Rally kicks off 1.5-mill park levy

Effort to raise $1.3M a year for five years to improve parks

Lorain city officials have learned plenty and continue to learn as a result of Covid-19.

One takeaway has been the community of approximately 65,000 likes its parks, wants them serviced better, and also wants more recreation opportunities for younger residents.

With that in mind, city officials placed on the November ballot Issue 9, a 5-year, 1.5-mill levy that if passed will generate about $1.3 million a year for city parks and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $5 a month or $60 year, according to city officials.

“We want to make sure that our parks are in the best kind of condition they can be so people are willing to come out to parks,” Mayor Jack Bradley said on Sept. 19 at a rally for Issue 9 at Sgt. Samuel L. Felton Central Park.

Bradley, who grew up in Lorain, said he can recall in his youth every park being staffed with two collegeaged students during the summer. He’d like something similar to be developed with the money raised from the levy.

“They ran programing. They coached the baseball. We had park leagues for baseball, soccer camps,” Bradley said of what used to be in Lorain.

Under its structure, the parks department has just five full-time workers.

“We did a public opinion poll and people said they want to see our parks improve and they would be willing to pay an extra five bucks a month to see our parks improved. The people spoke and we are trying to listen,” said Bradley.

One parks employee said department’s offerings in recent years have been “sadly lacking” but that would change with a levy passage.

Rally attendees, which in the first hour of the twohour event were few, dined on free hot dogs and soft drinks, which were provided via a donation from Meijer. Lorain firefighters grilled the hot dogs and also provided the potato chips. A DJ played dance music as volunteers assembled Issue 9 yard signs.

Pam Carter, a councilwoman from Ward 3 who chairs the Parks and Rec Committee, and Mitch Fallis, Council-at-Large and former Parks chair, both strongly support Issue 9. The city operates 54 parks, according to Carter.

Fallis said money raised from the levy would go for operations, capital improvements, a park director and additional employees.

The additional money raised from the levy, if passed, coupled with the parks and rec’s current funding would raise its annual budget to a total of $1.9 million a year, which is in line with cities similar in size to Lorain, he said.

“It’s an appropriate level of funding for a parks department with a city that has 65,000 residents,” said Fallis.