SANDUSKY — City officials still haven’t provided clarity on the decision to eliminate out-of-school recreation department program rooms from the plans emerging for a new city fitness center.
Local families campaigned in 2023, urging others to vote for a recreation levy for a kids center—not a high-end adult fitness facility. Yet, community concerns continue to grow that the City Commission is allowing the kids’ center to be hijacked. Nearly $300,000 in taxpayer funds were allocated toward treadmills, ellipticals, and cardio equipment earlier this year, while dedicated out-of-school learning rooms for children are quietly being stripped from the plans.
In response to my request asking how city leadership justifies eliminating the specialized program rooms at the former Mills School—including the art room, the reading and writing room, the podcasting studio, and the learn-to-sew room, among others—City Hall has offered no explanation.
A ‘systemic connection’
In systemic terms, stripping children of dedicated, enriching spaces without transparent public discussion is part of a broader pattern in local governance. It mirrors how decisions are made—and who is excluded when those decisions are handed down.
That pattern isn’t just felt by the neighborhood families who hold the least political power in these rooms; it is reflected inside City Hall itself.
City government has a profound systemic employment problem, according to Tondra Frisby, who until recently was one of the few Black supervisors employed on the City of Sandusky’s workforce, in its entire history.
Stay Tuned Sandusky obtained Frisby’s employment exit interview dated October 2, 2026, after making a public records request to the city. Frisby details in it an organizational environment marked by unaddressed discrimination, a lack of cultural diversity training, and what she described as a “looming sense of privilege amongst upper-level staff, that is apparent and recognized by the minority staff.”
Frisby wrote that when she faced discrimination from a co-worker, her direct superiors minimized the severity of the situation.
“Several incidents after this,” she wrote, “has led me to know there is a racial tone in this organization that needs to be addressed.”
Unanswered questions
While I submitted inquiries Monday regarding the design changes and the reduction of dedicated youth spaces at the rec center, I have not yet submitted formal inquiries to the City Manager or Commission President regarding Frisby’s exit interview claims. Those questions will be put to them in a follow-up inquiry.
Whether it is a supervisory employee documenting systemic workplace issues or working-class parents watching a promised kids’ center turn into a $10 million adult fitness center, the underlying thread remains the same: decisions that remove critical public services and marginalize community voices continue to happen behind closed doors.
Stay tuned for updates as this story develops.