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Boardman Park faces financial obstacles to "necessary improvements"
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Slagle
BOARDMAN
Recent visitors to Boardman Park probably have not noticed anything different about the township’s “green oasis.”
The park administration and staff have worked hard to maintain the park’s quality despite financial difficulties, said Dan Slagle, park executive director.
A combination of factors has left the park with a strained budget in the past five or so years, preventing the staff from making any improvements or keeping up with some of the basic needs of the 227-acre space.
One of those factors is a decrease in state funding for the park, beginning in 2010.
“In 2009, we were getting $100,000 from the state, reimbursing us for the personal-property tax loss,” Slagle said, referring to a state tax that was eliminated in 2009. The state reimburses local governments for the loss of that tax, but the reimbursement rate has decreased year to year.
This year, the park received a $20,168 reimbursement for the personal-property tax loss.
State funding for local governments also has dropped.
Boardman Park received more than $80,000 in local government funds in 2009. That number dropped to about $50,000 in 2012 and to about $36,000 this year.
The losses actually are higher, Slagle said, because there are other factors that have put a strain on the budget.
“The impact of the loss of state funding [is] coupled with a dramatic increase in attendance, which has increased our operating costs,” Slagle said. “The more people in the park increases the wear and tear, increases the maintenance, and all that reflects on the budget.”
In 2009, the park had an annual attendance of about 300,000 people. Attendance increased to about 450,000 people in 2013, Slagle said.
The increase in attendance has resulted in increased spending on supplies, maintenance and repairs, utilities, programming, insurance and employee costs, Slagle said.
For instance, the park administration spent $30,000 on supplies in 2009, and $65,000 on supplies so far this year.
Total employee costs also have increased by about 8 percent, from about $650,000 in 2009 to $715,000 in 2014, despite a staff reduction of three full-time, two part-time and three seasonal positions through attrition.
Slagle said the increase is because the park’s limited staff — 10 full-time and four part-time employees — has to work overtime to keep up with the increase in visitors.
Another factor in the budgetary constraints, Slagle said, is that the park has been operating on the same two voted levies for the past 35 years that bring in about $750,000 each year.
The park’s board has not discussed putting a new levy on the ballot, commissioner Joyce Mistovich said. A renewal levy, however, “is something that the commissioners are looking at for next year,” she said.
The result is “we have very few resources to allocate to capital expenditures, or even repair and maintenance projects,” Slagle said.
Capital projects on hold include completing renovation of the Community Center, building public restrooms at the Maag Outdoor Arts Theatre, creating a historical Village Green and renovating the main public restrooms.
The park administration also has a long list of short-term projects, including repairing the brick walk near the Detchon House, sealing cracks and patching holes on the tennis courts, resurfacing some of the nature trails and many others.
“We don’t want to build a Taj Mahal,” Slagle said. “But we want to make improvements that are necessary to maintain the infrastructure of the park.”
In the meantime, “We are going to continue ... doing everything that we do currently,” Mistovich said. “We want to maintain what we currently do and continue to share with our community all the benefits of Boardman Park.”