MILL CREEK METROPARKS Cuts will prevent fiscal crisis, officials say

Employee health care costs rose 20 percent in one year.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- The Mill Creek MetroParks district isn't in a budget emergency, but steps need to be taken now to avoid one in the future, park commissioners said Wednesday.
"We do not have a fiscal crisis at the park. What we do have is a very efficient budget system that shows us that we have to be very careful over the next couple of years that our expenses don't exceed our revenues. We are taking steps now to ensure that we are a fiscally responsible organization," said M. Virginia Dailey.
"All of our planning, budgeting and activities are being put in place to prevent us from ever having a fiscal crisis," Carl Nunziato added.
They made their remarks at the close of a 21/2-hour park commissioners' meeting, much of it devoted to public questions and comments about the park district's staffing and budget. Commissioner Harry Meshel was absent.
Park employees now pay nothing toward their health care premiums, but management is asking maintenance workers and police to begin making contributions toward those premiums, Nunziato said.
Costs up, revenues down
The cost of employee health care has risen 20 percent over the past year, commissioners said. Health care costs make up about $700,000 of the park's $10.3 million annual budget.
Meanwhile, treasurer David Christy said he received a letter from the Ohio Department of Taxation projecting that the park district's personal property tax revenues this year would be 9.3 percent below those of last year.
Several speakers in the audience expressed concern about the reduction of three park naturalists from full-time to part-time status, which the park administration has said is being done as part of a series of cost-cutting moves. Full-timers get health care coverage; part-timers don't.
"As a full-time position, you would get a better loyalty," and likely more motivation from an employee, compared with part-time, said Shelly VanMeter of Youngstown. "If I'm a part-time employee working somewhere, my heart really would not be into it. My heart would be into my full-time position," she added.
Programs and services at Yellow Creek Park, where a naturalist is being reduced from full- to part-time status, won't be interrupted or reduced. "Our hope is to even do a better job," Dailey said.
Other reductions
Besides the reduction of the three naturalists, an assistant manager in Mill Creek Park's Wick Recreation Area is being laid off, and employees living in park-owned housing will be moving out over the next year.
Full-time staff has been reduced from 84 to 69 employees since last year, with half of the reduction coming from resignations and retirements, said Susan Dicken, park district superintendent. As part of that reduction, four positions were switched to part time, she said.
"All departments have been affected," she added, noting that in park administration, three full-time jobs and one part-time job were abolished and two positions were merged.