NECIC leader raises concerns about Ocie Hill building, Johns Park pavilion

MANSFIELD — Deanna West-Torrence said she has always preferred to work behind the scenes, trying to get things done without creating public issues.

But recent problems at the former Ocie Hill Community Center and the Johns Park pavilion pushed the executive director of the North End Community Improvement Collaborative too far.

Broken windows. Unsecured buildings. Trash. Gang graffiti. Even a dead rat.

After several phone calls and attempts to resolve issues at the two north-end facilities, West-Torrence decided to take the issues public. 

“I was tired of getting the runaround … people placing blame … making excuses,” West-Torrence said Thursday. “I have always tried to be a bridge builder because there is so little of that.

“And you know if you’re around (community improvement efforts) very long, you know you are going to have to come back around and work with people again.

“My thing has always been to never embarrass or disparage people, or call someone’s motives into question … just do the work,” West-Torrence said.

After hearing concerns from residents in the north end, the former Mansfield City Council member started checking and making calls to elected and appointed officials. She also sent some of her staff members to check out reports and to take photos.

Her biggest concerns? A lack of concern and care at both locations, saying it was no coincidence both sites are in the north end.

“I think that despite our best efforts, we continue to experience difficulty establishing the North End neighborhood as a priority in allocating resources as compared to other areas,” West-Torrence said. 

Ocie Hill Community Center

More than a year after the Ocie Hill Community Center at 445 Bowman St. was closed by the city, nothing has been done with the century-old former school and neighborhood center.

Vandals have recently hit the structure, breaking out windows and entering the facility. There have been reports people have been sleeping inside the building.

NECIC staff members recently discovered a back door to the building was unlocked, an issue that remained when Richland Source checked on it Thursday morning.

Lights were on inside the building, named for Ocie Hill, the first Black resident to be elected to Mansfield City Council and the longest serving individual on council in the history of Mansfield, serving from 1961 to 1991.

Mayor Tim Theaker said he called Parks & Recreation Superintendent Mark Abrams on Thursday when he heard the back door was unlocked.

“I just got a phone call  saying there were people in the building,” Theaker told Richland Source. “I just got off the phone with Mark Abrams and he is going to have someone go down there and lock it back up.”

Abrams said it’s difficult to keep the building secured, but his department would work to board up the shattered windows.

“Windows get broken, people climb in. It’s next to impossible to keep someone from breaking in if they really want to,” he said.

The unlocked door may have been a simple human mistake. Abrams said his staff may have left the door unlocked while moving in and out of the building, collecting supplies for summer parks events.

“It may have been an error on our part,” he said, adding it was locked later Thursday.

Ocie Hill and the future of the north end

The future of the building is of even bigger concern to West-Torrence. Throughout the years the structure has been known as the Creveling School, the Mansfield Opportunities Industrial Center, the Human Resource Bureau and the Neighborhood Youth Corps.

In 1996, it was renamed for Hill, whose photo still hangs in council chambers.

The city purchased the building in 1988 and it was home to more than a dozen non-profit and government agencies. It also has a gymnasium that was used by children and hosted after school-programs like the Culliver Reading Center.

North end residents packed a City Council meeting on Feb. 19, 2020, to raise their voices in displeasure when the city announced it planned to close the building in September.

Theaker estimated at the time that work to replace the boiler, windows, doors and other required upgrades could cost several million dollars.

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached the area, city buildings were closed to the public, including Ocie Hill. Theaker announced in June the building would not re-open.

West-Torrence, who once served as director of the center, said Mansfield needs to make a decision on the building, a cornerstone in the north end. She suggested demolition is in order — and then something new for the neighborhood built in its place.

“If you leave that building up, it stands as a middle finger to the north end. That’s what it is going to be. (Vandalism) is exactly what we expected. Windows broken out. It’s not secured,” West-Torrence said.

She said Theaker had the right to close the building, but also has a responsibility to north end residents.

“You look at (Ocie Hill) and you see an old building, but that building had a lot going on inside for people. Now it’s not there and when you needed that kind of infrastructure, it’s not there.

“I told the mayor he was making a mistake by just looking at (Ocie Hill) as a recreation center. If you do that, you miss the entire value of the building. We just went through COVID and had discussions that there was no central place for vaccinations and testing sites in the north end. Ocie Hill would have been that place,” she said.

Theaker said three organizations looked at possibly buying the Ocie Hill building in the past year. However, all three decided the cost to rehabilitate the facility made it a cost-prohibitive project.

“They spent many hours, days, weeks and months getting cost estimates and all three walked away and said, ‘no thanks’ due to the costs,” Theaker said.

The mayor said he is unsure about the future of the site. One possibility would be to donate the property to the Richland County Land Bank, which could then demolish and/or market it. The city cannot use PRIDE tax dollars to do demolition on properties it owns.

“The Land Bank is a possibility,” Theaker said. “Right now, anything is a possibility. I would love to build a new civic center. Where you build it, I don’t know.”

One of the officials West-Torrence reached out to was 4th Ward Councilman Alomar Davenport, who vowed last year the facility would be replaced by something new for the north end.

“It’s becoming an eyesore. It’s a valuable plot of land that can be utilized. At some point, we have to figure out the best way to go about that. We as a city have to become more active pursuing other options,” Davenport said Thursday.

Toward that end, Davenport said he hoped to meet with Theaker on Friday to discuss the mayor’s plans, adding he was taken aback to learn the building had been left unlocked.

“Before I suggest anything, I want to know his thoughts. We haven’t had a conversation about that building since last year. I want to know what his end-goal is for the building. If there is none, I want to sit down and start creating one,” Davenport said.

“I want to impress upon the mayor that the north end is seeing what’s happening. We definitely have issues with what’s going on with that building.”

West-Torrence said Theaker cares, but doesn’t know what to do in the north end.

She said the mayor needs to consider finding ways to use the city’s $20-plus million American Rescue Plan dollars and funds from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill pending in Congress to assist the north end.

“I think he doesn’t have a clue. And he has not put anyone around him that knows what to do. You can’t talk about investing in the city, putting planters in the downtown, and move these unsightly (homeless) people out of the way.

“You have said you don’t have resources. Well, there is more money than God coming into this community now and how much are you setting aside to address what has been taken away from the north end?” West-Torrence asked.

One of her new staff members, Mario Davison, said he grew up in the Ocie Hill Community Center. A 2014 graduate of Mansfield Senior High School and a star basketball player, he recently earned his master’s degree in human and social services leadership at Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

Davison was one of the NECIC staff who documented the conditions at Ocie Hill and the Johns Park Pavilion.

“It’s heartbreaking … to know what Ocie Hill was to us growing up. We were there every day, especially Summer Fun. I even worked at Summer Fun when I got old enough. To see the lack of care it’s gotten is really disturbing,” Davison said Thursday.

Johns Park Pavilion

West-Torrence said there had been “gang graffiti” and obscenities painted this summer on the outside walls of the building at Johns Park, a few blocks north of Ocie Hill. It took a few calls, but it was finally painted over, she said.

What disturbed her was the visible graffiti and obscenities remained even as Summer Fun activities continued at the park. 

“Children should not have to see that stuff,” said West-Torrence, citing a level of frustration with Davenport and 5th Ward Council member Jason Lawrence for not taking stronger actions.

“I just feel like these kids do not have … there is no one to advocate for these kids. When we did have Ocie Hill, we had a million different agencies that would advocate for them and now we have absolutely nothing.

“This is what happens when the community does not protect kids. There is so much blame to be passed around on this. Who would let a kid come into that?” West-Torrence asked.

The Johns Park building itself was unlocked on Thursday morning when checked by Richland Source. The interior had trash, supplies, leftover food and a cooler containing water and a whitish material covered with small black bugs.

A dead rat that had been photographed and sent to the NECIC earlier this summer was gone on Thursday when Richland Source visited the site.

Abrams said he was unaware the building was unlocked and said the materials inside were left from the recently-concluded Summer Fun program.

“We had other things to get done before the summer ended, so we kind of pushed back some things we didn’t need to do right away. By Friday afternoon, that place will be spotless,” Abrams said.

The parks director sent Richland Source photos Friday morning showing the pavilion had been cleaned up.

“I know we have some issues at Johns Park, some of them bigger than that building. We are trying to work to make things better,” he said.

Davenport, who lives near the park, said he was in the park frequently, but was unaware the building was not secured.

“I am not sure why it continues to happen,” he said. “If it becomes known to the public, there is no telling what may transpire. Keeping it secure is of the utmost concern.”

Regarding the mess inside, Davenport said he was concerned it could attract rodents.

“Johns Park is a residential area. If rodents come to the building, they could end up in peoples’ houses. The cleanliness and security of that building is of the utmost concern,” he said.