Rec center vacant, but schedule of village events to proceed, as usual

by Sheldon Ocker

With the vacant recreation center up for sale, no permanent director in place and the shadow cast on many events by COVID-19, the future of the Richfield Village Parks and Recreation Department appears to be uncertain.

Nothing could be further from the truth, according to Mayor Mike Wheeler, who said he is moving forward with a full schedule of 2021 programs, subject to any negative impact made by the pandemic.

He put his executive assistant, Laura Toth, in charge of the parks and recreation department as acting director last August. Toth and Wheeler are hardly strangers. She worked for him in an executive capacity at Novex Systems, a printing company in Valley View owned by the mayor.

The fact that Toth is holding two jobs that can be labor intensive raises a question of whether the rec department is in for downsizing.

“No, it’s not a burden,” Toth said. “I’m passionate about parks and recreation. I look forward to it.”

Wheeler seems confident in Toth’s ability to handle both positions until he hires a permanent director.

“Laura is very good at delegating, and she’s also very good at organization,” the mayor said. “Laura is working a lot of evenings; she sure is a trooper.”

Toth is not expected to do the parks and rec job by herself. The village has two part-time employees, Elizabeth Kelly and Jessica Span, to assist Toth. A third part-time worker was jettisoned last year, when COVID wiped out many of the village’s usual events.

It remains uncertain whether the next parks and recreation director will be a part-time or full-time employee.

“That depends on whether we have more facilities for the recreation department than we’re going to have after we sell the rec center,” Wheeler said. “Now, we’re down to the Johnson barn and the three rentable facilities [Masonic Hall, Eastwood barn and Fellowship Hall]. We also have the playground, but that is maintained by the service department.”

When the mayor referred to “more facilities,” he was speaking about a proposed community center, a concept that has been kicking around for years in village council. Currently, a feasibility study is being done by an independent firm to determine the level of interest, cost and other elements that would determine if building such a facility is anything more than a pipe dream.

“My position is if the community wants a community center, I’m OK with it,” Wheeler said. “But what would a community center look like? That’s what I’m waiting to see from this feasibility study.”

Construction of a community center might not be as big a drain on village resources as the annual upkeep.

“What would it cost to maintain?” Wheeler said. ”Before we can answer that question, we have to answer what would it look like. If it looks like [the facility in] Broadview Heights, then there’s no way we can afford it.”

Wheeler speculated that maintaining the Broadview Heights community center costs upwards of $2 million annually.

“But what if we have a small building that allows us to have an indoor basketball court and a couple of rooms to have Zoomba and yoga and one meeting room,” the mayor said. “That can probably be manned by three part-timers.”

Wheeler expects to receive the results of the study in a few weeks.

Whether Richfield ever builds a community center, Wheeler said the village has enough capacity to hold almost all of its usual events, even though the rec center is closed. The primary venue for indoor events will be the Johnson barn, which will receive upgrades in heating and insulation.

“The weight room and Zoomba probably not; everything else can pretty much be run from the Johnson barn,” the mayor said.

That includes the art show, craft show, pottery classes, summer camp and music classes. The Haunted House is on Brecksville Road, Wheeler said, but could be shifted to the Johnson barn, though that venue has fewer rooms.

“Any of the non-physical classes can be held in the barn,” the mayor said. “And we could do yoga there. For sure, there will be no weightlifting.”

Wheeler said he is confident that spring functions, such as Arbor Day in Richfield and village cleanup day will proceed, regardless of COVID restrictions.

“We have a really safe way to give away trees and a safe way to get trash picked up in Richfield with family units,” he said “We’re planning to do the Easter Egg Hunt, but we can switch it to a scavenger hunt, where we pick out places for people to drive to and take pictures.”

The summer schedule also is progressing. “We are planning all of our summer programs,” Wheeler said. “We’ve sent out contracts for our concerts; we’re planning Community Day, the Memorial Day parade and the steak fry.”

Summer camp and the community garden also are on the docket. Toth and Kelly will oversee camp, and volunteer Ellen Daniels will be in charge of day-to-day operations of the garden.

“We are reaching out now to past gardeners to see if they want to retain their plots,” Toth said.

“We can change our minds when we get there,” Wheeler said, referring to COVID concerns. “But if everything is planned and ready to go, we’re not scrambling around at the last minute.”

When the rec center was vacated, much of the contents of the building was removed.

“Some things we don’t have room to put out, but they are stored, so if we get a community center and it’s what we want in a community center, we’ll have it,” Wheeler said. “We won’t have to rebuy it. The weights are in the fire department.”

Wheeler said there was an inventory of obsolete or unwanted equipment and furnishings that will be sold on governmentbids.com. Items unsold will be donated to charity. If anything is left, it will be tossed.

“I told our department heads, ‘If there’s something you want out of the rec center, go get it,”’ the mayor said. “Some took the spare paper; some took the exercise equipment; some took the furniture so we didn’t have to buy stuff for them. That really was a godsend.”

Wheeler also said individuals who contributed items to the rec center could come and get their property, and some did.

Among the items that had outlived their usefulness were two pottery wheels and two kilns.

“The pottery wheels are from the 1950s,” Wheeler said. “They will go up for bids. One kiln worked and the other didn’t. The one that didn’t work was expensive to fix. Neither was newer than 1959.”

Wheeler said because of its age, the pottery equipment had safety issues.

“I think we will still have pottery classes, just not with that equipment,” he said. “We’ll try to get donations [to replace it], and we’ll also look at newer reconditioned equipment.” ∞

Featured image photo caption: Laura Toth is outside one of the two buildings that were part of the Johnson farm until the village purchased it and incorporated it into Richfield Woods Park. It will now serve as an arts and craft building for summer day camp.

The Johnson Barn, which has no heat or running water, will be used for day camp this summer, with porta johns and bottled water.