The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Council ponders parks, repairs
With green spaces badly in need of work, residents could consider a parks levy on the ballot in November, Lorain City Council members said.
But forming a nonprofit work group to support the parks, polling residents and forming a park plan will happen before any council vote on asking residents for money.
On Feb. 8, council held a work session to discuss the state of the parks.
Council members agreed summer workers and selling or divesting some of the green spaces could help. They also agreed Public Property Manager Lori Garcia and Public Property Department staff do the best they can with resources they have.
But without more employees and money, the park crews likely will continue in a status quo of mowing grass when they can, and dealing with resident complaints, but not much else to improve 800 acres spread over 56 parks.
The parks are a precious public resource where people connect to nature and engage their community, said Ward 3 Councilwoman Pamela Carter, chairwoman of the Parks & Recreation Committee.
“Sadly, our parks have taken a hard hit for many years and now is the time to make a plan and execute the plan,” Carter said. She praised Garcia and the crews for their hard work.
Over the last 22 years, figures from the Public Property Department show a steady decline in care for the city green spaces, Garcia said.
The parks crew numbered 23 workers, but that was 20 years ago. The total dropped to four, then none. The parks department has totaled about five or six employees a year for the last seven years or so, Garcia said.
For comparison, Lorain County Metro Parks has more staff just operating the north side of Lakeview Park, Garcia said.
She also provided sample costs for new amenities at the four major parks — Oakwood, Longfellow, Lakeview and Central. A dozen smaller parks could use new playground equipment totaling at least $50,000 per site, and there are costs from Elyria and Amherst for operating the pools in those cities.
“This is really impossible to continue like this and I think we all owe it to our citizens and to the city to do better,” Carter said. “This has been too long and we have to come up with a positive, solid plan, even if it becomes some kind of plan, a five-year plan so that people see it and we execute it.”
Rick Soto, chief of staff to Mayor Jack Bradley, outlined plans for a possible summer work program for people age 16 to 24.
Law Director Pat Riley and Mayor Jack Bradley explained how deed restrictions make it difficult just to give a park back to descendants of a donor from 100 years ago, or to put a “for sale” sign out in a park and sell it off.
Ward 7 Councilman Cory Shawver and Ward 8 Councilman Joshua Thornsberry, generally agreed those measures would help, but are not a long-term solution for dealing with parks.
Council members discussed the geography of Lorain and locations of parks.
Ward 1 Councilwoman Beth Henley and Ward 5 Councilwoman JoAnne Moon said children walk to parks in their wards on the east side and South Lorain, respectively.
But on Lorain’s west side, there are no parks for families to walk to, said Riley and Thornsberry. That happened because Lorain allowed subdivision developers to buy out the requirement to add green space when they built homes, Riley said.
That also will make a levy a tough sell on the west side, Thornsberry said.
The parks department has been understaffed for years. Just cutting grass is nearly impossible with the resources Lorain puts toward the parks, said Ward 6 Councilman Rey Carrion.
Lorain voters will consider multiple levies, such as those for the police and fire departments, Carrion said, who echoed comments from Counci-lwoman-at-Large Mary Springowski. He asked for an inventory of the parks, what is needed to maintain them and add programs, and how much a levy would raise.
Garcia said she would research creating a five-week day camp program for Lorain youths in the summer.