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(Gallery by Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer)

The Cleveland Metroparks almost certainly will take over state-run parks on the lakefront. The question is when? The likely answer is as early as next year.

General chatter about a management change on the lakefront is often accompanied by criticism of the paltry police protection and maintenance by the state.

The Metroparks, meanwhile, has been moving methodically toward the lake as it seeks to connect the Towpath Trail that follows the river with Wendy Park on the lakeshore

Ultimately, a trail system would link the parks and complete the Emerald Necklace.

Brian Zimmerman, the energetic executive director of the 95-year-old park system, acknowledged last week that there are ongoing talks with the state, but declined to identify who is involved.

"As soon as the state is ready to step forward, we are prepared to sit down with the city of Cleveland to discuss how the parks should be managed," he said Wednesday. The city retains title to the parks, which the state has run for about 35 years.

The state-run properties -- Villa Angela, Wildwood, Euclid Beach, Gordon Park, E. 55th St. Marina and Edgewater – are spaced out along nearly 14 miles of Cleveland lakefront. They total nearly 444 acres, including water acreage around docks, beaches and fishing piers. Edgewater, with 151 land acres, is the single largest parcel.

One impetus for a Metropark takeover is that the state has neither the money or personnel to adequately maintain those properties. A Cleveland Metroparks planner estimated earlier this year that the cash-strapped state has deferred about $16 million in maintenance.

That's one of the issues that has stirred advocates of the idea like Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek, whose North Collinwood neighborhood contains three of the state-run parks.

Cuyahoga County Probate Judge Anthony Russo, who appoints the park system's three commissioners, also has been pushing for Metroparks involvement since 2010.

The clearest signals that the Metroparks system is poised to step in occurred last week at the park commissioners' bimonthly meeting. The agenda contained no fewer that four separate items related to such a move:

•The board approved a dollar-a-year lease of a 0.9-acre parcel of county land on Whiskey Island, on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River. "The Cleveland Metroparks desires to have an access point at Wendy Park to facilitate public access to the river," the agenda item read. The county owns the island, and its eventual management by the Metroparks is considered a key component of a lakefront plan.

•The board was prepared to vote on acceptance of two county-owned parcels on the river's east bank for similar public access, but deferred that for another meeting. It would become part of 2.8-acre plot in the Flats, to be called Rivergate, and run by the Metroparks. That would also be a link in the Towpath Trail, which will join the lakefront to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park via a path along the Cuyahoga River and canal.

•Another item authorized the park system to apply to the Cleveland Foundation for a $20,000 grant to establish a so-called Urban Beach Ambassador Program. It would be staffed by volunteers, who would provide information to visitors at Edgewater and Euclid Beach state parks. The volunteers also would serve as the eyes and ears of state park staff by reporting on safety and maintenance issues.

•The final and most dramatic manifestation of lakeward momentum was the revelation of a plan for the revitalization of Edgewater Park, perhaps the most coveted and promising park in the package.

It was drafted by Leon Younger, former executive director of the Lake Metroparks and now a consultant to park systems around the country. The Cleveland Metroparks paid $25,000 for the plan, which Younger presented after the board meeting

During two weekends in September, 307 people were interviewed at Edgewater and in downtown Cleveland. Of those, 85 percent said they would be willing to pay $15 more in taxes each year so the Metroparks could operate the lakefront parks. The owner of a $100,000 house currently pays about $63 a year in tax to the Metroparks. A 10-year levy is up for renewal next year.

Location and bad reputation were the two most cited reasons for not using Edgewater in its current state.

The plan recommended that no fewer than four Metroparks rangers be assigned to Edgewater. Currently, that's about all the state has to cover all of its parks from Edgewater to Mentor Headlands in Lake County.

Within six years the plan estimates that improvements in amenities, special events and programs, facility rentals and sales would be enough to make Edgewater self-sustaining.

That would fulfill a goal laid out by Metroparks consultants who formulated a plan for the system's next decade. They urged a greater effort at cost recovery. The Metroparks' golf courses, which historically lost money, are already breaking even.

Among other things, the Edgewater plan also suggested that the park system seek partnerships that would help underwrite certain programs.

Younger said it will take time to lure people back to Edgewater, but they will return when they start seeing improvements.

Zimmerman said the Edgewater plan is not a template that could be applied to other lakefront parks, because each is different. He said the plan was based on what people said they wanted.

"We've been looking at state parkland in earnest for the past 18 months," Zimmerman said. The plan is important because when a change comes, he said, "we want to demonstrate to the public that we've done our homework."

He was delighted two weeks ago, when another organization demonstrated that it had done homework of its own on another state-run park.

Brian Friedman, executive director of Northeast Shores Community Development Corp., presented a plan it had commissioned for the revitalization of Euclid Beach, one of three state-run parks in the North Collinwood neighborhood.

Euclid Beach is the site of the much-loved amusement park of the same name, which closed in 1969.

In short, it calls for making maximum use of existing infrastructure, while making the park more accessible, more usable and more attractive.

Northeast Shores partnered with Land Studio, a local nonprofit planning and design group, to commission the Euclid Beach plan, which was created by MKSK, a Columbus-based firm specializing in landscape architecture and urban planning.

Friedman said his group does not have the funding to rebuild the park, but hopes the plan will be useful to its next stewards.

Friedman said there were several motives for commissioning the plan. One was to express the neighborhood's needs, hopes and desires for the park. Another was to give residents a realistic picture of what is possible.