Mill Creek MetroParks board to have special meeting tonight

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mill Creek MetroParks Board of Commissioners will have a special meeting at 6 tonight at which the board will go into executive session to discuss finding a new executive director.

The current director, Dennis Miller, announced his resignation at a special board meeting Sept. 29, where he told commissioners he would be leaving to take a job as golf director at The Lake Club in Poland.

Lou Schiavoni, board president, said the board is still in the early phases of the process and will not take action at the meeting, which will be at the Birch Hill Cabin in Mill Creek Park.

The board will discuss whether it will open the application process to external candidates, Schiavoni said. He said he has heard of several internal and external candidates who may be interested in the position.

The board also will have a regularly scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. next Tuesday at the Yellow Creek Lodge in Struthers, after which Schiavoni said the commissioners should have a better idea of which candidates they will consider.

Miller, who has worked at the MetroParks for nearly 17 years and took over as executive director in 2012, signed a five-year contract in March.

He makes an annual salary of $87,500 and gets seven weeks of paid vacation per year.

Miller said he plans to stay on as director through December, and Schiavoni said Miller offered to stay into January if the board needs him.