New Mill Creek director takes it all in

Special to the Vindicator

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Clarke Johnson, newly appointed executive director of Mill Creek MetroParks, has spent his first few months getting acquainted with the system.

‘No such thing as an average day,’ Johnson says

By Christopher Cotelesse

TheNewsOutlet.org

BOARDMAN

The weathered sandstone of Lanterman’s Mill was cut from the earth even before Volney Rogers established Mill Creek Park in 1891. That foundation has outlasted all of the park’s managers since Volney’s brother, Bruce, became the first superintendent.

Newly appointed Executive Director Clarke Johnson sometimes walks the trail here to relax, but he doesn’t play favorites with the park’s facilities.

“You can’t ask a parent which one of his children is the best,” he said.

He has spent his first few months getting acquainted with the MetroParks system, going over budgets and trying to piece together a vision for the parks.

“It’s everywhere right now. Everybody I’ve talked to has a particular interest in a particular part, whether it’s the lily park or the mill or the gardens or the farm,” he said.

Keith Kaiser, horticulture director, emphasized the purpose of the gardens as a “public display garden.” His goal is to exhibit different plants from the private gardens of Northeast Ohio as well as new hybrids made by professional growers.

“That helps connect that whole circle of new plants we are displaying to the public, and then the home gardener sees them and they are purchasing them,” he said.

Park Commissioner Lou Schiavoni has his own goals aimed at maintaining the urban areas and expanding them into the suburbs. He suggested developing recently acquired wetlands near U.S. Route 224.

“The inner-city part of the park is, I think, the most beautiful part,” he said.

Johnson is in charge of consolidating the differing views as well as coordinating the facilities of Mill Creek MetroParks, including its own police force.

“It’s basically like running a little city,” Schiavoni said.

Johnson summed up his duties with a reference to his job description, “and everything else assigned,” he said smiling. “No such thing as an average day.”

He sees his responsibility as “being a steward of the park system, of the natural resource.”

MetroParks embodies what he loves most about his field: everything.

“What’s so nice about Mill Creek is that it’s so eclectic. We’ve got golf courses, the mill, the sanctuary, the horse park, the farm, the gardens. I mean, there’s just a tremendous amount of outdoor recreational activity facilities to share with the people.”

His work so far hasn’t all been a walk in the park. His office is facing more than a half-million dollars in cuts to the budget over the next three years.

Johnson is working closely with his staff to design creative solutions.

“He’s coming in with fresh eyes, and that helps look around and make some cuts that maybe we would have missed,” recreation and programs director Tom Bresko said.

What Johnson called “one of the simplest solutions” was to remove pay phones from the pavilions because of the popularity of cellphones.

MetroParks also is saving money by continuing a 5 percent cut to part-time and seasonal hours and by negotiating with unions to pass some health-care costs onto workers.

“Safety first, though. We’re not cutting any corners on reducing our services when it comes to safety,” Johnson said.

“It’s the old clich — we’re going to have to learn to do more with less,” Bresko said.

Besides problems caused by budgets and politics are those inherent to maintaining the second-largest metropolitan park in the country.

“The park is an old park, 120 years old, and it’s in need of major infrastructure repairs — roads, buildings, that kind of stuff,” Bresko said.

There is no plan yet, but Bresko said the issue will need to be addressed at some point.

Johnson is trying to plug the budget gap, in part, by relying more heavily on partnerships.

Organizations such as the Youngstown Area Multiple Sclerosis Services Agency have used the park’s facilities to have fundraisers. Every year, YMCA sponsors the Community Cup, which promotes physical fitness.

“We benefit, too, because we get to help a nonprofit agency, and then they bring in users,” Bresko said.

MetroParks also collaborates with local businesses. Barry Dyngles restaurant provides concessions at the golf course, which obtained a beer permit this year.

Despite obstacles both new and old, Johnson isn’t looking to overhaul the way business is done at MetroParks.

“I’ve been hired to be the coach of an already winning team. They’ve spent a lot of time. They’ve got a great playbook ... so to come in and make any significant changes in an already fantastic system would just really not serve anybody’s purpose.”

He began his career at 14, mowing lawns and maintaining baseball diamonds in a Columbus park system. Johnson, now 59, believes he and his staff can handle any problem they may face with more than 100 years of combined experience.

“We’re full of battlefield technology on how to get through these slings and arrows and shots. We’ve worked through it in the past, and we’ll continue to work through it in the future. We just got to figure out the next chess move,” he said.

He said he hopes to be involved with parks forever, but it is likely that the historic structures of Mill Creek Park will be standing long after his time here is over.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU Radio and The Vindicator.