Effort to merge MetroParks groups on hold

CANFIELD

An effort to consolidate Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens, a non-profit that supports Mill Creek MetroParks’ botanic gardens, and Mill Creek Park Foundation is at an impasse.

At a MetroParks board meeting Tuesday, leaders of that effort informed the board they would not accept a collaborative agreement that the board had proposed.

“We didn’t feel it went far enough to create collaboration,” Paul Hagman, Friends president, told The Vindicator. “The collaboration agreement as proposed by the park more or less redefined what already existed.”

Susan Yerian, a former MetroParks executive director, spoke Tuesday on behalf of the task force that worked for the last year and a half to come up with a plan to consolidate the two groups.

“We felt that if these two entities, perhaps even joined into one entity, they could do amazing things for the MetroParks,” she said.

Ultimately, the task force concluded that a conservancy model, which is a type of public-private partnership, would work well.

Read more about the matter in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.