TRIGGER WARNING ‼️ I’m going to share information from the most recent Parks & Recreation Board meeting & my opinions on it. Side bar: I was not in attendance. However, I have a recording of the meeting & a meeting report from council member Klockowski. Let’s jump in, shall we?

Alright @everyone. Right off the bat, Mr. Myerholtz told council in January that he believed HIS CONNECTIONS & HIS POSITION on a board in Toledo with “7 times the budget” of Weston would be able to help facilitate these inclusive park updates…but but but, they NOW think the funding could come from a Nationwide grant or a Wood County Plays Grant. 🤔 Now, I don’t always like to say I told you so, but I will be saying it a few times in this post. This is what Rob does. He says “I know a guy” or “I’ve worked with (insert whatever is being talked about) so I know what I’m talking about” and he used that same rhetoric this time to weasel his way back into our government & right back into deciding how OUR tax money gets spent.

SPEAKING OF OUR TAX MONEY….I have some bad news that you guys might not be aware of. Weston is BROKE. Don’t take just my word for it…take Jessica Susor & Erica Rupp’s word as well. They are council members. At the Admin Process meeting on Monday, Jessica Susor said “And we were already into our spending margin more than we are comfortable with. We'll see where we're at once you get our revenues back that might shift.” In which Ms. Rupp interjected with, “so there’ll be no spending.” To that, Jessica agreed. I’m building up to something here, bear with me. During this meeting in which finances are talked about…many other times, it was stressed that Weston just does NOT have the funds for this or for that. HOWEVERRRRRRR, apparently we have the funds to approve a purchase for a BRAND SPANKIN NEW laptop for Doug Marion to the tune of ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. I’ll remind you who he is, if you forgot. He is the chairperson for Parks & Rec. Here’s where that 2nd “I told you so” comes in. I told you that Parks & Rec could NOT steal actual money from the village. It’s not possible. Butttttttttt they could ABSOLUTELY approve a purchase for a $1000 laptop for someone to take home and, oh I DON’T KNOW, use for personal use or even use for BUSINESS use. Times are obviously tough for Doug Marion’s business if his “business partner” was…well you remember what happened.

Now, all of this is ALLEGED & they haven’t purchased a laptop yet (that I am aware of) but Parks & Rec has DONE NOTHING with their budget since Krystine left. So what does this individual or this board even NEED a laptop for? They don’t do ANYTHING. What do they need that quality of a computer for if they aren’t even planning events, programs or truly doing anything else? If they do attempt to do anything, it’s usually outside of their scope anyway. They didn’t spend their budget or prove they even needed said budget last year. Now, here they are months into this year and the only thing they did was bring Myerholtz back (after we voted him out) & approve to purchase a laptop (that Weston cannot afford) for Doug Marion. I mean, for “Parks & Rec”.

I think council should absolutely step in & stop this from happening. They can give them a village issued iPad. That’s what I was given when I, successfully, ran this department. The first year I did it, I only had my phone & it was totally fine. From planning events, communicating with all board members and various volunteers, creating flyers for events and programs, creating VIDEO content for our group, contacting vendors, creating maps, documentation, and everything in between, I used my phone or the village issued iPad. So I think Parks & Rec needs to justify a $1000 expenditure when that’s a HUGE portion of their budget. How will that purchase benefit our community? How will it benefit the parks or any sort of recreation?

They’ve worked SO HARD to make sure they flew under the radar publicly & even council turned a blind eye to them. They also have 2 maybe 3 council members who try REALLY hard to make sure they can do whatever they want (or do nothing) & not have to be held responsible. Those council members are Erica Rupp, Ashley Patel and MAYBE Travis Ackerman. (The jury is still out on him) Their total lack of transparency is so weird because when I was heading that department, Myerholtz & his crew of shirts acted as if we couldn’t do anything as a group of volunteers and now all of a sudden, Parks & Rec is basically their own entity & they don’t have to answer to ANYONE…not even council. At least that’s how Erica Rupp & Rob Myerholtz see it.

So, let’s quickly go over what we learned. Or if you’re me…what we already knew.

  1. Rob is a liar. He will say & do whatever to stay relevant. (Or try to 😬)
  2. Weston is broke. ☹️
  3. WE (the Weston taxpayer) are going to probably have to purchase a laptop for Doug Marion. 🤬
  4. The village usually has iPads that members involved in local government can use, if needed.
  5. The Mayor is FULLY aware of everything that’s going on. Not only that, he is co-signing every step of it. WHICH IS FURTHER CRAZY because Mayor Easterwood told me that he thinks that budget should be spent on mulch “like it used to be”. Now he defends Parks & Rec & their outrageous laptop purchases like Rob Myerholtz is his neighbor or something. 🤷🏻‍♀️
  6. Council is also aware of this, BUT let’s see how they proceed. We already know that Erica Rupp & Ashley Patel will vote based on whatever they know Rob Myerholtz wants. (yes, even now) However, that is NOT a majority, so we have to give council the opportunity to do the right thing. I do have faith in some of them!

I have hoped for immediate results in the past & that wasn’t fair of me. I will try my best to be patient because public service IS NOT EASY. Some of those people in there are GOOD PEOPLE. We cannot look at them as a whole. & I’m sorry for being a little more quiet lately. I missed a couple of meetings. Life was taking swings at me & then the last council meeting felt defeating so I needed to take a step back! Butttttt, apparently I just can’t stay away! Plus, we can’t really let them keep doing this shady crap, right? I mean COME ON.

Until next time folks!