cherokee Courthouse Museum when he first started. He also talked about the growth Oklahoma has seen because of increased tourism, pointing to rural communities that have seen major developments due to increased traffic to state parks in their area.

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“It’s just amazing in the last 30 years how much development has come because of tourism in the state of Oklahoma,” he said.

In his presentation, Zearley noted that tourism is the third largest industry in Oklahoma and that state park visitors spent $342.9 million in 2022.

The department did receive some money for deferred maintenance in the last legislative session through the Oklahoma Capital Assets Maintenance and Protection Act Fund. The agency has added to that money by applying for federal matching grants, bringing in an additional $3.1 million that allowed work to begin on 39 projects.

But that funding was not enough to cover even half of the first year of deferred maintenance the state parks need, according to previous reporting from the Tulsa World. Zearley said the Legislature has an opportunity to invest more in the parks in the coming session.

He said someone told him several months ago that Oklahoma’s state parks will never be like those in Texas and Arkansas.

While Oklahoma state parks have just as many visitors as Texas parks and even more than Arkansas’, there is one major difference. Both the Texas and Arkansas park systems have independent funds for maintenance, making it easy for the parks to continuously be taken care of without having to ask for more state appropriations.

Zearley said the future of Oklahoma state parks is at risk because of the backlog of deferred maintenance.

Chief Operating Officer Forrest McMurray laid out details about the agency’s eight-year plan to tackle deferred maintenance. Currently, the first year of the plan would require $41 million and would exclusively address major health and safety issues, including nonfunctional water, sewer and gas lines at the parks.

McMurray also noted that from July 2023 to this May, state parks saw 12.8 million visitors, a visitor rate that outpaces both Arkansas’ and Texas’. But the deferred maintenance continues to prevent Oklahoma state parks from being fully functional, he said.

Zearley gave examples of major problems in state parks, including a cave-in at Alabaster Caverns State Park and the condition of several cabins at Lake Murray State Park.

“We have to do continuous maintenance on these things,” said Rep. Eddy Dempsey, R-Broken Bow, who sits on the Tourism Committee. He offered several comments throughout the study about the importance of Beavers Bend State Park to the economy of his district.

But after the study concluded, there was no clear declaration of support from any legislator. Rep. John George, R-Edmond, asked for a list of mechanisms other state park systems use to continuously fund maintenance, but no one was willing to make any promises about further action.

“Our challenge when we come out of these studies is to actually follow up,” Jech said.

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