The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Lorain officials say parks levy needed now
Upgrades, programming will benefit children, families, will help city improve
Lorain voters on Nov. 2 will decide on spending more money for the city’s parks and recreational programming.
Lorain City Council and the city administration are asking voters to consider a five-year, 1.5-mill additional levy that would raise about $1.33 million a year for parks and recreation.
The levy would cost $52.50 a year per $100,000 of residential property valuation.
The levy will appear as Issue 9 on the ballot in Lorain.
The theme of the levy campaign is “Lorain Parks — Safe & Healthy,” said Mayor Jack Bradley.
In Lorain and around Ohio, people flocked to green spaces to get outside while maintaining safe social distances during the lockdown and isolation periods of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“And during this time of COVID, the safe and healthy alternative to staying indoors is to visit our parks, and we have discovered that our parks are more important than ever in helping us stay safe and healthy,” Bradley said.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Pamela Carter is chairwoman of the Friends of Lorain Parks levy committee and she said her message is simple: “Vote yes on Issue 9. If you want better parks, we have to pass this levy.”
In the wards
Ward 7 Councilman Cory Shawver is the parks levy committee treasurer.
Shawver argued Ward 7 has Lorain’s most underfunded green space: Lakeview Park.
The city manages the southern area.
But it is in a neighborhood that generally does not qualify for federal Community Development Block Grant money for improving low- to moderate-income areas, Shawver said.
He praised Public Property Manager Lori Garcia for her work and for agreeing Lakeview Park South is critically underfunded, even neglected.
“There’s obviously other parks, it’s just, that’s just the one I harp on, because it’s my ward,” Shawver said.
In February, Garcia used North Lakeview Park as an example in her analysis of the city Parks Department.
North Lakeview Park, managed by Lorain County Metro Parks, has more employees than the entire city Parks Department, which has up to six workers a year using old equipment just to keep the grass mowed, Garcia
said.
Six workers is not enough just to cut grass, pick up trash and maintain equipment and bathrooms across Lorain, Carter said.
She called the situation “ludicrous.”
“We only have six workers, they can only do so much with 50-something parks,” Carter said. “It takes money.
“We need the funding to
be able to do that.”
Survey says
The current levy is fashioned to cost the average homeowner less than $5 a month to have safe and healthy parks in Lorain, Bradley said.
As the pandemic conditions subside, times still are hard for some people, Carter said.
She added she feels the
levy amount is affordable.
It’s also what Lorainites themselves said they would support, according to a survey from earlier this year.
From March 1 to April 15, the city administration, working with consultant Zencity, posted a survey of Lorain residents to gauge public support for a parks levy.
The executive summary stated most respondents visit Lorain parks at least once a month.
More respondents were dissatisfied than satisfied with park maintenance, programming and amenities.
As for paying for new programs or amenities, 769 respondents, or 62 percent of 1,309 responses, said they would support “a city plan to invest in park beautification and improvements, paid for by a new tax that costs your family $5 per month.”
“The citizen buy-in was important to us because we want to see it pass, and because we’ve gotten so much feedback over the years regarding getting something done for our parks,” Shawver said.
Five years and counting
The levy also has a fiveyear term, so citizens will have some time to see progress, Carter said.
During that term, the city officials and staff will continue searching out grant money, community partnerships and other financial resources to help the parks, she said.
“I want people to feel proud about what we’re doing here,” Carter said. “But, we also have to work toward making them proud.”