RICK MILLER RESIGNS AFTER 16 YEARS OF PARK SPIRIT SERVICE

Rick Miller volunteering at the Elm Park Summer Concert Series, 2017

Park Spirit’s second longest serving Board of Director, Rick Miller, has resigned from his role as Director and Treasurer of the Organization.

In a Board of Directors meeting held via ZOOM on Monday evening, November 16th, Miller formally resigned his position, following a resignation letter submit to the Board of Directors on Saturday, November 14th.

Joining Park Spirit in 2002, Miller has worn ‘many hats’ and played a primary role in Park Spirit’s growth and development, especially in recent years.

Miller was one of two Directors to maintain their role 2015-2016, following the resignation of the rest of the Board and all of the officers.

Best known for his pioneering work revitalizing Newton Hill at Elm Park, Miller personally got the project off the ground in 2001 following his personal exploration of the historic parkland and his grassroots organizing with neighbors. His group, the Friends of Newton Hill at Elm Park, transformed the 41-acres section of Elm Park marred with overgrowth, litter, and illicit activity, into one of the City’s premier park spaces, ripe with new recreational resources: an 18-hole disc golf course; 12-station fitness circuit; and a network of trails and paths, and a positive presence created by a group of volunteers who maintained the section of the park and coordinated free, public access events like the Newton Square Summer Concert Series.

Miller at Newton Hill circa 2001 as volunteers help clear overgrowth from the Newton Trail leading up Newton Hill from Newton Square.

Miller has served in various formal capacities over his sixteen-year tenure on Park Spirit’s Board, including President and most recently, Treasurer from 2013 - 2020.

The East-West Trail’s existence can be credited to Miller, as he was responsible for Park Spirit’s adoption of the East-West Trail, introducing the concept to the group in 2015 and eliciting a formal commitment from the Board to both finance the trail’s first blazes and to promote and support its use and maintenance.

Miller was the primary volunteer staff-person for the Elm Park Summer Concert Series 2014-2019, coordinating all onsite logistics and set up. He balanced this volunteer commitment with on site setup and staffing at concert series at other parks as well, juggling as many as five concert series at once at the height of Park Spirit’s free summer concert operations in 2017.

The public opening of Bancroft Tower at Salisbury Park in 2014 can also be credited to the advocacy and behind the scenes negotiations of Miller, who served as interlocutor between City officials, Park Spirit’s board, and neighborhood pushback, ultimately resulting in Park Spirit’s success obtaining city permitting to open the historic structure to public viewing for the first time in nearly two decades.

Under Miller’s leadership, Park Spirit has grown exponentially to better represent Worcester parks and Worcester park users, reflecting the unlimited potential offered by both.

Rick Miller has shaped an age of park advocacy and park improvement, unseen in Worcester since the time of Edward Winslow Lincoln, Obediah Hadwen, and Stephen Salisbury III in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century.

In his letter to the Board of Directors, Miller cited that he feels his resignation is necessary, “to protect the integrity, honor, and well-being” of Park Spirit. He is pursuing a legal challenge to determine if the land at Newton Hill was properly transferred to the School Department, as the City has not been able to provide any supporting documentation. “My convictions to seek truth regarding the City of Worcester and the taking of park land for non-park purposes will require legal action on my behalf and it is my personal choice as a resident taxpayer. Most importantly I feel it is necessary to do so as a private citizen and not as a representative of an organization of which I care deeply about.”

Miller committed to see through the completion of the East-West Trail Recreational Trails Grant signage project and to assist in all transitions necessary for the outstanding treasury duties. Miller will maintain his role as President of the Friends of Newton Hill at Elm Park, as it is an autonomously operating member organization of Park Spirit and does not play a formal role in Park Spirit’s administration.

Park Spirit Director Conor McCormack will serve as Acting Treasurer until elections are held in 2021.

Written by Brittany Legasey and pictures by Brittany Legasey and Carleen Miller.