MANSFIELD — Louis Andres knows a few things about public parks.
And it seems clear the City of Mansfield is going to benefit from the expertise of the man who has worked in the parks and recreation field for more than 40 years, beginning his career in 1978 with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources as a park naturalist.
In his new role as the city’s public works director, Andres’ duties include overseeing the city’s parks and recreation department, which is led by Mark Abrams.
During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Andres unveiled a colorful brochure detailing what’s available in each of the city’s 21 public parks and also the Clear Fork Reservoir area.
“I’ve been meeting with the parks department, (meeting Wednesday) afternoon with the staff, and working on plans on getting things ready for the summer,” said Andres, the former park manager at Malabar Farm State Park for 22 years.
“The (department) is busy painting buildings at North Lake (Park). We’re looking at trails. We’re looking at bridges. We have a lot of different projects that are going to be in our parks and get those ready for the summer season,” Andres said.
“We’re doing a lot and it’s going to take us some time. But we will work on it gradually,” he said.
(Below are photos of a brochure distributed Tuesday night about City of Mansfield parks.)
Andres encouraged local lawmakers and members of the public to visit the city’s Parks and Recreation website for more details. He said the brochure distributed on Tuesday will be added to the website.
According to the website, plans are being made this year to celebrate the 250th birthday of John “Appleseed” Chapman with a series of events that will highlight South Park’s & Mansfield’s Johnny Appleseed connection and history.
In other activity Tuesday night at City Council:
— Members of Boy Scout Troop 121 from Mansfield visited council and led in the Pledge of Allegiance. Prior to the meeting, scouts met with council members and asked questions about things taking place in the city.
— Finance Director Kelly Blankenship told council she is working with Mayor Jodie Perry to finalize the 2024 budget that must be approved by the end of March under state law. The city is operating under a temporary spending plan local lawmakers approved in December.
“(We) hope to have legislation in for the next meeting so that you’ll have three full meetings to consider (it),” she said. “Anything that’s in the budget, we’ll have that document to you. And we’re working very hard with the mayor and the rest of the administration to get that ready for you.”
Blankenship also spoke of planned changes in the finance department staff that she planned to present at council’s next meeting Feb. 20.
“I intend to send you all an update by email, just to kind of explain the process and my thinking and reasoning around the changes that I would like to see made to the department,” she said.
“There are some serious process changes that we would like to make and efficiencies we want to bring to the way we present information to you and to the city. We can’t do that in the current state that we have,” the finance director.
“So these changes will help us to make those efficiencies and upgrade our processes for everyone else.”
— Perry said current police Chief Keith Porch will be transitioning to become the city’s safety service director later this month.
“So we are going to be kicking off our search, or the process, to hire the new chief here at the end of this week, I believe, or first thing next week,” Perry said. “So more to come on that. But we’re really excited.
“I keep telling (Porch) I’ve got a growing list of things that he’s going to get to do up on the ninth floor with us.”
— New Law Director Rollie Harper told council his new team is assembled, both on the criminal and civil side.
“I’ve got a great team. Everybody that I wanted to come and work with me is working with me,” Harper said. “We are becoming responsive fairly quickly and effectively. And I’m looking forward to watching it.”
— Council approved the reappointment of Al Berger and Dennis Atkeson to the Airport and Aviation Commission for additional four-year terms.
— Council approved the renewal of an annual software maintenance agreement with Superion LLC, a CentralSquare company, for $102,275.82. The company provides a software suite that consists of computer-aided dispatch, records management system, automatic vehicle location and mobile computer terminals for the police department.
— Council approved retitling a case coordinator position in the Law Director’s office and created a position of deputy court administrator in the Municipal Court.
— During a public affairs committee prior to caucus, local lawmakers discussed ongoing issues trying to jumpstart the city’s Police Review Commission, which has struggled to get enough members to meetings to have a quorum.
The commission is supposed to have seven members — one representing each ward in the city and one at-large member. These unpaid commission members are selected by council members.
“I think that it is important, especially in the atmosphere that we live in today, that we give people the opportunity to be heard and the Police Review Commission is the way that we do that,” said At-large Councilwoman Stephanie Zader, chair of the public affairs committee.
“We do that with citizens from the community, who sit and listen to the people who have complaints about the way things were handled,” Zader said. “They review the complaint (and) they hear from the police department, as well.”
Zader said she has asked the law director’s office to draft an outline of what the position entails.
She asked each council member to find a representative from their ward for the commission by council’s first meeting in March.
