TIFTON — Local sites that provide recreation and entertainment for tourists and locals are dealing with budget reductions and struggling to maintain the level of service they have provided for years.

The Georgia Agrirama’s Museum of Agriculture and Living History Museum opened in Tifton on July 4, 1976. The site employs approximately 50 people, many of them part-time, and a small staff of supervisors and management positions. Director James Higgins said that marketing is one of the first things that gets cut when state funding is reduced.

“We are looking at reducing and holding back on some things like major repairs,” Higgins said. “We are OK, but we are concerned about the long term.”

Higgins said school group tours of the site are one of the main income-generating activities for the Agrirama. Some school systems have reduced or totally cut student field trips. Higgins said some of the teachers he has talked with have told him that they have cut all field trips except for planned trips to the Agrirama. He said that is partially due to the fact that the trip is credited by state school performance standards because the student experience teaches them about Georgia history and has hands-on workshops.

“We are hurting like everyone else, but we are hoping the economy will improve,” Higgins said.

Another cost-saving measures Higgins has implemented is a reduction in hours that some of the attractions at the Agrirama operate daily. Tours at the Tift House, for instance, are starting an hour later in the day and ending an hour earlier than before.

Paradise Public Fishing near Brookfield, which spans 1,300 acres, has also had to deal with budget cuts but is continuing to offer a good value for the money. There is no admission and the only associated charge is $9 for a fishing license and $19 for a wildlife management fee. The site is open seven days a week and from sunrise to sunset for fishing. Also, water fowl and dove hunts are also on the schedule periodically.

According to Noel Jackson, assistant manager, budget cuts have frozen hiring. One full-time employee who was the groundskeeper and took care of the picnic area and rest rooms at the park left and has not been replaced. Currently, there are three full-time and three part-time employees who manage the site.

High gas prices have also influenced how employees care for the park. According to Jackson, grass there is not mowed as often as in the past, which limits the availability of bank fishing at some of the ponds.

“We are trying to conserve fuel by doing that and we don’t have the personnel to mow as often,” Jackson said. “We’ve had to scale back.”

Jackson said the last survey conducted indicated that 31,000 vehicles entered the park annually.

Reed Bingham State Park, located six miles west of Adel off I-75, has also had its share of budget cuts. But, according to director Chet Powell, the support of the Friends of Reed Bingham group has been invaluable. The group, which was the first chartered under the umbrella of Friends of Georgia State Parks, has 600 families and several thousand members.

“When the budget crunch hit, I went to my Friends group at a regular monthly meeting,” Powell said. “We got creative and parked most of our park vehicles.

“The group bought us three law enforcement mountain bicycles.”

Powell said the bikes are fully-equipped with law enforcement gear.