It's a Dam Shame

Our park system is in shambles. The citizens of Massillon passed a .3% additional income tax in 1995 to pay for parks and recreation. The mayor has diverted money from this parks tax to prop up his failing Legends of Massillon Golf Course.

Parks Director, and mayoral lackey, Kenn Kaminski chooses to blame the problems in our parks on "park vandals," and not on a lack of basic upkeep and maintenance.

"Kaminski says a majority of the parks' eyesores are vandalism-based" (The Independent, March 20, 2010).

"He said that vandalism is plaguing the parks more than anything" (The Independent, March 20, 2010).

And then Kenn Kaminski took members of our city council on a tour of the parks to show them the damage these vandals hath wrought.

He apparently never took them to the dam at Reservoir Park.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) inspected the dam. Again.

The ODNR said it needed repaired. Again.

The Parks Department has once more done nothing about it. Again.

"It was given a first-class hazard rating during the inspection, meaning that it poses a risk of "probable loss of human life" (The Independent, October 30, 2010).

"Probable loss of human life."

Really?

"But it is aging and eroding to the point that the Massillon Parks and Recreation Department must spend hundreds of thousands, if not a million dollars, to improve its condition" (The Independent, October 30, 2010).

Well, the city must have just found out that this was a problem, right? Because if they knew about this before now, they would be grossly negligent by ignoring this dangerous problem.

"In 2000, repair plans and a hydrologic and hydraulic study was submitted to the ODNR, but it was never resubmitted to the agency after it made comments to the plans and study" (The Independent, October 30, 2010).

Wait. we knew about this for at least 10 years, submitted a plan and then just forgot about it?

"Massillon Parks and Recreation Director Kenn Kaminski said the work was put on the back burner by previous department directors" (The Independent, October 30, 2010).

Wait a second. If the problem is so dangerous that it poses risk of, and let us quote, "probable loss of human life," why was it "put on the back burner," by park directors like Kenn Kaminski, who must have, by knowing it was a problem, and ignoring it, "put it on the back burner?"

Money.

In 2002, our cherished Mayor for Life got his rubber stamps on city council to merge the failing Legends of Massillon golf course and its monstrous debt load with the Parks Department. Cicchinelli did this under the guise of "streamlining city government." It was done to raid the park tax money to subsidize golf course debt payments and operations.

The Legends sucked up park money that could have been used to maintain our parks, and to perhaps fix the reservoir dam before it posed a risk of "probable loss of human life."

We know where the city could have gotten about $200,000 for repairs. It was the $199,000 dollars that council members Larry Slagle, David Hersher, David McCune, Ron Mang, and Council President Glenn Gamber spent to buy the restaurant at the golf course. This was the restaurant, according to Julie Jenkins, office manager for the parks and the golf course, that had no business plan.

The dam is literally going to burst, and these feckless rubber stamps, who are too stupid, or too lazy to question why in the world we needed to spend almost $200,000 on a glorified hot dog stand which couldn't even cater a golf outing held this past summer still cheerfully rubber stamp any outrageous proposal our Mayor for Life presents to them.

The emperor has no clothes. Our Mayor for Life, his lackey Kenn Kaminski, and the rubber stamps on city council who treat the mayor as if he were some type of cult leader hijacked our park money to prop up our mayor's failing golf course. The voters of Massillon never voted to fund a golf course with that park income tax and these people know it.

Our guess is that the people of Massillon thought the city would at least make sure the dam wouldn't burst, so that we wouldn't have to worry about, and we quote, "probable loss of human life." It's the least they wanted from their park tax.