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Miller resigns as Mill Creek MetroParks executive director
YOUNGSTOWN
Mill Creek MetroParks will be looking for new leadership as Executive Director Dennis Miller announced he will leave at year’s end.
The board accepted Miller’s resignation at a special meeting Monday. He has accepted the position of golf director at The Lake Club, a country club in Poland.
“I truly love the park. ... I wish everyone the best,” Miller said in a tearful address to the commissioners.
“I am truly appreciative of the opportunity the board of park commissioners has given me as executive director of Mill Creek MetroParks,” he said in his resignation letter. “I feel that I have accomplished so much in my tenure here at the MetroParks, but I have made the difficult decision that it is time for me to move on in my professional career.”
“I am confident that the new leader of Mill Creek MetroParks will carry on the great legacy left by Volney Rogers more than a century ago,” the letter reads.
The three commissioners who were present expressed sadness at Miller’s departure.
“I felt like I got punched in the gut, but he’s got to do what’s best for his family,” Commissioner Bob Durick said after the meeting adjourned.
“We couldn’t be more happy with what he’s done” for the MetroParks, said Lou Schiavoni, board president. “We’re very sad.”
Commissioner Valencia Marrow said she decided to run for a second term because Miller took over as executive director.
“It’s made the last couple years that I’ve served on this board more enjoyable,” she said.
Commissioners John Ragan and Jay Macejko were not present.
The board accepted Miller’s resignation in an hourlong executive session, which Durick said was spent mostly reminiscing about Miller’s years with the MetroParks.
Miller said it was his choice to leave, and that he could not turn down the position at The Lake Club.
“There’s not many positions I would leave the MetroParks for,” Miller said. “It was not an easy decision.”
“That’s truly my passion — golf,” he said.
He sees improvements to Mill Creek Golf Course, where he started working in 1998, as his legacy, he said in an interview with The Vindicator.
He served as head golf professional, golf director and then as executive director for the past two years.
Miller signed a five-year contract in March.
Under terms of the contract, Miller made an annual salary of $87,500. It stipulates that he give the board 90 days’ notice if he were to resign.
During Miller’s tenure as director of the MetroParks, he and the board were sharply criticized by some members of the community after 238 geese were euthanized in June.
“That had no bearing on my decision,” Miller said when Nancy Brundage, an attendee, expressed sadness that Miller was leaving and mentioned the hard times the MetroParks leadership had been going through.
Durick said during an interview that the board did not put any pressure on Miller to resign.
“We were actually hoping the opposite. ... There was absolutely nothing negative,” he said tearfully.
Miller said he would stay on as director until the end of this year.
“I’m hoping I’m leaving [the park] better than I found it,” Miller said.