Demonstrating Vital Leadership
Steubenville officials are in the process of demonstrating leadership of the sort so often absent among elected officials. They are discussing a dramatic cut in the number of parks the city maintains.
It is difficult to imagine an issue more apt to provoke angry controversy. People like parks, playgrounds and similar recreational facilities. They tend to not like public officials who say parks are no longer affordable.
City Council members have begun reviewing a list of 14 municipal parks. At some point, they may decide to keep some open with city maintenance and to close others or offer them to community members and organizations for continued operation.
“We have 14 parks for 17,000 residents,” pointed out Councilman Bob Villamagna. “If we can take care of the top five parks, no one can complain,” he added.
Whew! That would amount to a cut of nearly two-thirds of the recreational areas the city now maintains. While some might be adopted by people or groups, some might simply be abandoned.
Once a booming industrial city, Steubenville has had to adapt to loss of steel mills and the jobs and local government revenue they provided for many years. The municipality’s population has shrunk to about the same level as in 1960, about 4,000 below what it was just 20 years ago.
That has forced local officials to make changes in how city government operates. They have had no choice.
Still, cutting back on parks, even with the public input council members plan to obtain, will be unpopular among many Steubenville residents. Doing what needs to be done sometimes requires courage — and city officials are to be commended for it.
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