Cheers to Our Mayor for Life

The Independent published a "cheers and jeers" column today. They offered up a hardy "cheers" to Mayor Frank Cicchinelli "for taking the initial step toward the sale of some Massillon park land."

www.indeonline.com/newsnow/x1024315649/OUR-OPINION-First-responders-earn-admiration

Yes, the Independent believes it is good that we start selling off our parks, "especially considering that the city does not seem to have the financial resources to properly care for these assets." Goodness. Not enough financial resources to take care of our parks. Hmmm.

Maybe we need a special income tax to pay for parks and recreation. Nope, we got one of them. Where could the money be going? Could the income tax, passed by a vote of the people specifically for parks and recreation, be hijacked to subsidize a failing golf course?

The Massillon Review offers up a "jeers" to Mayor Frank Cicchinelli for merging the Legends of Massillon golf course with the parks and recreation department under the false pretenses of "streamlining city government." It was merely a scam to use park money to prop up the golf course and its unsustainable debt.

Or how about "jeers" to Mayor Frank Cicchinelli for authorizing the expenditure of $199,000 of park tax money to buy the restaurant at the golf course, without a business plan, and turning it into a glorified hot dog stand.

What the Independent seems to have forgotten is the voters of this community passed a .3% income tax to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of our park system. Not to maintain a golf course and its nearly $600,000 a year in debt payments.

If selling off the parks was such a fantastic idea, why didn't our Mayor for Life share his vision for our parks with the public? He never mentioned it at a council meeting. In fact, he had the Law Director, Perry Stergios, researching which parks he could sell, and had compiled a list of parks to potentially hit the auction block. If it was such a fine idea, why was this such a secret? Let's try this;

"Cheers to Mayor Frank Cicchinelli for working behind closed doors, out of public view, to begin the process of selling our parks and keeping this from the public as long as possible, because the public, who pays this park tax, may wish to object."

And as we all know. You don't get to be Mayor for Life by dismantling the city's park system in front of the voters. You do it behind their backs.