Is Richmond Heights family friendly? Under Mayor Daniel Ursu, the answer has been no.

A plan for a family friendly Richmond Heights.  

Our DeSan Park

DeSan Park, located on Trebisky Road, is where the children of the Richmond Heights Amateur Athletic Association (RHAAA) participate in youth baseball. For years, our children and their parents have had to contend with broken restrooms, an unusable concession stand, run down baseball fields that frequently flood because of poor drainage and an unsightly adjacent weed-filled lot which used to house tennis courts. Yet, the Mayor still sends the RHAAA a $1000 bill for “maintenance.”

Contrast that with Mayor Ursu’s use of taxpayer funds on the city-owned Greenwood Farms, a seldom used 30-acre property located on Richmond Road. With the help of $21,000 of your taxpayer dollars, the mayor secured a partial grant to build a drainage and stormwater retention basins. That’s in addition to the nearly $500,000 the city has already spent on maintenance.

Our children deserve better.

 

Our Richmond Heights City Pool

In 2013, Richmond Heights was the only community in Cuyahoga County not to have an open public pool. That fact bears repeating. In 2013, Richmond Heights was the only community in Cuyahoga County not to have an open public pool.

Our current mayor has said that the decision to close our pool was a matter of “priorities.” But let’s do the math. Our pool has annual expenses of $100,000. Our pool brings in annual revenue of $90,000. This means that it only takes $10,000 to keep our pool open for the enjoyment of the children and families of Richmond Heights.

Now let’s revisit the curious case of Greenwood Farms. Our current mayor saw fit to use $21,000 of your taxpayer dollars on Greenwood Farms instead of securing the funds needed to keep our community’s pool open.

To put it simply, having an open public pool for the families of Richmond Heights was not a priority for our current mayor.

The families of Richmond Heights deserve better.

 

Solutions for the families of Richmond Heights

As a wife and the mother of two children who participate in RHAAA youth baseball, I understand the importance of recreation services to a community. A strong recreation department and a variety of community activities help foster a sense of pride and inclusion in our community.   

If elected mayor I will:

• Keep our pool open for our families
• Resolve the drainage and maintenance issues of the DeSan Park baseball fields
• Provide our children with a soccer field at DeSan Park
• Utilize our community gazebo for events that attract our entire community
• Start a “Family Movie Night at the Pool” event series
• Have a yearly Richmond Heights Family Day event
• Ensure our city’s recreation activities provide employment and volunteer opportunities to our community’s youth
• Ensure the recreational needs of the families of Richmond Heights are a continuing priority

I promise to make recreation programs that serve our entire community a priority. I promise to treat all organizations and constituencies equally.

Sincerely,

Miesha Wilson Headen

Council at Large

Candidate for Mayor of Richmond Heights

How much does Greenwood Farm annually cost the City?

Update as of 6/25/13:  At the request of Mayor Ursu, Council members Eloise Henry, David Roche, Mark Alexander, Marcia Morgan, and Don O’Toole voted to give Greenwood Farms an additional $21,000 in tax payer dollars on June 25, 2013.  See Legislation 38-2013 and the vote in City Council.

The total purchase price of Greenwood Farm and all associated properties was approximately $664,000.  The City of Richmond Heights purchased the parcels from over two years (2004 – 2006). 

The property is more or less located at the intersection of Richmond Road and Chardon Road. It consists of approximately 17 acres.  The current market value assessed by the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office is $408,300 -- a decrease in value of 38.5%.

Even though the City of Richmond Heights is financially responsible for the routine maintenance of Greenwood Farm, the City does not control the property.  Greenwood Farm is controlled by a separate corporate entity, called Greenwood Farm Historical, Cultural & Arts Association, Inc. (GFHCAA).  It has a separate board of directors and this board is responsible for the property’s control of business affairs and funds.  There is no public access to the property.

For at least the past three years, the GFHCAA has never appeared before City Council to report on how it uses tax-payer funds, plans to be utilized for the public interest, and intends to achieve financial self sufficiency.

Annually, the City appropriates (or gives) thousands of dollars to Greenwood Farm.  GFHCAA also raises its own funding through multiple events, such as the upcoming Junk in the Trunk rummage sale.  Again, GFHCAA has not reported to the City in the past three years about how much money the organization raises or its intent to supplement tax-payer dollars.

Similar to the other properties owned by the City of Richmond Heights, the cost of maintenance of Greenwood Farm (labor and materials from the Service Department, interest in the Bond Retirement Fund, and assorted expenditures in other funds) is accounted for in the general bucket and cannot be easily or transparently itemized.