MILL CREEK UPDATE | Activists want park decisions made in open forum

YOUNGSTOWN — A meeting of community members concerned about recent events at Mill Creek MetroParks has drawn a crowd of about 100 people at First Presbyterian Church.

One opinion expressed by several people in attendance is that park decisions are not made in public. 

"They do not do a whole lot in open session," said Jeff Harvey, president of the local chapter of the Audubon Society and leader of tonight's meeting. He said he has regularly attended park board meetings over the last five years, and observed that they often lasted no more than 30 minutes and did not include substantive debate.

Also in attendance is former park commissioner Rick Shale, who spoke out against a recent proposal by State Rep. John Boccieri to transfer park-board appointment authority from the county probate judge to county commissioners. 

"I think it would be a disaster to bring the county commissioners into this," Shale said. "It would politicize the appointments far more than they are now."