City of Ronan dissolves park board
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RONAN — Decisions about the future of Bockman Park will be made by a committee of Ronan City Council members, instead of a board of citizens, after the council voted to do away with the park board on July 22.
Council members said they wanted to have more control over what happens in the park because they own it and are liable for it, yet they don’t want to hinder opportunities for public involvement. Council members said having a park board, and a city council, and a separate nonprofit that work for the betterment of the park has become cumbersome.
“We are not all on the same page,” Councilmember Cal Hardy said. “We’d like to see about getting a city committee strictly for the park, and have Dan — the public works director — part of that committee, too. We had people making decisions about putting in benches and then we were even asking the public works director. That’s probably not a good direction to go in.”
Hardy said a lot of good people have served on the park board and have wanted to help with the park.
“It just seems like we weren’t able to work together to do it,” Hardy said. “It just didn’t seem to be cohesive.”
Councilmember Chris Adler agreed.
“It got to the point where there was some animosity,” Adler said. “People weren’t communicating, then we would see something happen in the park and we are the ones who are elected. We are the ones who should have been saying yes or no.”
Ellen Kaphammer had similar concerns.
“If people are raising money for the park it needs to be run through the city,” Kaphammer said. “We need to have an accounting of that, what they are raising, and what it is for ... Then they need to call and talk to Dan and ask where and when things are going to go ... not just show up and say ‘there’s a bench coming.’”
Three councilmembers and Public Works Director Dan Miller will serve on the newly created board. Councilmembers said that the committee’s meetings will be open to the public.
