MILL CREEK METROPARKS Board begins its search for new superintendent

Schollaert's retirement letter followed the board's 2-1 reversal of his decision to fire a park employee.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- The search has begun for a replacement for William J. Schollaert, Mill Creek MetroParks superintendent since 1981, who will be leaving by midyear and moving to Arizona.
Harry Meshel, president of the board of park commissioners, said the search began a week ago and he would like to make it a national search. A letter is being distributed to MetroParks employees to see if any of them are interested in the position, and the park has placed ads in state park association publications and on a state park association Web site, he said.
"We're looking for someone with at least a degree in park management or related experience, extensive knowledge and experience in wildlife, forestry and park management," including budget and personnel management, Meshel said Tuesday. Meshel, former Ohio Senate president, said he had contacted Sam Speck, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, to obtain names of potential candidates.
Retirement letter: Schollaert, a native of Atlasburg, Pa., who became Mill Creek Park's recreation director in 1973, declared his intention to retire in a letter to park commissioners dated Feb. 8. In that letter, which the board acknowledged at its March 4 meeting, Schollaert said that he thought his last day would be May 31 and that he would not work past June 28.
The letter followed a 2-1 vote by the park commissioners Jan. 29 to reinstate John Balestra, assistant MetroParks maintenance director, with full back pay after Schollaert fired Balestra Jan. 18.
Balestra remains on probation pending an independent fact-finder's report concerning his discharge, according to M. Virginia Dailey, park commissioner, who joined Meshel in reinstating Balestra. Meshel and Dailey declined to go into details about why Schollaert fired Balestra and why commissioners voted to reinstate him.
Jac Lynn Ridel, who cast the dissenting vote, said she didn't think the park board should have reinstated Balestra because park bylaws give the executive director the authority to hire and fire. Ridel would only say that Schollaert considered Balestra's job performance inadequate.
Schollaert, who had earlier said he planned to leave by December 2002, said at the time of the reinstatement that he thought the board had lost confidence in him, and therefore he planned to retire May 31, Meshel said.
Praise: "He added so much to the park. I think we'll have a hard time replacing him. We have a unique park. And I think a lot of it has to do with the things he's done," Ridel said. Schollaert, who lives in a park-owned house, will be moving to Arizona.
"Bill has been an excellent executive director. He has taken the park successfully through many difficult periods, and he is leaving the park district in the best standing it's ever enjoyed," Dailey said.
"He oversaw the development of the park in a variety of ways over the past 20 years," Meshel said.
Asked to list the park's accomplishments under Schollaert's administration, Dailey cited the expansion of the park district to countywide status with a countywide property tax levy in 1989; substantial park land acquisition; construction of the Morley Pavilion, MetroParks Bikeway, and Fellows Riverside Gardens' Davis Center, and the Newport Wetlands, and reconstruction of Birch Hill Cabin.
Ridel added to the list the development of the Mahoning County Experimental Farm in Canfield, restoration of the Old Mill, construction of the covered bridge at the Old Mill and golf course improvements. Meshel added the acquisition of the William Holmes McGuffey nature preserve in Coitsville Township.
Dailey said Schollaert told her he wanted to stay until after the park's 1.75-mill, 15-year countywide replacement levy passed last November. "He wanted to make sure that the park was left in good standing," Dailey said.
Schollaert could not be reached to comment Tuesday afternoon.