Bainbridge Township Trustees meetings normally draw a small handful of regular senior citizens, plus two area newspaper reporters, but the Aug. 26 meeting attracted a younger, angrier crowd, upset over the closing of a popular playground area at River Road Park.
Bainbridge Township Trustees meetings normally draw a small handful of regular senior citizens, plus two area newspaper reporters, but the Aug. 26 meeting attracted a younger, angrier crowd, upset over the closing of a popular playground area at River Road Park.
Trustees recently ordered the playground fenced off and a sign posted to warn visitors the 15-year-old wooden equipment is no longer stable and is unsafe for children to climb on.
During a recent meeting with the township’s park board, it was estimated to need up to $200,000 in repairs or replacement.
At the park board meeting, township officials discussed whether the playground is needed at all, given the fact children seem interested in video games and indoor activities rather than playing outside. Trustees considered removing the equipment instead of replacing it.
Local newspaper coverage of that meeting generated a firestorm on social media and led to trustees receiving more than 100 emails and phone calls on the issue. Trustees said only one resident advocated removing the playground equipment.
“I have a feeling we know why you are here tonight,” Trustee Lorrie Sass Benza told the crowd Monday night. “The message we have heard loud and clear is that we need to keep the playground equipment. We hear you and agree with you. The question is funding.”
Benza explained trustees welcome public comment during two specific sections of each meeting agenda. She said in addition to the comments at the Monday meeting, trustees will hold two special public meetings on the subject before taking any action.
Those meetings have been tentatively scheduled for Sept. 7 at 9 a.m., and Sept. 16 at 6 p.m., to give everyone a chance to share their opinions.
Resident Julie Schaden told trustees she and her husband seldom read newspapers, but her husband happened to read an article about the park board discussion.
“We use the park several times a week,” Schaden said. “My husband read the article and we were very surprised.”
She recommended soliciting for donations on social media for playground replacement.
Benza said trustees would not be able to use social media, such as Facebook, because it would violate Ohio law forbidding two or more trustees from appearing together without declaring it a public meeting.
Township resident and volunteer coach Kyle Wefing said the township has many contractors who would be willing to volunteer their time to rebuild the playground.
Trustee Jeff Markley, a landscape architect who had designed the River Road playground in 2002, said state and federal safety regulations and liability issues have made it impossible for volunteers to build public playgrounds anymore.
Public playgrounds must be constructed and inspected by certified professionals and qualified contractors are hard to find, Benza added.
“It is painful to see (caution) tape around a playground I designed in 2002,” Markley said, adding the wooden structure’s base is no longer safe and in danger of tipping over.
“The rules have changed about playground equipment,” said longtime resident Henri Pruess, who served on the park board for 30 years. “We built the playgrounds at Settler’s Park and River Road Park. Time takes its toll.”
Pruess said the township has little money in its budget for maintaining playgrounds after the state discontinued the inheritance tax a few years back. Twenty years ago, Bainbridge benefitted from a large inheritance tax windfall, but the county has ordered the township to spend down that money\ and it is now gone.
“So now we’re in a financial bind and we need a plan, such as donations or a levy,” Pruess said.
Benza said the state has also done away with the local government fund, which has put a financial squeeze on all the townships and local communities.
“The state has a rainy day fund of $2.7 billion,” Benza said. “The state can have a rainy day fund, but we cannot.”
She explained Bainbridge funds the township’s parks out of its general fund and may need a levy to finance the estimated $200,000 that new playground equipment would cost.
“We can ask for a levy, but in 2005, trustees asked for one and it was overwhelmingly defeated by 89 percent,” Benza said.
Markley said when trustees removed the playground equipment from Settlers’ Park four years ago for safety reasons, no one complained. Previous boards of trustees believed playground equipment was not high on residents’ priority lists.
“People apparently care now, with this firestorm,” Markley said, adding trustees may need to consider asking for a small levy to maintain the parks.
“Asking for a levy is the hardest thing for us to do because we’re taxpayers, too,” Benza said, adding the earliest the trustees can ask for a levy would be the March 17, 2020, election. Deadline for placing such a levy would be Dec. 18.
“Certain steps must be followed, and those steps can only be taken at public meetings,” Benza explained. “We don’t want to go for a levy if we can avoid it.”
And if a levy passes, the funds won’t be collected until 2021, which means any playground project will be at least two years in the future, she added.
Benza said it was disappointing to see allegations on social media that trustees are working in secret or are not communicating.
“I don’t want any allegations at all that we’re doing anything outside the public realm,” the trustee said.
Resident Sara Zaranac told trustees, “You talked about the communications in 2008, but things are a lot different now. Not everyone is reading the newspaper. We’re used to looking on our cell phones.”
Benza said trustees publish their meeting agendas well in advance of the meetings, publish their meeting minutes on the township’s website, meetings are covered by the local newspapers and everything is transparent and readily available to the public.
“Most meetings, I am one of only two people here, then (everyone else says), ‘I didn’t know.,’” said longtime resident Gil Myers, who frequently attends trustees meetings. “It’s only a concern when it’s a burning issue that affects them personally. Come to the meetings. Sometimes they can be very boring, but that’s part of the process. Get off your butts and come to a meeting.”
