Allegheny County has an impressive public recreation system. In nine parks outside the city of Pittsburgh, it boasts 12,000 acres of picnic groves, swimming pools, golf courses, ice skating, skiing and other ways to enjoy the outdoors.

But a system so extensive is constantly bedeviled by challenges. Not only does it cost $21 million a year to operate (with three-quarters, fortunately, funded by the 1 percent Regional Asset District sales tax), but it also faces unexpected headaches.

Last week, for instance, two tons of ceiling in the Tudor mansion open to the public at Hartwood Acres caved in, forcing the building to close indefinitely. And regular patrons of North Park don't have to read an Army Corps of Engineers study to know that the lake there is disappearing; without human intervention, it could be gone in 15 or 20 years.

It's all in a day's work for director Andy Baechle and the Parks Department, which was separated, wisely, from the county's public works operation in 2003. But the parks' comprehensive master plan, completed three years ago, put forth solutions and ideas for the system that have never been implemented.

County Councilman Vince Gastgeb is getting impatient. Other council members should, too. Although suggestions like hiring a professional director, splitting parks from public works and naming an advisory parks commission have been adopted, other measures -- particularly creating a nonprofit group to raise money for the parks -- have not.

The city is way ahead of the county in that regard, with its nonprofit Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, which has collected $20 million for four city parks since 1997.

County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, County Council and Mr. Baechle have to dust off the master plan and put more of it into practice. Or else Allegheny County's parks will become a time capsule from the 1990s.