BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – All this week, News 4 has been showing you the shoddy conditions at some Erie County parks.
Our reports have caught the attention of the Erie County comptroller, who is seeking Chris Collins’ job as county executive. Now, the condition of the Erie County parks has become a political football in the race for Erie County executive.
Comptroller Mark Poloncarz said, “You just don’t fix one thing and say the parks are in the best shape ever.”
Poloncarz is firing back at Chris Collins. The Democratic candidate for Erie County executive is taking issue with a Collins political ad.
Collins says in the ad, “Our county parks and beaches are not only open for evryone to enjoy, but they’re in the best shape they’ve ever been in.”
Poloncarz visited seven parks, took photographs, available on Flickr, and shot video showing less than desirable conditions, which you can watch below.
In the video, Poloncarz says, “If this is the best shape it’s been in in years, I hate to see what it looked like beforehand.”
In response, Collins campaign spokesperson Stefan Mychajliw says the Collins administration actually increased funding to parks by 20 percent. Read the full response from Collins on the state of the parks here.
“That is a fact that politician Poloncarz does not want you or the people to know. He has a pattern of either lying or basically using smoke and mirrors,” said Mychajliw.
But Poloncarz accuses Collins of “hiding” behind what he calls a “misleading campaign commercial.”
Poloncarz said, “I think it’s fair to say that under the Collins administration, Erie County’s jewel, its park system, is failing. It’s a combination of not enough maintenance, and a lot of the maintenance comes from not having enough workers on hand.”
We did our own inspection of some county parks earlier this week, which are all linked on the left-hand side of this story, and we found potential safety hazards like broken concrete floors, loose or broken picnic tables and crumbling shelters.
“In any kind of city, county, state park or federal park for that respect, you’re always going to find needs for an room for improvement at a number of different parks. These parks are open because of the administration of Chris Collins. And if you remember the very dark days under previous politicians, during the red and green budget crisis, parks were not open,” recalled Mychajliw.