Pay to Play

According to a story in the Independent, the Massillon Parks and Recreation Department is now raising the fees to use city owned, taxpayer funded ball fields. This rate increase will apply to independent tournaments, City run leagues, and approved community youth organizations such as Little League, and Massillon ASA Girls Softball. For this increased rate, you get one less umpire than you got before the rates were raised.

Until now, community youth organizations like little league baseball, and girls softball did not have to pay fees, as these were city organizations, with city kids. They now have to pay. It's one thing to charge independent tournament operators, but our own hometown youth groups?

On what we are sure is an unrelated matter, and strictly a coincidence, Massillon City Council Members David Hersher, Ron Mang, David McCune, Larry Slagle, and Council President Glenn Gamber voted to spend $199,000 dollars of parks and recreation money to purchase a restaurant at the golf course. They did this at their March 15th meeting. We would imagine that this would create a hole in the parks budget, already stretched thin by having to subsidize a golf course with a staggering debt load.

Parks Director Kenn Kaminski, who claimed that the deplorable conditions at our city parks are the result of park "vandals," and not the result of a lack of basic maintenance and upkeep, claimed to the Independent that the city "can no longer subsidize associations or other groups that pay very little or nothing to the city."

Mr. Kaminski, our little league parents, and our softball parents, and everyone who lives and works in this City pays the income tax that is supposed to fund our parks. When the city voters passed the .3% income tax for parks and recreation, the people were promised, and we mean promised, "ball fields for our youth sports programs." We assumed they would be maintained properly, and they are not. We assumed the kids in our community could use them without additional cost. Apparently they may not.

Using Kaminski's "logic," when Tremont Avenue is finally paved, the city should put up a toll both to charge city residents who use the road, because the city "can no longer subsidize groups that pay very little or nothing to the city." They pay with their taxes, sir. They pay with their taxes.

What you, our Mayor for Life, and the rubber stamps on council who refuse to, or are unable to think for themselves have failed to realize is one simple truth. When our city officials were diverting the money the people of Massillon trusted would be used for parks and recreation, because, well, because they were told it would be, and sending it to the golf course instead, is that you broke the peoples trust. They were promised parks for the community. They were promised well maintained ball fields for their kids. They were not promised a golf course with a $7.2 million dollar debt that won't be paid off until 2032.