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Park system standardizes logo, upgrades web site
A New Look
CANFIELD
As Mill Creek Metroparks approaches the expiration of the 15-year countywide levy that supplies about two-thirds of the park district’s operating budget, the district is engaged in numerous new community-awareness initiatives.
A new, high-level supervisory position also has been created to coordinate its activities.
The awareness initiatives include a modern tree-themed logo; an upgrade to the park website that is designed to make it more user-friendly and easier to navigate; and the $25,000 purchase of a 26-year-old trolley that will take the public on Mill Creek
Park tours beginning next spring.
“We wanted to define one brand and one logo for the MetroParks and the key facilities, so you’ll see a very unified look,” said Samantha L. Villella, hired as the MetroParks’ full-time community-engagement director in March.
Previously, different facilities within the park system used a variety of visual symbols, she said.
First introduced at the Canfield Fair, the new logo is now on MetroParks letterhead and will gradually be added to park signs and vehicles, she said. The logo, which features a single tree instead of the four trees on the old logo, will be used consistently at all park facilities countywide, she said.
Facilities operated by the park district are Mill Creek Park in Youngstown and Boardman, the MetroParks Bikeway in Austintown and Canfield, Yellow Creek Park in Struthers, the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve in Coitsville Township, the MetroParks Farm and Sawmill Creek Preserve in Canfield, the Vickers Nature Preserve and Buckeye Horse Park in Ellsworth and Sebring Woods.
Designed for mobile viewing on smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices, the website upgrade incorporates the park district’s social-media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter.
It will soon allow visitors to register for park programs on the website, said Dennis Miller, park executive director.
The website upgrade, which cost $6,942, was paid for by the non-profit Mill Creek Park Foundation, which raises money for the park system.
The 1.75-mill real-estate tax levy, which passed in 2002 and generates about $6.5 million in annual revenue, will expire at the end of 2016.
It likely will be put on the ballot as a renewal, but the form the levy takes is up to park trustees, said Kevin Smith, MetroParks treasurer and administrative services director.
“We would have to close our doors without the levy,” Smith said. The earliest the new park levy could go on the ballot would be in the fall of 2015, he added.
The unified identity likely will assist with levy passage by helping voters recognize all park facilities they use as part of a single, countywide system, Smith said.
In addition to its levy revenues, the park district receives income from fees for activities such as golfing and boating, pavilion rentals and state funds.
A Youngstown State University scientific random sample mail and telephone survey with 574 responses from Mahoning County residents showed support was soft for a levy renewal with only 48.7 percent of respondents saying they’d vote for it and an additional 24.2 percent saying they might vote for it.
When asked about a second levy for park capital improvements, those percentages were 27.2 and 27.1 percent, respectively.
The survey, whose results are contained in the park district’s January 2013 strategic master plan, had a 4.9 percent margin of error.
The park district wants to convey the message that it serves the entire county, including the western end of the county, where Sebring Woods is among the park district’s newer property acquisitions, Smith said.
“We want them to feel that they’re getting a benefit from their tax dollars,” he said of residents of western Mahoning County, where opposition to the park tax arose in past countywide levy campaigns.
Although Mill Creek Park was founded in 1891, the countywide metropolitan park district that bears its name was created in 1989 with passage of the first countywide park levy.
Sometime in 2014, park trustees will likely decide the type and duration of the levy and when it will go on the ballot, Miller said.
Villella’s $57,200-a-year position, which reports directly to Miller, was created “because we knew there was a need to get our message out,” Miller said.
Villella supervises the graphics, fundraising, marketing, education and recreation activities of the park to assure consistency in these functions, Miller explained.
Before taking her park position, Villella was engaged in fundraising and alumni relations as director of advancement at Cardinal Mooney High School in Youngstown.
Although Villella’s job was newly created, Smith said overall payroll costs are down $224,529 from Jan. 1 to the present for this year, compared with what they were for the same period last year.
Smith said he expects this year’s total payroll costs to be just under $5 million. The park district’s annual operating budget is just under $10 million. The park district has been cutting payroll costs by not replacing some employees who leave and by replacement of others who leave with new hires at lower salaries, he said.