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City, soccer, school officials say Niles sports would be affected if parks levy fails
By Ed Runyan
NILES
Rich Ouellette, president of the Niles Youth Soccer League, says if voters reject the Niles parks replacement levy on the ballot March 15, the spring soccer season for 500 kids will be canceled.
The levy failure also would affect children playing baseball, football and other sports, he and Niles Parks Director Carmen Vivolo said.
“You have to think about 500 kids without soccer, football and baseball with no place to play, roaming the streets with no police patrol,” Ouellette said.
Ouellette’s reference to police patrol is related to the layoffs of three Niles police officers last month because of the city’s being in fiscal emergency and having to cut $1.5 million from its 2016 budget.
Vivolo told The Vindicator the parks department has a budget of about $250,000. The current levy produces $159,721 per year, with the general fund providing the rest. The new levy would provide $249,127 per year.
Marc Fritz, the Niles McKinley High School athletic director, says failure of the levy also would cause numerous high school sports that use the city’s parks to be moved to other venues.
He has contacted various other venues in recent weeks to create contingency plans to provide a place to play baseball, softball and tennis and run cross country in the event that the Niles parks are not available.
He has contingency plans that involve use of Harding Park in Hubbard, Youngstown State University and Eastwood Field in Niles. Moving the events takes away home-field advantage and would cost the school district additional money for travel and rental of the facilities, Fritz said.
The league uses Stevens Park in the city, which is run by the Niles Parks Department, which has several employees who are scheduled to switch from their wintertime assignment with the city to the parks department April 1.
Vivolo told The Vindicator this week that if the 1-mill, five-year levy fails, “we will have no parks department” and no employees to maintain those parks.
Vivolo said the parks employees work under a collective-bargaining agreement that prevents volunteers from the community from doing the work the parks employees do to prepare the fields for play – cutting the grass, cleaning up trees, lining the fields and other tasks.
Vivolo said he can’t speak for union leaders or other city officials as to what would happen if the levy fails.
Ouellette said it would not just be a union issue if the parks levy fails. The Niles Youth Soccer League would not be able to put together the manpower to maintain the soccer fields on its own, nor does it have the tools and equipment that would be needed.