Elyria presses pause on potential parks rentals

ELYRIA — After City Council members expressed concerns over safety and liability issues with the Parks Department, Elyria's administration put plans to rent parks' facilities on hold. At a committee meeting June 29, Council members raised issues with the administration considering allowing other organizations to use the facilities without oversight. During Monday's first in-person City Council meeting since March, Safety Service Director Derek Feuerstein and Assistant Safety Service Director Kevin Brubaker addressed last week's comments. Mayor Frank Whitfield was unable to attend the meeting because he was sick. Feuerstein said the city didn't plan to just give organizations the keys to buildings, but that there were going to be insurance thresholds, check-ins and terms placed in a lease. After Council members raised additional issues with the plans and called for the laid-off parks director to be returned to her job, Feuerstein said that the city will not be doing rentals for the foreseeable future. "We were not going to just say, 'Here it is,'" Feuerstein said. "Perhaps the failure for me was not communicating that properly with members of Council. And I know that's something I need to work on and making sure we communicate that in a more effective way." With COVID-19 and its spread, renting indoor facilities to organizations may not be the right move, Feuerstein said. "We want to make sure people are safe," he said. "We want to make sure people are protected. We want to make sure we are doing it correctly. Following the conversation last week, we want to pause and take a step back and have more conversations with Council and a few others and make sure we're doing it correctly." As for rehiring Carrie Reardon as the parks director, Feuerstein said the administration is working through that. But what that will look like and what funds are available is still uncertain and will require more conversations, he said. In April, Whitfield announced that Reardon would be laid off because of budget shortfalls due to COVID-19. The Cemetery Department director also was laid off. Other parks employees were dispersed to other city departments. Brubaker said two full-time parks employees and two full-time cemetery employees were moved to the Building and Lands Department to join two other employees there. Those people, along with two part-timers, have handled cemetery services, maintenance of park lands, watering plants, mowing and caring for vacant lots. While doing that work, Brubaker said they are also cutting overtime unless there is an emergency. "In the last two months, these six guys and the two part-timers have been able to keep up on what's going on," Brubaker said. "It's certainly not an end all to save all — this is certainly not a situation we want to be in — but it's the direction we're at." Council President Vic Stewart said Council members are passionate about the futures of Parks and Recreation and stressed that City Council wants to be kept in the loop on what happens. Other Council members — Jack Baird, R-at large, and Kenny Oswald, D-4th Ward — also told Feuerstein that they want to know what is happening within the city. "When you see them out there working, you know stuff is happening," Baird said. "But when you don't see anything, we get concerned, as the residents get concerned." Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.