By Michael Howell
Raymond Smith, Chairman of the Stevensville Park Board, has submitted a letter of resignation to the Town, stating, “I have realized the present Mayor does not have faith in the leadership of this board.”
The letter recounts the work that the Park Board has accomplished under his leadership.
“The new playground and skatepark project came together due to the establishment of the present board.
“We have had success in reaching out to local youth groups and school groups. They all have performed community activities to better our parks, by cleaning the River Park the past two years and the tree city initiative. We have done the community clean-up and tree planting for the community.
“We have started the process of looking at the pool to address the issues existing there. We have tried to work and establish other programs to better our recreation system.
“We recently took on the River Park land swap. I feel the present board has the ability to provide Mayor and Council with the answers. The River Park has many issues that need to be addressed slow and methodically.”
Smith said that he decided to resign when he got wind of the Mayor’s efforts to form a special committee to consider the land swap.
Mayor Jim Crews brought a proposal to the Town Council at a previous meeting to establish a special committee to investigate the land swap proposal, but when Smith spoke up saying that it was the traditional and defined task of the Parks and Recreation Board to consider issues dealing with the town’s parks, the Council decided to explicitly task the board with investigating the proposal.
Now, according to Smith, he heard secondhand from a person asked to potentially serve on the committee that the Mayor was going forward with his desire to form a committee.
“The Mayor has the authority to set up his own committee,” said Smith. “But under the circumstances, and without even informing me, I believe it shows a lack of faith in my efforts. So, at this point, I’m just going to leave things to him.”
When contacted, Mayor Crews said, “Yes, I have initiated a four-person committee to augment the Park Board. As Mayor I have every right to set up a committee.” He said that he may not have talked to Smith about it. “We are really busy at Town Hall and I don’t have time to run around trying to talk to people.”
“In my opinion,” said Crews, “I feel like I’m being pushed around by people threatening to resign. I gave Council the chance to set up a committee and they turned me down. I feel like I am not getting enough information and feedback, so I’m stimulating it a bit.”
“It really has upset me,” Crews said. “It upset me a lot. I didn’t want to see it come to this.”
Crews said that he asked the Park Board to look into making a Park Plan and start by looking at the town of Superior’s park plan, but they tabled the issue.
“I asked them to look into it and I haven’t heard anything,” he said.