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Mill Creek MetroParks dismissals end nearly-century-long tradition
YOUNGSTOWN
On July 9, 1952 — at 9 a.m., he readily recalls — Bill Whitehouse started a summer job at Mill Creek Park.
He didn’t plan on it at the time, but his career at the park would last the next three decades.
Even after his retirement as park naturalist in December 1985, he remained actively involved with the park’s nature-education program.
He chose to end his association with the park Feb. 13, the day after several park employees were summarily dismissed as part of an “internal reorganization” plan that park officials say will save $13 million over the next 15 years to make up for a projected $15 million capital-improvement shortfall.
Among those employees whose positions were eliminated was Whitehouse’s protege and friend, Ray Novotny, who took over as park naturalist – at his recommendation – after Whitehouse retired. The plan also cut the horticulture director position, filled for many years by Keith Kaiser.
“I can’t be associated with an organization anymore that would treat its longtime, dedicated employees this way. So I left,” Whitehouse said in an interview. “It’s irrevocable. I burn all my bridges behind me.”
This July would have marked 64 years with the park for Whitehouse. He noted a recent realization: That he’d been associated with the park for more than half of its 125-year history. Now, he’s worried for its future, he said.
“It appears to me and to everyone I have talked to – and it is becoming increasingly clear — that what we are now witnessing in our Mill Creek MetroParks is nothing less than the deliberate and mindless attempt by a corporate and development mentality to eviscerate and to ultimately eliminate the two most vital aspects of the park’s mission: nature-education programs and horticulture programs. These are the backbone of the park’s very reason for being,” he wrote in a prepared statement.
Mill Creek MetroParks Executive Director Aaron Young vehemently denies any plans to dismantle those programs.
“It’s categorically false and incorrect,” he said of the allegation. “We have no interest in eliminating or even reducing” horticulture and nature-education opportunities at the park.
Young said he has been in talks with the remaining members of those departments about how duties previously assigned to Novotny, Kaiser and other dismissed staffers will be filled. He noted that the MetroParks maintains three-part time naturalists who will continue to lead nature programs.
“Whether we have a full-time naturalist or not, does not have any bearing on our ability to provide naturalist services to the community,” he said. “The part-time naturalists are just as qualified and educated as full-time naturalists.”
He said the park aims to provide “something for everyone,” from nature education, to horticulture programs, to enjoyment of natural resources, to recreational opportunities.
Young repeatedly has said that position eliminations had nothing to do with those employees’ performance or qualifications, but were needed for the organization to become more efficient and a better steward of taxpayer dollars.
The Vindicator reached 18 other county park systems around the state. Of those, only two — Ashtabula County MetroParks and Portage Park District — do not employ any full-time naturalists. Both Ashtabula and Portage have plans to add naturalists after recent passage of first-time levies, representatives of those parks said.
Miami County Parks, which spans about 2,100 acres and serves a county with a population of 100,000 people (compared to Mill Creek MetroParks’ nearly 5,000 acres, and Mahoning County’s 230,000-plus population), has three full-time naturalists, approximately 15 part-time naturalists and a director of environmental education.
Medina County Park District, which maintains roughly 6,000 acres, employs four full-time naturalists.
Of Erie MetroParks’ 14 full-time employees, two are naturalists. Another employee at the 3,000-acre park system splits time as a naturalist and another position.
Many much-smaller park districts in Ohio employ several full-time naturalists.
Elimination of a full-time naturalist (Novotny’s title was outdoor education manager) at Mill Creek MetroParks ends a nearly-century-long dynasty of sorts. Since the 1920s, according to Whitehouse’s quick memory, the position of head naturalist changed hands only three times.
The first park naturalist was Ernest Vickers, who worked in that role from 1929 until 1947. The position then was filled by his son, Lindley. Whitehouse knew them both as a boy growing up near the old mill, where the nature museum was then headquartered.
“That was home to me,” he said.
Whitehouse worked under Lindley Vickers for many years, first as a museum attendant, then as head of the museum and later as assistant naturalist. He took over as head naturalist when Lindley retired in 1970.
He hadn’t planned to stay at the park all that time. For many years he went to school part-time, studying to become a university professor.
But, “I loved the work,” he said. “I found a home. I just found a home.”
One of his favorite aspects of working at the park, he said, is that he had the chance to meet the generation of park employees with direct connections to park founder Volney Rogers, who founded the park in 1891 and died in 1919.
Whitehouse has three books — worn, heavy tomes with tiny print and elegant binding — personally signed by Rogers, given to Whitehouse by former park Superintendent Charles Wedekind. He believes the books were passed down over the years, starting with Volney’s brother Bruce, the first park superintendent.
“One of the reasons I think I was very fortunate is that I jumped into the park story when there were still the old-timers who had been with the park since the early 1920s, maybe even the late teens,” he said. “I got to start working with these people, as a kid really. I learned so much from them. I learned names, places in the park that you never hear anymore.”
He believes that Volney Rogers, too, would be appalled by recent decisions.
“I just heard him roll over in his grave. You can hear it if you listen closely,” he joked, gesturing in the direction of Tod Homestead Cemetery where Rogers is buried.
Novotny, too, formed an early and deep connection to the park.
He did not comment for this story, but in an interview about the park’s 125th anniversary conducted before his dismissal, he reminisced about that connection.
“I met Bill Whitehouse when I was about 12, down at the old mill museum. My mother took me there to identify a snake,” he recalled then. “At that time, I said I wanted Bill’s job, and he replied, ‘Well I plan to be here for awhile.’ But lo and behold, 17 years later, he picked me to succeed him.”
Whitehouse, too, remembers meeting Novotny when he was a kid. “He was after my job,” he said, laughing.
The two remained close over the years, sharing a love of reptiles and amphibians. When Whitehouse began to think about retirement, he chose Novotny as his successor. They’ve remained in “constant” contact since, Whitehouse said.
He remains puzzled by the decision to eliminate Novotny’s position.
“He’s one of the finest people I know,” he said, describing Novotny as hard-working, honest, ethical, fair, and as an expert in his field who constantly works to further his expertise.
“The park’s been his whole life,” Whitehouse said. Personal feelings aside, Whitehouse – joined by some community members who have been vocal in their opposition to recent decisions by park leadership –is pained by what he views as the end of the naturalist legacy that he anchored.
“I think it’s a disgrace,” he said. “We should be touting this. We should be promoting it. We should be expanding the nature education in the park, not diminishing it.”