PHOENIX € The Arizona Conservation Corps finished the 1994-95 fiscal year with 35 cents in the bank.

But this was a marked improvement over last January, when the corps was more than $200,000 in debt, said Jay Ziemann, legislative liaison for Arizona State Parks.

This is just one reason the State Parks Department no longer wants to be responsible for the troubled program. The department is supporting two bills at the state Legislature, one would move the corps program to the Game and Fish Department while the other would replace it with a new youth-oriented park's program.

The Arizona Conservation Corps was established in 1991 to employ youth to work on environmental conservation and community service projects. Ziemann said the corps was originally a rural-conservation program, but its focus changed to an inner-city youth program when it began receiving federal AmeriCorps dollars, which allow students to work on community service projects in underserved areas in exchange for scholarship aid.

The Arizona Conservation Corps was placed under the authority of the State Parks Department, but since its inception the way the program was administered was been flawed, Ziemann said. It was controlled by its own commission, which hired its own employees and the State Parks Department had no control over its budget, he said.

Ziemann said the State Parks Department prefers the adoption of Senate Bill 1344, which would transfer the corps to the Department of Game and Fish. The bill passed through the Senate and awaits committee assignment in the House.

The Game and Fish Department was approached by Gov. Fife Symington's office in late 1995 to take over the program, said Richard Stephenson, legislative liaison for game and fish. He said the department agreed to take the program only if the Arizona Conservation Corps resolves its administrative problems and changes its focus to coincide with the Game and Fish Department's program.

The Game and Fish Department would use the Arizona Conservation Corps for fish and wildlife habitat restoration, range improvement and emergency disaster assistance, Stephenson said.

The bill states that game and fish would not use money acquired from the purchase of hunting and fishing licenses to fund the corps. Stephenson said the corps must come up with its own operating funds for game and fish to absorb it.

If Senate Bill 1344 fails in the House, the State Parks Department would support House Bill 2400, which would repeal the Arizona Conservation Corps and replace it with a new program that would remain under the State Parks Department.

William Roe, chairman of the Arizona State Parks Board, said unraveling this "can of worms" has been enormously time consuming. He said the Arizona Conservation Corps "effectively went bankrupt" and the State Parks Department is begging legislators to either change the program to be consistent with the department or allow it to go elsewhere.

House Bill 2400 would establish an Arizona Parks Ranger Corps. Sue Black, chief of operations for the State Parks Department, designed the Ranger Corps program and said it would be more in line with the goals of the park system. Instead of sending out crews of six to 10 youths, the new program would be based on a one-on-one interaction between the youths and park personnel.

The Ranger Corps would provide an internship program for college students and a mentorship program for high school-age students interested in park service. The students would work from three months to one year in a state park.

Roe said if the State Parks Department adopted the Ranger Corps program it would be on a small, experimental basis and use funds remaining in the Arizona Conservation Corps account to fund it. If the program proved successful, Roe said, the department would try to get a legislative appropriation, but he said it would be premature to assume a new youth program will come anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Conservation Corps continues to operate, but with a limited budget and no full-time employees. It received $227,000 from the general fund for fiscal year 1995-96, said Leslie Schwalbe, assistant director for the State Parks Department.

Roe was appointed last year by the Arizona Conservation Corps commission to oversee the organization and the State Parks Department is working to unravel the financial problems.