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Effort to join 2 MetroParks groups stalls
CANFIELD
An effort to consolidate Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens, a nonprofit 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. After receiving the task force’s proposal, the board developed its own proposed collaborative agreement.
Hagman said that proposal does not go far enough in consolidating the groups into one entity, nor do task force participants feel that it was a “true partnership.”
“It comes down to timing, and making sure when the timing is right that we’ve got the things in place to really make this a successful model of support for the MetroParks,” he said.
Members of both the task force and the park board expressed hope that the idea will be revived in the future.
And although the groups will not merge at this time, Hagman said the entities will more closely coordinate their efforts.
“If this isn’t the right time for this idea to come to fruition, but we’ve laid the groundwork to be considered next year or the year after, our time has been well spent,” said Andrew Detesco, park foundation president.
“We’ll keep working,” said park board President Lee Frey.