State Parks officials say they are ready to seriously consider local offers to maintain parks that Albany closed due to the budget crisis.

“It’s safe to say that we are welcoming proposals,” regional State Parks spokeswoman Angela Berti said. “We are welcoming partnerships.”

The state last week closed Woodlawn Beach in the Town of Hamburg, Knox Farm in the Town of Aurora, Joseph Davis park in the Town of Lewiston, and Wilson-Tuscarora park in the Town of Wilson.

The threat to state parks prompted local leaders to craft proposals allowing towns to assume maintenance for Woodlawn Beach and Joseph Davis state parks. Aurora and Wilson officials also discussed the possibility of assuming some maintenance responsibilities for Knox Farm and Wilson-Tuscarora.

It was unclear early on if the state would seriously consider such agreements. But within the past few weeks, the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation reached agreements with Orleans County to maintain Oak Orchard Marine Park, and trail groups have been given maintenance authority over parks in Long Island, said Albany spokesman Dan Keefe.

“We have been talking to a whole lot of groups and a whole lot of municipalities,” he said. “We ask for a formal agreement that stipulates how the park will be run.”

Berti said parks officials will consider any municipal maintenance proposals for the four Western District sites.

“We’ve never closed state parks in the history of parks, not even in the Depression,” she said. “We are in the business of running parks, so that’s why we are fumbling around a bit.”

Though she couldn’t say if or

when the state would grant local municipalities any maintenance responsibilities while the budget crisis persists, she did say every proposal would be considered as a potential solution to keep parks publicly accessible.

She described some of the basic maintenance needs as mowing grass, cleaning rest-rooms and removing trash.

“It’s a very open conversation,” she said of meetings with town leaders. “We’ve not done this before. There’s no blueprint for this.”

Town officials are doing their best to come up with their own.

Lewiston Supervisor Steven C. Reiter said the town has proposed a summer maintenance plan for Joseph Davis State Park that would cost only about $1,000 to $1,200 in gas. The town already has the personnel and equipment necessary.

“We already have a crew there,” he said. “Our plan is to maintain the parks so it will stay open for the youth, the picnickers, the fishermen who use the fishing docks and the golfers. We’ve also got the road open with the cooperation of the state.”

He added that the town eventually would like to arrange a long-term lease of the park with the state.

The Town of Hamburg has also submitted a proposal to operate Woodlawn Beach, which covers a mile of shoreline. Supervisor Steven J. Walters said he’s been in touch with state park officials over the past two months on a potential agreement.

“The state has been very receptive to our reaching out and been very willing to work with us,” he said. “Our preference is that we work something out sooner rather than later because Memorial [Day] weekend is coming up pretty soon, and that’s the start of our summer season.”

While the town would consider a permanent takeover, Walters said current discussions with the state involve a maintenance program for this summer season. He noted that the town already operates Hamburg Town Park and has experience maintaining a beachfront site.

Primary town costs would involve the hiring of lifeguards if the beach is open to the public. He said he’d like the town to collect the entrance fee the state was charging to offset some of the maintenance expenses.

A cost analysis shows that the town would need to commit $100,000 to $150,000 a year to take over the park year-round, he said, though the bulk of those costs would be born during the summer.

The Wilson Town Board on Wednesday authorized Supervisor Joseph A. Jastrzemski to negotiate with the state on a plan to mow and maintain Wilson-Tuscarora State Park with state-provided equipment.

Jastrzemski said he’d ask the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to do a “first blitz” on the overgrown grass before the town picks up the routine mowing responsibilities at the park.

“I drove there on the weekend and saw a family with young children, toddlers, and there were no picnic tables and the grass was overgrown, and they were trying to have a picnic,” he said. “It was sad to see. Last week we had a couple hundred boaters here for a fishing tournament.”

The town also wants to reopen a small bathroom near the boat launch where boaters from Canada stop to check in at a Border Patrol phone as they come across Lake Ontario.

Jastrzemski said that because of the park closure, the state is not charging fees for the boat launch or park entry, resulting in lost revenue.

Aurora Town Supervisor Jolene M. Jeffe said the town is fortunate to have an existing agreement with the state to maintain the soccer fields area at Knox Farm State Park.

“We are continuing that arrangement,” she said.

Currently, however, there are no plans for the town to assume maintenance of the main portion of the 633-acre park, which features walking and bridle trails, as well as a gift shop and restroom facilities, which are closed, Jeffe said.