The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Community Center will remain open without staff
Mayor Robert Weger confirms center is open in recording
The Willoughby Hills Community Center, despite not having any staff, will remain open to the community.
Residents who called the community center between April 30 and May 1 received a recording telling them that because of staffing issues, the community center would be closed effective April 30 and they would not be accepting any contracts for room rentals. During the evening of May 1, the recording was changed by Mayor Robert Weger to say the center is open.
It will serve as a polling location for the May 8 election, as it
previously has.
Rooms are still available to rent for private and community functions, but must go through the Finance Department at City Hall until staffing issues at the center are resolved, Weger said.
Information about booking rooms at the center and rental agreements are available during city hall’s normal business hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The mayor said he will be the one to open up the rooms, make sure renters have everything they need and then he will leave and periodically come back to check in throughout the event.
“We do the setup still the same way, Weger said. “We put the tables up, and the chairs up. Everything will still run the same, except for going to finance to do contracts.”
All scheduled events and rentals are still taking place with the exception of the “Three Media Show,” which was scheduled to open with
an artists’ reception May 11.
“We won’t be having the art exhibit because the artists don’t feel confident that there is not staff in the building to guard the art because their paintings are expensive,” Weger said.
Weger says he will work on filling positions at the community center after the grievances filed by the union employees are settled.
According to the mayor, all community center positions are union and there are no part-time, non-union positions he can fill in the meantime.