METROPARKS Mill Creek schedules employee cutbacks

Park services will be maintained, a spokeswoman said.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- Mill Creek MetroParks will be laying off a full-time employee at the Wick Recreation Area and reducing three naturalists from full- to part-time status over the next six months in a cost-cutting move.
"What we're trying to do is stay within our budget: Not spend more than we bring in," said Carol Potter, MetroParks director of development and marketing. The cutbacks are the result of lagging property-tax receipts and declining state assistance to the park, she explained Monday.
When the full-time recreation area employee's job is abolished, the park will give more work hours to seasonal employees to compensate for the lost position, she said. The recreation area, located in the west end of Mill Creek Park, contains Morley Pavilion, a sled hill, the Par 3 Golf Course and several other athletic facilities.
Of the three naturalists whose status is being reduced from full to part time, one is based at Yellow Creek Park in Struthers, another is based at the MetroParks Farm in Canfield, and a third is based at Mill Creek Park's Ford Nature Education Center in Youngstown, Potter said. The naturalists conduct educational programs.
High cost of benefits
"What's driving that is the high cost of benefits," especially health care benefits, Potter said, noting that full-timers get health care benefits and part-timers don't. The park district will be increasing the hours of some part-timers to compensate for the hours lost in reducing the three naturalists from full- to part-time status, she said.
"We will be maintaining our services here so our visitors have first-rate experiences in the MetroParks," Potter said. Naturalists will still conduct programs in the parks and at the schools, but there will be more emphasis now on children's coming to the parks, she said.
To encourage more visitors, the farm in Canfield is now open on certain days for visitors to see on their own, rather than having to wait for a guided tour to be offered, she said.
Living in the park
In another cost-cutting move, park employees who have been living in park-owned homes will be moving out of them and acquiring their own quarters elsewhere, she added. At some time next year, all will have moved out, she said.
"These economic times demand efficiency, and we're responding in a very responsible manner because the Mahoning County taxpayers entrusted us with these tax dollars. So we've got to make it work," she concluded.
milliken@vindy.com