The People Are Smarter Than They Think

In a story in the Independent on March 20, several members of Massillon City Council, specifically Kathy Catazaro-Perry and Tony Townsend, complained about the poor conditions of the City's parks. They wondered if the problem was that too much time and too much treasure was being spent on the City's golf course, and that the parks were not receiving basic maintenance and upkeep as a result. Parks Director Kenn Kaminski countered by claiming that the majority of the problems in the park were related to the activity of park vandals. He promised to take the elected officials of Massillon on a tour of the parks to show them the damage these vandals have wrought.

It is now a month later. No scheduled tours have been reported. Of course there is some vandalism. We recognize that. The truth is, however, our parks are in such deplorable shape because of a lack of basic maintenance and upkeep. The truth is our parks money, which is derived from a .3% parks and recreation tax passed by the voters in 1995, has been diverted to subsidize the golf course, its 7.2 million dollar debt load, and to purchase the restaurant at the golf course for almost 200,000 dollars.

The parks tax was never intended to pay for the golf course when voters passed the tax. It was seven years later, at our Mayor's urging, that the City's golf course was unloaded onto the parks and recreation board. When the City expanded the course from 18 to 27 holes in 2002, they had to rebuild the whole course. The golf course was literally built twice. The cost for this ran well over budget and the City was faced with a debt load that was beyond its ability to pay. The solution was to dump the golf course onto the parks and recreation board. Money that was supposed to go to our parks is now subsidizing the golf course.

No, we don't believe Kenn Kaminski will be taking our elected officials on the "vandals tour" anytime soon, because council members would have to be blindfolded to not see that the real damage was caused by neglect and a lack of basic maintenance and upkeep. Kaminski can't admit to that. He can't blame the poor conditions of our parks on a lack of funds for basic maintenance as a result of the money being used to subsidize the financially failing golf course. He can't say it, because it would be bad politics for his boss, Massillon's Mayor for Life, Frank Cicchinelli. You don't get to be Mayor for Life by taking the blame for poorly maintained parks because you needed parks money to prop up the ill-fated expansion and rebuilding of the Legends of Massillon Golf Course. As a result, Kaminski is left with his park vandals. Unfortunately for him, the visual evidence proves otherwise. The people see this for themselves, and unfortunately for the Mayor and his council rubber stamps, the people are smarter than they think.