MANSFIELD — The future of Mansfield’s city parks will again be in the spotlight at a public meeting.
Mayor Tim Theaker and Parks & Recreation Supt. Mark Abrams on Friday announced a meeting for public discussion is scheduled Aug. 31 at 5:30 p.m.
The meeting was announced via email. It’s the second public session scheduled in the park in August.
The first, planned Aug. 14 by At-large Councilwoman Stephanie Zader, was to be a walking tour of the Grace Street park on the city’s northeast side. It was cancelled due to rain.
“We are once again asking for the community’s input to continue to move forward and make progress in 2023 and for years to come,” Theaker said in the email on Friday.
This meeting will be held rain or shine, according the email. Call the parks office at 419-522-9801 for more information.
“There is a group that is pretty passionate about Liberty Park and they want to see progress made there,” Zader said earlier this month. “I have talked about the city’s parks for years and I started to look into it.”
The deteriorating Liberty Park pavilion was demolished in July. The aging pool at the park, the last public pool in the city, was closed for good in August 2021.
Mansfield resident Ronnie Hughes posted on Friday a photo from Liberty Park in the “Abandoned Mansfield” group, which gained a significant amount of social media response.
It sparked a social media reaction from 5th Ward Councilman Aurelio Diaz, who said the state of the city’s parks is the No. 1 concern he hears from residents in his ward and citizens throughout the city.
“It’s infuriating and embarrassing, quite frankly. I honestly believe that the disinvestment in our parks is a huge factor to why the city continues to experience so much youth violence, vandalism and more. No recreational centers. No attempts to partner with groups/organizations who could help revive the parks. Just no effort,” Diaz said.
Earlier this month, Zader acknowledged there is not money in the city’s current budget for big improvements.
The only revenue flowing into the parks system is about $850,000 annually through the PRIDE tax.
No city general fund money has been spent on the city’s parks since the department was resurrected in 2014 after a five-year hiatus during Mansfield’s state-ordered fiscal emergency status from 2009 to 2013.
A key to bringing back the parks came when Theaker and City Council asked voters to approve a quarter-percent income tax increase in November 2013.
The PRIDE tax, which stands for parks and recreation, illumination and demolition and emergency services, was designed to raise about $3.7 million annually for those specific services.
The tax allots 50 percent of its revenue to Mansfield’s fire and police departments, 22 percent to the parks and recreation department, 20 percent demolition and eight percent to illumination, i.e. street lights.
With PRIDE tax money over the last eight years, Abrams said he has been able to begin a gradual rebuild of the parks system, including maintenance and mowing and new playground equipment at several sites.
The department has also been able to participate in summer programming for youth and other events.
In 2022, Theaker proposed and City Council agreed to place a quarter-percent income tax issue increase on the May 22 ballot. Money would be designated solely for capital improvements for the parks and recreation department.
If it had been approved, the four-year tax would have generated a total of $15 to $16 million, enough to build the new aquatics center and begin to fund other improvements found in the master plan.
Before the election, Abrams said its passage was key to park improvements.
“It would be impossible to do any kind of major projects,” he said.
“Besides the pool, a lot of the stuff that we’re looking at doing is to enhance security and improve movement through the parks. Like for instance, better lighting, possible security cameras, some resurfacing of parking lots and just making things more secure.
“We want people to be able to get out and do stuff and just hopefully deter some of the vandalism,” he said.
However, the tax request came at a time when gas was $4 per gallon and inflation was raging across the country.
Some 55 percent of voters rejected the notion with about 18 percent of the city’s eligible voters participating.
