Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 15, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 17, 2016 Page: 55 of 58
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AUGUST 2016
9
Denton Record-Chronicle
Unemployment Update
National numbers
By Christopher S. Rugaber I AP
2016 unemployment rates
6.0%
WASHINGTON - Slight-
ly fewer people sought U.S.
unemployment benefits in the
most recent week of data
available, a sign that layoffs
are low and employers are
probably adding new jobs.
Weekly applications for U.S.
unemployment aid barely fell
the week of Aug 1-5, slipping
1.000 to 266,000. The less-
volatile four-week average rose
3.000 to 262,750. And 2.16
million people are receiving
benefits.
Applications are a proxy for
layoffs and are at historically
low levels. That suggests em-
ployers are confident enough
in the economy to hold on to
their staffs. At the same time,
hiring has picked up: Employ-
ers added the most jobs in
eight months in June and
hiring was also healthy in July.
The unemployment rate was
4.9 percent in both months.
Weekly applications have
been below 300,000 for 75
straight weeks, the longest
such stretch since 1970.
One reason hiring has been
solid even as the economy
expanded at just a 1 percent
annual rate in the first six
months of the year is that the
economy has become less pro-
ductive, with workers’ output
per hour falling in the past year.
5.0%
*
4.0%
3.0%
2.0%
1.0%
0.0%
April
February
March
May
January
June
Denton
3.3%
3.2%
3.2%
2.9%
3.0%
3.6%
Denton County
3.4%
3.2%
3.4%
3.1%
3.1%
3.6%
Texas
4.4%
4.3%
4.5%
4.2%
4.2%
4.B%
Business Spotlight
Experts: Fort Worth Botanic Garden needs $15M in updates
r*
By Sandra Baker I Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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FORT WORTH (AP) -
Three times since March, the
Conservatory at the Fort
Worth Botanic Garden closed
to the public because a leaking
irrigation system flooded the
30-year-old metal and glass
structure, itself suffering stress
fractures and equipment mal-
functions that twice this past
winter caused temperatures
inside to drop to 38 degrees.
The Fort Worth Star-Tele-
gram reports the temperature
shouldn’t drop below 50 de-
grees to avoid placing the
plant and tree collection in
danger. Nearby, a 50-year-old
greenhouse that houses a
world-renowned begonia
collection needs to be re-
placed.
In June, a sinkhole formed
behind the stage where the
Fort Worth Symphony per-
forms its popular Concerts in
the Garden summer series. A
30-inch city sewer line col-
lapsed, but that went unno-
ticed to concertgoers and
other visitors while it was
fixed.
tion of the garden. I want to
make clear — the garden is a
wonderful asset. But it’s no
longer safe to assume the
garden will always be here if
we don’t look at these con-
cerns.”
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Byers’ remarks come as the
city’s Parks Department re-
views a consultant’s strategic
action plan that spells out how
a 2010 Master Plan of the
Botanic Garden can be set in
motion. In March, the City
Council approved spending
$97,925 on the study, some of
that coming from donations.
Public hearings have been
conducted on the latest report,
and it will be presented to the
council in September.
“We don’t want to discon-
tinue making progress moving
forward,” Byers said. “We’ve
made huge progress just by
understanding the situation
better.”
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Richard Zavala, the city’s
park director, said this latest
report allows his department
to take a step back and see
what the long-term needs of
the garden are and how to go
about fulfilling those.
“This brings us more into
reality,” Zavala said. “I have
more needs than I have re-
sources. This has been able to
show us other ways to find
resources. We have an obliga-
tion to be good stewards of
the natural resources entrust-
ed upon us for current and
future generations. That in-
cludes the Botanic Garden.
Good stewardship includes
preservation, protection and
pmdent management.”
The 2010 Master Plan
recommends many sweeping
changes to the garden, among
them eliminating traffic within
the park and moving the main
entrance from University
Drive to Montgomery Street.
The city doesn’t own the
land for the proposed new
entrance and has made offers
to the owners, to no avail.
Sandra Youngblood, the
city’s assistant parks director,
said one of the key compo-
nents in the master plan is the
new entrance, but not doing
that means tweaking other
recommendations that were
made based on moving the
entrance, including improving
parking.
“The Master Plan is a solid
document and still relative
and valid,” Youngblood said.
In the meantime, the mas-
ter plan has sat dormant for
five years in the wake of the
recession and lean budget
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And it’s been five years
since the large, whimsical frog
sculptures jumping from the
signature water fountain at
the garden’s entrance have
shot water from their mouths
across the pool of water to the
delight of guests.
Across the 110-acre city
park that opened more than
80 years ago as the first bo-
tanic garden in the state, there
are all kinds of needs and
deferred maintenance issues
that consultants recently esti-
mated will take $15 million to
Photos by Rodger Mallison, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/AP
Water flows at the Conservatory at Fort Worth Botanic Garden on Aug. 10 in Fort Worth. Three times since March, the Conservatory was closed to the
public because a leaking irrigation system flooded the 30-year-old structure.
mission fee, perhaps ranging
from $7 and $9 for an adult
and less for children. An ad-
mission fee could generate
$686,649 to $1.3 million, he
said.
worth of work. It’s a big num-
ber. Everything you can think
of needs work.”
Moreover, Daley suggests
creating a new nonprofit
group to focus on member-
ship and development, and
transferring the operations
now handled by the Botanical
Society and the Fort Worth
Garden Club to the city. The
Botanical Society and the
Garden Club each operate at
the park, and money each
raises goes back into the oper-
ations of the garden. The
Botanical Society, for example,
operates the Japanese Garden.
The Fort Worth Garden
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Many public gardens have
admission and parking fees,
Daley said. In Fort Worth,
getting onto the garden
grounds has always been free.
Having no admission fee
‘handcuffs the garden as the
city will always have more
pressing needs,” Daley said.
“People appreciate what they
pay for.”
Byers said if that happens
the earliest an admission fee
could be put in place is Octo-
ber 2018, and it will need City
Council approval.
Daley also recommends
starting systematic fundrais-
ing efforts for new capital
improvements and restoring
greater city support for infra-
structure repairs. Financial
support for the garden, both
public and private, has re-
mained the same for a decade,
and an additional $1.5 million
is needed just for the day-to-
day operations of the garden,
he said.
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Among possible changes
that would directly impact the
tens of thousands of garden
visitors each year is an entry
fee giving access to the entire
garden. Entrance to the gar-
den is now free.
Despite the vast list, Bob
Byers, the garden’s director,
puts his and the garden’s best
foot forward, saying it is and
will continue to be a great
attraction for tourists and
residents.
For that, he credits the
city’s help as well as the Bo-
tanical Society and Fort Worth
Garden Club, longtime sup-
porters and operators in the
garden, off University Drive
next to the Will Rogers Me-
morial Complex in the city’s
Cultural District.
“The visitor has a good
experience,” Byers said, but
added, “The public has a mis-
conception about the condi-
■#
Bob Byers, director of the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, warns that de-
ferred maintenance needs to be addressed at the garden's Conservatory.
Club, a 60-year-old group, 30
years ago raised the money to
build the visitor center. Money
it generates at the center, from
weddings and room rentals,
goes to pay its employees.
Both groups have strong
volunteer participation at the
garden.
years for the city.
Earlier this year, however,
St. Louis-based EMD Con-
sulting Group was hired to
put together the strategic
action plan, which goes be-
yond the master plan and
addresses the garden’s opera-
tions and organization struc-
ture, as well as its financial
sustainability.
Consultant Rick Daley said
Fort Worth “is very generous”
in its support of the garden,
providing 58 percent of its
$4.4 million budget. The
remainder comes from admis-
sion fees to the Japanese Gar-
den and the Conservatory,
facility rentals, a restaurant
and gift shop sales, and other
private support.
By comparison, Chicago
and Denver provide funding
for about one-third of their
botanic garden operating
budgets, he said.
Outside support — through
donations, endowments and
memberships — is “woefully
low;” and that needs to change,
Daley said. He recommends
shifting from separate en-
trance fees for the Japanese
Garden and the Conservatory
to charging one general ad-
“First of all, but for a lot of
dedicated people and the two
major support groups and our
dedicated staff, we wouldn’t be
where we are today,” Zavala
said.
Youngblood said the new
group would likely include
equal representation from the
city, Botanical Society and
Garden Club.
“That’s where the city can
step in because no one else
will,” Daley said. “There’s an
immediate need of $15 million
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 15, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 17, 2016, newspaper, August 17, 2016; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1127408/m1/55/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .