BY JIMMY LAWTONNorth Country This Week

OGDENSBURG – It’s all hands on deck this year for Ogdensburg’s summer recreation programs.

The city’s been without a Recreation Director since September 2023 when Mackenzie Cole resigned the position.

The city is still hoping to fill the job with a starting salary ranging from $46,759 and $51,093 with fringe benefits, but there has been a lack of civil service applicants.

In the meantime, the Ogdensburg Recreation Department is being overseen by Department of Public Works Director Shane Brown and Interim City Manager Andrea Smith who is also working as the city planner.

Thanks to their efforts and those of the Ogdensburg Recreation Commission and various volunteers and organizations, the lack of a recreation director has not stopped the city from moving forward with its summer recreation camps.

This year the city is offering camps for track and field, baseball, cheer, soccer, tumbling, basketball, softball, lacrosse, volleyball and wrestling.

The city also still appears to be on track to open the pool, though that hasn’t been publicly addressed in an official capacity at this time.

Arts council concerns

But that doesn’t mean the vacancy isn’t causing strain on the city. Aside from overseeing numerous programs and activities at the Lockwood Arena and City Pool, the recreation director has also traditionally served as the city’s liaison for the Ogdensburg Arts Council. The lack of a recreation director has contributed to problems with that commission which saw resignations recently due to the inability for the commission to meet.

Arts Council board member Chantel Ehler spoke to council during a public session May 13 and offered harsh criticism for the lack of support from City Council regarding the commission. 

“How are you not embarrassed? I’m embarrassed. I think it’s a travesty. I’m supposed to be representative of this community and assist the council by helping you… I’m supposed to work with the staff… It’s on your website about what we’re supposed to do and I’m told to sit and wait,” she said.

Mayor Michael Tooley said he was unaware of the Ogdensburg Arts Council issues until they were raised by Ehler in emails.

“Personally I wasn't aware there were any issues until this string of emails began yesterday among members of the arts council,” he said before adding that the city would work to address the issue.

“We are very interested in seeing the arts council get underway. At the same time the request for a member of the staff admin team to be a liaison as part of the committee has been a challenge and it's something personally that I'd like to wait and defer until such time that we have our next city manager in place,” he said.

Councilor Jennifer Stevenson asked if the city could temporarily appoint a city council member to serve as a liaison in the interim and said she believed the city should work to address the concerns raised by Ehler.

It appears that following the recent resignation, the board would lack quorum at this point, even if the city did appoint a liaison.

Still rebuilding

Councilor Michael Powers noted that the city has been redressing a lot of issues that had fallen by the wayside during the previous administration and the pandemic.

He noted that the situation that led to resignations on the arts council were unfortunate, but pointed out that the city is struggling in other areas as well. 

“I think that ultimately going forward we continue to push as we have… to continue to see these things though,” he said.

Powers noted that there is a lot of frustration in the community at the moment.

“We’re coming into May, we’re coming into summer and we don’t have a rec director and unfortunately that position sat over the arts council,” he said.

Powers said that while he didn’t want to slight the arts council situation, the problems the city’s facing are multifaceted.

“We've got baseball coming up, we've got softball, we've got all these children's activities, a pool to open, there's a lot of things going on and it's just unfortunate. I think we just keep plugging away.”

The city did not take action, but Tooley noted that a report on the recreation department and situation would be provided at the next meeting.