By GIL BAILEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Mountlake Terrace's vaunted parks and recreation programs are up for review.

"Our general fund will produce a deficit at the current rate of spending in the year 2001," says Connie Fessler, Mountlake city manager for the past 18 months. "We are putting together a five-year financial plan and we are trying to determine what are essential services and what are discretionary."

Parks and recreation can be considered discretionary, she says. "I don't want to minimize their importance. But we can't continue to do what we are doing with current revenues."

She says parks and recreation takes 17 percent of the general fund.

Public comment on how the city's finances should be handled will be gathered this month and next, and the seven-member city council may make its decisions by July.

Part of problem is that 75 percent of Mountlake Terrace's land is in residential use, while just 12 percent is industrial or commercial, says Fessler, adding that residential uses are more costly for the city to service than industrial or commercial uses.

And there is very little room left for expansion of industrial and commercial areas.

Fessler says city taxes compare favorably with surrounding cities, but Mountlake Terrace residents will face the choice of raising taxes or cutting programs.

Fessler, who spent 13 years in city government in Oregon before coming to Mountlake Terrace, says, she love the city, but "financially we have to rethink the way we do business."