Youngstown’s new parks chief will have to face fiscal realities

The Youngstown Park and Rec- reaction Department has operated with $3.1 million from city government’s general fund and $250,000 from the Youngstown Community Development Agency. The new North Side swimming pool was built with $1.28 million from the city’s treasury. This at a time of great economic uncertainty, an anemic income tax base, a troubled school system and a shrinking population. We point that out to spotlight the challenges confronting the new director of parks and recreation, Robert Burke, whose first day on the job will be Monday.

Burke’s r sum suggests that he will be up to the task of operating a department in a city with some seemingly intractable problems, such as crime. He has the experience and the educational background, and possesses one other attribute that his predecessor did not have: Expertise in writing grants.

That certainly will come in handy, as city government deals with some potential fiscal hurdles. For instance, the expected closing of the U.S. Postal Service’s processing and distribution operation in the central post office in downtown Youngstown would mean a loss of $500,000 in income taxes. There could be as many of 500 jobs lost. In addition, the North Side Post Office could close.

In the face of such uncertainties, we advised the park and recreation commission and Mayor Charles Sammarone to handle the hiring of a new director with care.

We noted last August that the park department had been without a chief for four years and reminded city officials of the reason: In May 2007, then Mayor Jay Williams determined that the city could not afford to hire a director after Joseph McRae left and, thus, appointed mayoral chief of staff and secretary, Jason Whitehead, to serve as interim director.

Whitehead did a good job of bringing stability to the department, after McRae’s controversial tenure, and oversaw the opening of the North Side pool.

We supported Williams’ decision to leave the director’s post unfilled and joined in his criticism of the way McRae ran the department. Like the mayor, we also had concerns about the park commission’s performance of its statutory duties.

But after Williams resigned as mayor to take a position with the Obama administration, Charles Sammarone, who was president of council at the time, became the city’s chief executive.

Change in direction

Sammarone did not share his predecessor’s belief that the park department can operate effectively without a full-time director and, thus, gave his blessing to the park commission to hire someone. There were 56 applicants, and Burke, former operations manager/overnight supervisor at the NorthEast Ohio Community Alternative Program, a correctional facility in Warren, and former director of the Newton Falls Community Center, a 15-hour -a-week job, was hired.

Burke met with members of Youngstown City Council on Monday and seemed to impress them with his commitment of meet and even exceed the high expectations set by the lawmakers.

Councilwoman Janet Tarpley, D-6th, vice chairwoman of the parks and grounds committee, raised an important issue when she questioned Burke’s experience in working with urban youth.

The challenges confronting young people in the city of Youngstown require all the entities that touch their lives, including the city schools system, to come up with programs, especially during the summer, that develop their bodies and their minds.