Park Vandals Tour Stop

When Council members Kathy Catazaro-Perry and Tony Townsend complained that our parks were in disrepair, but the Golf Course was immaculate, Parks Director Kenn Kaminski had the answer at hand. The problem with our parks was not that our parks tax money was being hijacked to subsidize the golf course's $7.2 million dollar debt, and to buy a restaurant. The problem, according to Kenn Kaminski, was Park Vandals. It was all the vandals fault. He was going to take the members of Massillon City Council on a tour of the parks to show them the havoc these vandals have wrought. We waited patiently, but there was no tour. Surely the public would be invited to see the vandals' carnage first hand. After all, we pay the bills. Still no tour.

Finally, seven weeks after a promised tour, Kaminski delivers. We at the Massillon Review are proud to be the first media outlet to announce the Massillon Tour Stop for the Park Vandals 2010 Tour. The Vandals Tour will kick-off on Saturday, May 8 (This Saturday), at the Massillon Recreation Center, at 9:00AM. While it does not appear the taxpaying public has been invited, I am confident Director Kaminski and the City Council will be positively thrilled if we attend and offer to follow in our own vehicles so that we may see Massillon's Park Vandals at work firsthand, and ask questions of our elected leaders. Questions like;

When juvenile delinquents set fire to the chapel at the former State Hospital Grounds, why was the $490,000 insurance claim given to the City's General Fund, and not the Parks Department, even though the building was owned and insured by the Parks Department. Wasn't this Parks money that belonged to the Parks Department?

Or someone could ask why our Parks Department spends twice the annual budget that Jackson Township does, and our youth sports teams are charged to play on our taxpayer funded ball fields, while at Jackson Township, the kids can play for free?

Maybe you could ask Kaminski to show you the Parks Department's Five Year Plan. Oh wait, they don't have one. OK, let's try this again. The Stark County Parks Department has a five year plan, and has public meetings to gain citizen input. How come we don't?

Our guess is that this Parks Tour will be as scripted as professional wrestling. The Council members will either be blindfolded, or only shown a very limited piece of the parks system. It has been speculated that the Parks Department has laid some mulch in a few select areas, and hung some swings in an attempt to spruce up before the big tour.

We hope a council member, or two, asks real questions about maintenance and upkeep, and that they ask to see some ball fields, tennis courts, and playground equipment. We hope this is a legitimate exercise and not an attempt to blame a lack of proper maintenance and upkeep on something other than a lack of funding because of the necessity to subsidize the golf course with our park income tax dollars.