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Mill Creek MetroParks seeks 15-year levy renewal with additional millage
If the Levy went Dry
Video
Aaron Young explains the upcoming levy and how it will impact Mill Creek MetroParks.
YOUNGSTOWN
Mill Creek MetroParks officials are asking Mahoning County voters Nov. 3 to approve a renewal levy with additional millage.
Those additional funds would go to capital improvements, park officials say, while renewed funds would provide more than 70 percent of the revenue used to operate the park district.
The single ballot measure that voters will see is a 15-year, 1.75-mill renewal levy paired with an additional 0.25-mill that would generate roughly $7.6 million annually, about $1 million more than the current levy – the park district’s only operating levy – generates.
Park officials say approval is essential for the park’s continued operation; some opponents, however, say they will vote “no” because they do not believe park leaders have been good stewards of their tax dollars.
WHAT IF
Park officials say if the levy is not approved, visitors and employees will see major changes.
“If it isn’t ultimately approved, it has a devastating impact because $7 million out of our $10 million budget comes from that levy,” said Louis Schiavoni, park board president. “From limiting our police force to limiting some of the park functions, such as the cabins, to our farm activities – a lot of activities that are currently free would have to be eliminated’’ or come with a fee.
Aaron Young, executive director of MCMP, said some type of change might happen in any case.
Young would like to increase activity fees, which provide roughly 23 percent of the park district’s general- fund dollars. He says revenue from activity fees has remained flat, about $2 million per year for the past decade.
Other foreseeable changes, he said, are staff cuts and salary rates.
He said that if the park is asking for more money, taxpayers should be able to expect a leaner, more efficient administration.
Being leaner, he says, means, “Less overhead. Whether that’s materials and supplies, or salaries and wages, we need to re-evaluate everything we do and how we do it.”
That means that even if the levy is approved, cuts – including to staff – are a possibility. Young, however, would like to introduce raises since MCMP staff members have not had them since 2009.
The MetroParks employs about 65 full-time, 100 part-time and 110 seasonal employees.
The park board chose between four levy options: a renewal, a 1.75-mill replacement, a renewal plus additional and a replacement with additional millage.
“We’ve gotten the most questions about, why this option? Why not just a renewal, or why not a replacement?” Young said. “Replacement would have cost the taxpayers more, but would have gotten us two-thirds less.”
Young said the renewal allows residents to keep paying based on 2001 property values and to maintain the rollbacks they currently get, and the additional millage at today’s property values allows the park to meet its capital improvement needs over the next 15 years.
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS
Mill Creek MetroParks spans more than 5,000 acres, traverses 12 municipalities, and encompasses 20 miles of roads, 21 acres of parking, 45 miles of hiking trails and 225,677 square feet of building structures situated at sites that include a golf course, public garden, mill, recreation area, performing arts pavilion, lily pond, nature center, three lakes, bikeway, farm, wildlife preserve and more.
The roughly $16 million that the additional 0.25-mill would generate over the 15-year span represents more than half of the funds needed for planned improvements to some of these park features, officials say.
Between 2016 and 2030, if the levy is approved, park leaders plan to accomplish improvement projects at Ford Nature Center, the Lily Pond, the MetroParks Bikeway, the Wick Recreation Area, Fellows Riverside Gardens, Mill Creek Golf Course, the MetroParks Farm, Volney Rogers Field, Yellow Creek Lodge and Pioneer Pavilion.
They also plan to make improvements to roads and bridges, parking and signage and trails. Projects also are planned to restore the wheel at Lanterman’s Mill, for wildlife and habitat management, and dam and watershed improvements.
The total cost of the planned capital improvements over the next 15 years comes to about $29 million; Young says the park typically is able to raise about 50 percent of project costs from third-party sources, and that taxpayers should expect the park to accomplish the same in the future.
Talking about the efficiency of the park, Young said, “To be good stewards of the taxpayer dollar, you have to have a line between your wants and your needs.”
As for whether the planned capital improvements constitute a “need,” the answer is yes, and no, Young said. Projects that keep park visitors safe, such as road maintenance, are needed, he says.
“We’ve got historical facilities like the mill. Can we operate without the mill and its wheel turning? Yeah, we can operate a park system. But, what would be the point of going to the mill if the wheel doesn’t operate?” he said. “We have a duty to preserve and to protect some of the things that our history tells us is important, and Lanterman’s Mill is one of them. So yes you can argue that it’s a ‘want,’ but I think the community has identified that it’s a ‘need.’”
Young says the goal is to reinvest in what the park owns; he believes the park should accomplish that before expansion is considered.
FROM GEESE TO E. COLI
In June 2014, park leaders outraged some members of the public when they decided to euthanize 238 geese
In December, the park board again raised the ire of some when its selection process for hiring a new executive director seemingly violated Ohio Sunshine Laws.
In June of this year, a massive fish kill in Lake Newport and the subsequent discovery of elevated E. coli bacteria levels in the water brought water-quality issues in the park – though caused by issues largely outside of the park’s control – into the public eye.
Schiavoni admits that the last year-and-a-half has been challenging for the park but said: “I think we’ve made some in-roads. Certainly the devastating fish kill was negative publicity, which was unexpected but certainly wasn’t our fault.
“In the long-run, when you look at everyone who uses the park and all the great things going on there, I think we’re in pretty good light with everyone right now.”
Save the Wildlife in Mill Creek Park, a group that formed after the geese kill, disagrees. The group – which has about a dozen core members, and about 2,200 “likes” on its Facebook page – will not actively campaign against the levy, but has decided to take an organized stance against it.
“Unfortunately, we cannot support the levy, and we want to,” said group member Gina Centofanti. “We all love the park. Many of us are in the park daily.
“But we were very clear with past directors, the current director, past board members, current board members – without some type of policy for the management of wildlife, we cannot support a levy.”
What it comes down to, Centofanti said, in addition to concerns about wildlife management and water-quality, is a perception that park officials are more focused on revenue-generating activities than on nature and wildlife within Mill Creek Park.
Schiavoni – who says the park board, going forward, is committed to avoiding the use of lethal methods in its management of wildlife – responded to the group’s position, saying, “I’m just shocked that there would be any opposition groups to the park. If you love the park, you love the park. You should be backing it 100 percent, because it is the crown jewel of our county, and there is no way you can go to many places in this country and find the beauty that you find in our park.”
At board meetings and in interviews, Schiavoni, at times recalling fond childhood memories of park visits, repeatedly has affirmed his commitment to preservation of the park’s natural beauty and to water-quality improvements.
“The park is the crown jewel of the county. Where many other large cities have zoos, large museums, large concert venues, we only have Mill Creek Park in our Valley, and it’s very, very important to us,” he said.