Park friends discuss what to do to save lakes

July 26, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Since he was a child, Chance Metz had enjoyed hundreds of hiking expeditions with his father near and around Mill Creek MetroParks’ three main lakes, as well as the Lily Pond.

The downside to his forays, however, has been the increasingly unmistakable foul smell of sewage coming from lakes Newport, Cohasset and Glacier – and the knowledge that the three popular fishing and boating areas will be closed until further notice.

“To begin with, this should never have happened in the first place,” the Austintown man said, referring to what he sees as a result of Youngstown’s combined sanitary-sewer and storm overflows and discharges into the lakes. “Volney Rogers predicted this would happen, and he was right.”

Metz, a member of a group called Save the Wildlife at Mill Creek Park, was one of about 20 people who attended Saturday’s Save Our Lakes picnic near the park’s Silver Bridge.

The two-hour informational gathering was to discuss what attendees believe needs to be done to address and correct some of the park’s problems and challenges and to preserve its natural beauty.

Park officials closed the three lakes July 10 after water-sample lab test results found elevated E. coli levels in Lake Newport. Sewer-system upgrades could cost $146 million and take up to 18 years to complete, city and park officials have said.

It’s also incumbent upon the park board and staff to place a higher priority on Mill Creek MetroParks’ overall ecosystem and environment, said Gina Centofanti of Austintown, another Save the Wildlife member.

“We want the people in power to know that the community expects them to take better care of this piece of heaven,” said Centofanti, who grew up near the park.

Along those lines, she called for tighter communications among park departments, a concrete wildlife-management policy and to fill the position of natural-resources manager, which has been vacant since late 2013.

Despite the nature of the sewage discharges, a comprehensive emergency policy was not in place to handle the problem, Centofanti said, adding that more pressure should have been brought to bear on the city to take preventive measures or speed up sewer-system repairs.

Nevertheless, Centofanti stressed that she neither blames park officials for the longtime discharges into the lakes nor wants to treat them as adversaries. Instead, her group hopes to work with the board to protect the park’s natural resources and offerings, she continued.

“We want to take the past and use it as an example, and learn the lessons of what went wrong and make improvements for the future,” Centofanti added.

Also, it’s imperative that park, city and county officials work more closely together with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s support to try to tackle the park’s problems and secure grants for the effort, noted Jim Villani, who recalled having hiked in Mill Creek MetroParks as a child during the 1950s.

Villani, who owns Pig Iron Press and Lost Pages Bookstore in downtown Youngstown, added that the area can’t afford to wait any longer to get the project done.