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Tulsa Parks Department Earns National Accreditation

Tulsa’s parks department wraps up a years-long accreditation process by getting the stamp of approval.

The entire process through the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies, or CAPRA, took five years. Parks Director Lucy Dolman said hers is just the 152nd agency to get CAPRA accreditation.

"Out of 10,000 recreation agencies throughout the country, and so we're really proud of that, because we're the first in Oklahoma," Dolman said.

The process took a long time because it started off with writing a new master plan, which took two years.

"Then, you know, we started filling in the blanks for everything else, but along the way, every one of these policies and every one of the new things we created for the accreditation process had to be vetted and approved by the park board," Dolman said.

While budget cuts have affected the parks department, they didn’t hamper the accreditation.

"Because what we did was rely on other departments for help," Dolman said. "Security officers, we got the asset management program. If it's communications, you know, they stepped up and helped us with marketing."

To maintain CAPRA accreditation, the parks department will have to submit annual reports to show it’s continuing to meet all standards.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.