In response to one reader's question - No, the golf course was not always part of the City's parks and recreation department. When the parks and recreation department was formed in 1995, the golf course was never part of the equation. See former Parks boss Bob Straugn's letter posted yesterday. The golf course was merged with the parks and recreation department on December 18, 2002. Mayor Cicchinelli proposed it, and council approved it. It was the week before Christmas, and I doubt the residents were paying a whole lot of attention to city council. Mayor Cicchinelli had excellent timing!The Legends of Massillon golf course had been expanded from 18 to 27 holes. The cost to expand the course ran well over budget. The debt load was too large for the city and the solution was to dump the course on the parks department and use the parks and recreation tax dollars to prop up the golf course. One could guess that the voters would never have passed the three tenths percent income tax for the parks department if they knew their tax dollars were going to be used to pay for a golf course. Of course we will never know, as only the council got to vote.
It was a 7-2 vote. The two Republicans on council, Jim Filhour and Claudette Istnick, voted no. Tim Bryan, who later ran for Mayor, was against the merger before he was for it. The most interesting vote was cast by former council member Gloria Autrey. She stated that no money from the parks and recreation department would be funneled to the golf course. The other Democrats who voted for this golf course bailout were;
Mike Loudiana (current city Service Director)
Ron Mang (still on council)
Bill Aman
Glenn Gamber (now council president)
Paul Lambert (now city treasurer)
.
By the way, if you want to hear the absolute worst jingle in recorded history, go to massillonparks.com and listen to;
Excellence in Motion - City of Massillon Parks and Recreation Department
I hope the city didn't actually pay for this.
