CLAYTON • Picnic benches and barbecue pits — gone. The grass? Uncut and overgrown. And some entrances might sport a "For Sale" sign.

St. Louis County officials said Tuesday that those were real possibilities at some county parks because of what administrators say is a fiscal crisis requiring the Parks Department to slash $4.3 million from its budget.

To accomplish that, officials said, they will need to close 23 parks, including Lone Elk, George Winter and Greensfelder, and eliminate 133 jobs, about 40 of them full time.

The Parks Department took the brunt of cuts that were proposed in a recommended budget that County Executive Charlie A. Dooley sent to the County Council on Monday.

In addition to the parks cuts, Dooley's document called for the elimination of about 40 jobs in other departments, an increase in fees for construction permits, scaling back snow removal and closing the West County Satellite Center.

Dooley said the cuts would save the county about $10 million a year.

However, some members of the County Council have said they believe the county administration has exaggerated the budget problems and that alternatives can be found that will keep the parks open.

At Tuesday's regular council meeting, the council's chairman, Steve Stenger, D-Affton, announced the formation of a special budget committee.

"The purpose of the committee would be to invite and encourage true representation as to the state of our financial affairs," Stenger said.

Dooley said he welcomed the committee's involvement.

Parks director Lindsey Swanick on Tuesday compared the administration's focus on her department with those of a cash-strapped homeowner.

"It's like people having to choose whether to buy food or medicine," she said.

When asked if she believed her department had received more than its share of the proposed cuts, Swanick said, "I can't answer that."

However, she said her employees believed that.

"I would have to say that that is true," she said.

Esley Hamilton, the county's preservation historian, said he can't understand why the Parks Department is being targeted.

He said that polls have shown that the value county residents place on parks is second only to police protection.

"I was surprised by the inequity of it," Hamilton said.

Among preservationists in the county, Hamilton's is a household name. On Monday, he found out that he himself was a casualty of cost cutting. Hamilton said his position is being eliminated and that he was told to retire.

Numerous Parks Department employees attended Tuesday's council meeting. One of them, Jeff Tribl, a part-time parks ranger, addressed Dooley and the council during the public comments segment.

Tribl asked that such options as furloughs be considered before employees are fired. He also called for other county departments to share more evenly in the cuts.

"It's unfair that one department bears the majority of the cuts," he said. "We're supposed to be a team."

PARK TRANSFERS

Of the 23 parks that administrators say the county can no longer afford to maintain, officials said they hope that 12 will find homes with municipalities or the state of Missouri.

The possible transfers: Lone Elk Park to the Missouri Department of Conservation; Greensfelder to the city of Wildwood; George Winter to Fenton; and Bon Oak to Dellwood.

Officials said that they had not yet contacted the state or municipalities to discuss that prospect.

However, Wildwood Mayor Tim Woerther said on Tuesday that he would be open to the idea of taking over the 1,734-acre Greensfelder.

"We would certainly be receptive," he said. "But obviously, the devil is in the details."

The alternative for parks that don't find takers would be closure.

"We would put up barricades at the gate, pull the picnic tables, pull the barbecue pits. You let the grass grow, and maybe cut it a couple of times a year," Swanick said.

Swanick said the county's plan would be to "land-bank" the parks, hold on to them until money is found to reopen them.

Deed restrictions and covenants would prohibit the sale of most of the parks to private individuals.

However, no such restrictions apply to six of the parks — Lone Elk, Bohrer, Ohlendorf and Ohlendorf West, Larimore and Mathilda-Welmering.

LONE ELK CONCERN

On Monday, the county's chief operating officer, Garry Earls, said administrators were considering selling Lone Elk and its animals, including elk, bison and deer.

That possibility caught environmentalists and historic preservationists by surprise.

"I don't think it's up to those guys to make that decision," said Walter Crawford, executive director of the World Bird Sanctuary, which borders Lone Elk Park. "That park belongs to you and me."

Crawford said many people visit Lone Elk after seeing the bird sanctuary.

"We have to protect that habitat," he said.

Steve Nagle, board president of the nonprofit Open Space Council, said that county parks receive 15 million visitors a year, according to one county study. Closing the parks could do permanent damage to park use, he said.

"If you show up to a park and its closed, it's hard to get those numbers back," Nagle said.

Kathleen Logan Smith, executive director for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, said the plan could hurt property values and tax revenue even more because people put a high value on living near parks.

"If it's property values (Earls) cares about, then we need to keep the green spaces," Smith said.

The county's assistant parks director, Tom Ott, said on Tuesday that there were no immediate plans to sell any parks.

"It is not our goal to sell park land," Ott said. "Once it's gone, it's gone."

County Council member Greg Quinn, R-Chesterfield, whose district includes Lone Elk and Greensfelder, said Tuesday that he was confident alternatives could be found to closing any parks.

"I don't think we have a financial crisis," Quinn said. "I think we can scale back where we need to and keep the parks open and preserve our other services."