Turning county park maintenance duties over to the city of Lawrence probably is a good idea, but local taxpayers shouldn’t expect the move to necessarily produce large financial savings.

Douglas County commissioners plan to talk to Lawrence city commissioners about transferring management and maintenance of county parks to Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department. Those parks — primarily Lone Star Lake and Wells Overlook Park — currently are overseen by the county’s Public Works Department, the people in charge of the county’s roads and bridges. The skills needed to maintain roads and bridges, however, don’t translate all that well to maintaining hiking paths or lake concession services, and county commissioners are looking for new solutions.

Money, naturally, is one consideration. Putting city parks people in charge of county parks may result in better services for park patrons. The county, for instance, has had trouble keeping a concessionaire for Lone Star Lake. Lawrence Parks and Recreation has lots of experience in staffing recreation facilities and may find it easier to fill that job. However, whoever supplies that staffing still will have to be paid and the physical equipment at the lake will have to be maintained.

Although state government is in the habit of giving local governments new responsibilities without including the money to pay for them, that isn’t what either city or county commissioners have in mind. Taxpayers still will foot the bill. With this in mind, it would seem wise to put a cap on spending for the parks, regardless of whether they are managed and maintained by the city or county.

Because the city’s parks and recreation department is set up specifically to provide recreation services, it probably can bring some increased efficiency to the operation of the county parks. It may be able to save money by combining contracts or making better use of people or equipment. But the biggest payoff may be in terms of providing park facilities and services that are more attractive to those who visit those parks.

Lawrence and Douglas County have received high marks for their past efforts to combine services. Sometimes those efforts have resulted in a savings for taxpayers. A city-county agreement to combine park maintenance duties also may provide some savings, but even if costs remain constant, county residents will receive increased benefit if the parks are more pleasant and usable for visitors. The county’s proposal to combine park management seems to have merit and deserves serious consideration.