Hon. GAYLORD NELSON, ARKANSAS PUBLICITY AND PARKS COMMISSION, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. NELSON: Concerning your recent letter, I would like to advise that our parks director, Mr. Bryan Stearns, has given me the following information: In the immediate future, approximately 100 employees could be used by this commission in projects concerning parks development, 60 male and 40 female, representing 500 man-years of work. The publicity and parks commission is very active and the parks facilities have shown an increase of from 3 million tourists in 1961 to over 5 million in 1963. We are very proud of our parks system and its ever-increasing popularity with the general public. Hoping this information will be of some value to you, I am, BOB EVANS, Executive Director. INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AND EXTENSION CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS, Hon. GAYLORD NELSON, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR NELSON: In Dr. Westerlund's absence, I am replying to your letter of May 29 to the Industrial Research and Extension Center. I am afraid that your request relating to specific numbers of the unemployed that could be used on conservation projects in Arkansas cannot be answered in as much detail as we would like. We do know that there is a need for such projects and we do know that Arkansas has unemployed and underemployed workers who could be used in such projects. The director of the State publicity and parks commission noted to one of our staff members that they had need for 100 man-years of work per year for each of the next 5 years for their program and that, even with this number, there would still be much more left to be accomplished. Our most specific source of information concerning the potental utilization of unemployed and underemployed workers in Arkansas on conservation projects are the overall economic development programs of counties designated as redevelopment areas by the Area Redevelopment Administration. Overall economic development programs are available for 49 of the 75 counties of Arkansas. These programs reflect the expression of local people with regard to needs within their counties. We have carefully perused the overall economic development programs, and a survey of the program reports for each of the 49 counties indicates that the following useful projects could be initiated if funds were available. Type of project Timber stand improvement-- Roadside improvement-- Number of counties 28 40 22 It would be extremely difficult to provide you with a realistic estimate of the number of man-years involved in completing these projects. It is clearly evi dent, though, that a substantial number of workers could be utilized in these programs. To provide you with additional data on the extent of unemployment and underemployment within these 49 counties, 2 tables are enclosed. Table 1 shows the number of unemployed and rate of unemployment in those of the 49 counties for which such data are available. Table 2 presents median family income in the 49 counties for which overall economic development programs have been compiled. We trust that this information will be of some help to you. Sincerely, Miss ETHEL B. JONES, Assistant Director. TABLE 1.-Number of unemployed and unemployment rate, selected counties,1 1 Of the 49 designated ARA counties in Arkansas, unemployment data are available for only the 26 counties listed. Source: Arkansas Department of Labor, Employment Security Division, "Area Redevelopment Man power Reports, Arkansas," May 1964. TABLE 2.-Median income of families, 49 selected counties,1 Arkansas: 1960 1 Area Redevelopment Administration designated counties. Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, "1960 Census of Population, Characteristics of the Population, Arkansas," vol. I, pt. 5, table 86, pp. 5-214 through 5-219 and 1960 Census of Population, Characteristics of the Population, U.S. Summary," vol. I, pt. 1, table 95, p. 1-225. OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER, Hon. GAYLORD NELSON, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR NELSON: In answer to your inquiry on how we could best utilize unemployed workers on recreational projects, we have found that a majority of our work would involve cleanup and general maintenance work in our parks and recreation department. We could use at the present time 20 full-time and 10 part-time employees in this department. This is the only department of the city where we actually could use these unemployed workers, working on new projects. We could also use some added employees in the below-listed departments to augment our present working force. The departments in which we could use additional labor would be: Sewer department-. Water department_. Traffic engineering. Full time In figuring the actual man-years of works that these men could do we have used the formula of 1 man working 8 hours a day, 250 days a year equals 1 manyear. Therefore, we feel that we could actively utilize 90 man-years of work in new activity and supplementary work in the immediate future. We hope that these answers will be of service to you, and if there are any further questions, please feel free to call on us. Sincerely yours, CAPP F. SHANKS, Jr., Administrative Aide. CALIFORNIA RESPONSES OFFICE OF THE MAYOR, Hon. GAYLORD NELSON, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR NELSON: The San Francisco Public Welfare Department has recently been studying a State program, which has somewhat similar applications to that which we understand you are considering, and submits the following report in reply to your letter: "The public welfare department is working on a program for 'work training projects' to be created in various city departments for the vocational training and work experience of employable public assistance recipients. The persons working on these projects must be recipients of public assistance and they receive no pay for their work other than a continuation of their public assistance grant (the number of hours which they may be required to work is determined by dividing the monthly grant of public assistance by the hourly 'wage credits' established for the project). "As I understand the Senator's letter, Federal funds would be provided under the legislation which he has recently introduced for the payment of salaries and the cost of equipment and supplies necessary for municipal conservation and recreation projects. Employment on such projects, I presume, would be open to any unemployed workers. This would include persons currently receiving public assistance, but the public assistance payments would be discontinued upon the employment of these persons on the conservation and recreation projects and they would receive regular salaries or wages from their work on such projects. "The type of projects which Senator Nelson mentions would be in the recreation and park department, the public works department, and possibly in public utilities as well (perhaps particularly in connection with water department and airport operations). "On the basis that these would-be major public work projects where the unemployed would be working as regular employees on the projects, I would guess that from 1,000 to 3,000 man-years of work could be performed 'without extensive new preparation.' This could consist of the further development of McLaren Park, the development of Fort Funsten, further development of the beaches along the Great Highway, conservation work around Spring Valley lakes, landscaping of grounds at the San Francisco Airport and similar projects. As I said before, this is all on the presumption that Federal funds would be available for all costs of materials and operating costs in addition to salaries and wages. the thirties." This would be more or less along the lines of PWA projects during I hope this information will answer the questions you addressed to this office. Please be assured of our continued cooperation. With every best wish, I am, JOHN F. SHELLEY, Mayor. CITY OF SOUTH GATE, South Gate, Calif., June 20, 1964. Senator GAYLORD NELSON, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR NELSON: Thank you for your communication of June 17, 1964, requesting my comments on the development of conservation projects for unemployed workers. I think this is an admirable project for many communities, and certainly, most of us know with the advent of additional leisure time for almost everyone in our society, additional park and recreation facilities are sorely needed. I, however, feel that our park is sufficiently developed so that we do not need this type of assistance in the city of South Gate. Thanking you again for your communication, I remain, ROBERT E. GIRARDIN, Administrator, Parks and Recreation Department. Hon. GAYLORD NELSON, PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR NELSON: I have received your inquiry of June 17, relative to utilization of unemployed workers under your proposed legislation. In our particular situation, I do not believe we could utilize the workers to any extent in the near future, in the specific projects you propose. Our city parks and park sites are the neighborhood playground type of approximately 10 acres each and all are located in developed residential areas. Our maintenance force consists of 25 permanent employees plus 7 temporary employees for a period of 6 months. If the program would permit use of the workers in maintenance programs, I am confident our city would consider participating, at least for our temporary help. I, personally, favor any legislation that would encourage the development of needed park areas and recreation facilities, and your proposed bill seems an excellent way to utilize an idle work force to help accomplish an important task. Perhaps, our State and county governments could better utilize substantial numbers of the workers in the development of mountain parks, lakes, beaches, roadside rests, and wilderness areas which they control. Sincerely, H. E. BERGEN, DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND BEACHES, San Luis Obispo, Calif., July 9, 1964. Senator GAYLORD NELSON, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR NELSON: This is in answer to your letter dated June 17, 1964, in regard to utilizing unemployed workers on conservation projects. With this source of manpower we could greatly improve the appearance and increase the usability of all of our facilities. 37-181-64- -7 Our board of supervisors is contemplating the purchase of several thousand acres of BLM land within our county. Here many miles of riding and hiking trails could be laid out and built, as well as firebreaks. A large water storage and flood control dam is now under study by our county. On its shores a large recreation area is proposed. The clearing of this land below high water line could be a long-term project. Development of the park, planting, and installing equipment could consume many man-hours. We have an eelgrass problem in Morro Bay Harbor that creates a menace to navigation, as well as undesirable conditions throughout the harbor. An intelligent answer as to the number of man-years is impossible at this time because we are unable to get a complete factual picture of these projects. We are certain that a substantial number of these men could be utilized to improve our service to the public in our harbors, golf course, parks, beaches, and veterans' buildings. This program your are working on appears to be a very logical approach to overcoming unemployment and poverty. It offers the opportunity to these men to earn incomes by their own labor. Establishment of abundant employment opportunities at reasonable wages is the first step toward overcoming the conditions of poverty. Sound business under a sound government that acts as umpire can provide more and better jobs and increase the standard of living for all. Very truly yours, LEROY O. SHERWIN, CITY OF FREMONT, Fremont, Calif., July 23, 1964. Hon. GAYLORD NELSON, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR NEI SON: I have taken the liberty to discuss your letter with a number of my colleagues in the State of California over the past few weeks with the general consensus being that most of our departments could use a substantial number of workers in our programs. This would be in park development programs where they could be involved in actual construction detail, or conservation program, in reforestation, planting of various types of plant material, or on a general maintenance cleanup program where they would be used in various types of activities such as landscape areas and urban centers. We also discussed the possibility of a retraining phase of this program as we are in the position of having a tremendous shortage of skilled people in the field of parks, nursery work, and street tree maintenance programs. We believe that this could be done on the basis of a training program that would allow these workers to move through a 1-year program broken down into four or five different areas where they would receive a number of lectures on the type of skill that they would be implementing during their work period, i.e., if they would be employed in a masonry project in one of our parks, one of our skilled employees in this area would present them with lectures in the morning on the different types of materials and proper use of tools and equipment in masonry work. These people could then go out into the community under supervision and perform these tasks; based on the above they would hopefully end up at the close of the year's program with some skills and understanding of the work in our particular field. Each city would probably be limited to approximately 30 persons at one time because we feel that this would be all that could be adequately handled in regard to a classroom and supervision situation: it would be our recommendation that this be scheduled on a 1-year basis. This could be carried on for as many years as funds could be made available. We have approximately 85 cities in the bay area with 9 counties. This would mean approximately 90 some jurisdictions that could take about 30 apiece which would give you 2,700 or 2,000 to 3,000 men that could be trained in a useful profession as well as assisting many park and recreation departments in the bay area to more adequately maintain their park systems. I have asked Dr. Richard Harris, of the University of California, department of landscape horticulture, to contact you in regard to the potential in the area in regard to the nursery association for this type of employment. If you need any more specific information from me, I would be more than pleased to work with you on this project because I feel that it is most important. With the tremen |