RESOLUTION

In Support of the Restoration, Maintenance, and Preservation of the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve, McGuffey Family Pond and Dock Within the Mill Creek Metroparks - Environmental Affairs

WHEREAS, the Ohio State Conference of NAACP branches (herein, the State Conference) was founded in 1937, subsequent to the 1919 founding of the Youngstown branch, to fight for civil rights and racial equality and continues its advocacy until today with more than 37 branches throughout the state of Ohio; and

WHEREAS, the Youngstown, Ohio municipality demographics has a majority population of people of color that it calls home; and

WHEREAS, two specific instances where the State Conference engaged in historical advocacy for the integration of public accommodations that follow: 1) Cincinnati’s Coney Island Amusement Park in 1952, with a sustained campaign that included picket lines, organized boycotts and legal pressure, and 2) the school desegregation case, Penick v. Columbus Board of Education (1977) which led to a court-ordered desegregation plan for Columbus public schools (23-years after the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas) and related public accommodations, such as school facilities, buses, and extracurricular venues, such as gyms, auditoriums, and other spaces that had been informally segregated; and

WHEREAS, while legal segregation has ended, the legacy of exclusion has lasting effects on how different communities interact with these types of natural spaces. The ongoing efforts to make parks more inclusive are part of a broader movement to address and rectify lingering history of nature- space- segregation; and

WHEREAS, William Holmes McGuffey, a renowned educator, an internationally known reading expert, formerly a university president and author of the universally relied upon Eclectic Readers, a favorite son of Ohio, known as “America’s Storyteller” and “America’s Schoolmaster,” whose family legacy includes teaching Black people to read during a period in U.S. history when it was illegal to do so; and

WHEREAS, the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve, the former McGuffey family homestead, McGuffey Road, Coitsville Township, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966, by the U .S. Department of the Interior (DOI), National Park Service (NPS), a designation that carries with it the rare recognition of exceptional value in commemoration or illustration of the history of the United States; and

WHEREAS, in 1998, the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society donated 73 acres of McGuffey Wildlife Preserve, which includes the McGuffey Family Pond and Dock, along with a $15,000.00 for maintenance, to the Mill Creek Metroparks, governed by a Board of Commissioners (the Commissioner or Commissioners), with the pond and dock subsequently not being properly maintained, to allow residents to utilize them; and

WHEREAS, Youngstown’s East Side, Campbell and Coitsville Township, a local community that consists of low- and moderate-income families, many of whom are Black and Brown people, differently abled, seniors and several public schools. This north east section of Youngstown’s metropolitan district is deprived of access, education, a nature alternative for youth that are overexposed to technology, recreation for abled and differently abled individuals, seniors, residents with few if any transportation sources, and the pond serves as a watering source for wildlife, which families could view from the dock when the pond functions and can be programmed for use as a reflection space, for education purposes, including reading activities; and

WHEREAS, restoration, maintenance, and preservation of the pond and dock will ensure the historical integrity of the facility, which encompasses seventy-three acres of woods, trails, that also can be used for recreation, hiking and biking, bird-watching, a historical marker, the McGuffey Family Well, and other unique geological features; and

WHEREAS, as recent as summer 2024, low to moderate income families, a decisively large number people of color population and the differently abled are being denied an equal Mill Creek Metroparks facility, with a functioning pond water feature; and

WHEREAS, the Commissioners have been approached on numerous occasions to rectify this 26 years-long period of neglect, to no avail; to the contrary, the Commission brazenly refuses to entertain or adequately consider the idea of remedying the damage to the legacy of Mill Creek Metroparks itself and the exclusion of a huge swath of the community; and

WHEREAS, Richard S. Scarsella, Chair, Board of Trustees, William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society, has brought this issue to the attention of the Association’s Youngstown branch; and

WHEREAS, Richard S. Scarsella, Chair, Board of Trustees, William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society, marshaled the support of at least 17 organizations that included more than 17 leaders, including the following: the Youngstown Branch of the NAACP, a U.S. Senator, a U.S Congressman, an Ohio State Senator, three Ohio State Representatives, Mahoning County Commissioners,14 nonprofits and foundations, including Gabba Camp for Adults with Disabilities, who sent letters to the Mill Creek Metroparks Board of Commissions chair, Lee Frey, its whole board and executive directors, one of which went to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, that explicitly encourages the rectification of the grossly neglected McGuffey Wildlife Preserve at Millcreek Metroparks, specifically, the William Holmes McGuffey Family Pond and Dock and to immediately begin restoration of the pond, dock, and wetland, and regularly maintain and make available to the taxpayers, all which pay a county-wide park levy tax; and

WHEREAS, the Mill Creek Metroparks, on its website, acknowledges and promotes the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve, even though its intended use is abated due to an overgrown, silted and neglected pond, wetland and the dock that was completely removed in 2023, due to safety concerns; and

WHEREAS, the Mill Creek Metroparks has not replied to a letter from the Youngstown NAACP branch, yet again it refuses to rectify the aforementioned issues; and

WHEREAS, Mill Creek Metroparks has previously restored water features elsewhere in the park, by dredging the park’s Lily Pond, on Youngstown’s West Side, a majority White community, and dredging Lake Newport and Wetland, in the suburb of Boardman, almost exclusively a White community; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Ohio State Conference of NAACP branches unequivocally supports the restoration, maintenance, and preservation of the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve, McGuffey Family Pond and Dock, Mill Creek Metroparks; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Ohio State Conference of NAACP demands that the Mill Creek Metroparks Board of Commissioners act swiftly to correct the harm caused to the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve McGuffey Family Pond and Dock and the community that it serves and apply for an Ohio EPA dredging permit; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Ohio State Conference of NAACP whole-heartedly recommends that Mill Creek Metroparks Board of Commissioners utilize the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society commissioned Next Nature Associates’ proposal (an organization of conservation, restoration and preservation experts) that it has in its possession, as the blueprint andaction plan, to remediate the neglect of the McGuffey Wildlife Preserve, McGuffey Family Pond and Dock and the community that it serves; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Ohio State Conference of NAACP insists that the Mill Creek Metroparks Board of Commissioners produce and support a budget that will achieve the proposed Next Nature Associates’ plan and future maintenance; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Ohio State Conference of NAACP calls upon the Mill Creek Metroparks Board of Commissioners to collaborate with the Ohio State Conference of the NAACP and its Youngstown branch, the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society, Next Nature Associates and the Youngstown’s East Side, Campbell and Coitsville Township community leaders to schedule and pay for one charrette at a time that will elicit the most community participation, in order for Next Nature Associates to share its plan with the community and gain community insights that may strengthen the proposal; and

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the Ohio State Conference of NAACP requests that the Mill Creek Metroparks Board of Commissioners apologize to the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society, McGuffey family members and the communities that have been deprived access to a functional pond and dock and the benefit of social cohesion in the Youngstown Metropolitan District.