PUEBLO - Colorado needs to spend about $150 million to repair and upgrade its 41 state parks, so the parks board has scheduled a retreat for Sept. 21 to brainstorm new funding ideas.

The board's five members will convene in the Denver area in hopes Natural Resources Department Director Harris Sherman will attend. The goal is to keep parks open to the public and primed for tourism.

"The state legislature doesn't seem to give our parks much value," said Chairman Tom Ready at the parks board meeting Friday at Lake Pueblo State Park. "But people visit Colorado for the scenery and the parks, not the roads."

About 11 million people visit Colorado parks every year, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

The $150 million maintenance backlog is only an estimate, as many of the jobs have not been bid.

One of those projects, for example, is a sewage treatment lagoon east of the Lake Pueblo dam. The water system now serving park users is 25 years old and wearing out.

Over the past 15 years, parks system growth has outpaced its funding from the legislature, said parks Deputy Director Gary Thorson. Where the system once relied on the state general fund for 30 percent of its budget, it now gets about 17 percent. The rest - almost 83 percent - comes from park fees.

Fees will increase Sept. 5 and that's as high as park officials want them to go. The daily vehicle pass, for example, will go from $5 to $6. Annual passes will jump from $55 to $60.

"We feel we're at the right level with the fees," Thorson said. "We want to keep parks accessible to the average Coloradan, so we've got to look at other funding sources."

Board member Tom Glass said the legislature needs to step up with more funds to be on par with other states. The average state park system gets 42 percent of its money from general funds.

Ready said he doesn't know where to get more money and hopes to hear some new options at the retreat. The parks department will need to make tough decisions by early next year and closing some parks on a full- or part-time basis is an option.

"We need to keep our parks open because they have a huge value to the neighborhood as well as the rest of the state," he said.

By the numbers

41 parks are part of the state parks system.

$150 million is the estimated amount needed to repair and upgrade the parks.

11 million people visit state parks annually.

$6 is the new cost of a daily vehicle pass.