Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony- Amanda Jones and Maggie Blossey with Mayor Bobst. The young ladies passed out candy along the parade route.
Imagine sitting on a bench overlooking a twinkling, blue lake while eating a delicious ice cream cone. Children laugh as they create sand castles and teens text each other while sun bathing. I don’t have to imagine this picturesque scene because I have visited Rocky River Park (after getting lost in tangle town once or twice) Rocky River Park is just one the amazing places to visit in Rocky River, Ohio. The city has great restaurants, unique shops and much more. At the helm is Mayor Pamela Bobst, her strong leadership has allowed the community to flourish.
“Can you please tell me about your family?”
“I have three children. They’re all in their 20’s and out of college and they’re all working. Our oldest, Matthew is 29. He lives in Columbus and is a commercial real estate broker. Our middle daughter, Christine, has a culinary arts and hospitality management degree. She’s working for a couple of companies in the food industry and she lives here. She is 27. Caroline is our youngest, she’s 25 and lives in downtown Cleveland. She is an accounting risk consultant, mainly in the banking industry. She works for one of the big accounting firms. It’s great to have them in the state of Ohio.”
“Who is your celebrity crush and why?”
“Wow, I have never thought about that, I would have to say, Kevin Costner. Kevin Costner filmed Draft Day here. He was so complimentary about the city. He loved the city. His co-star was Jennifer Garner, both of them loved the city of Rocky River.”
“What is your greatest challenge as a mayor?”
“If you would have asked me this a few years ago, obviously it was the finances of the city, there continues to be some economic pressure but not anywhere near before. In the last few years with the down turn in the economy, there were pressures on the city; actually, we responded to them very, very well. We cut the budget, we prioritized very effectively and some past planning served us very well. We were able to weather that storm. We became a more efficient and effective government, hopefully, residents didn’t see all those cuts that we had made, we maintained services…We are accelerating our investment in infrastructure. We are doing projects throughout the city…I think one of the greatest challenges for any institution, particularly government, especially today with social media, is the dissemination of accurate information. With things like Facebook and other social media outlets, a lot of misinformation gets perpetuated, it sort of becomes the information of the day. There’s information missing or that’s not accurate information. That’s very concerning to us but I think we do a very good job. We get a lot of good feedback from the residents that we are good communicators. Hopefully, residents are on ready notify. Whenever we are doing a construction project, we try to capture every email address so that we can on a continuous basis, a weekly basis, notify residents what we are doing. We are all about communication. Sometimes things get communicated that you can’t control. It can be frustrating when residents are upset because of misinformation. We encourage people to call us if they want timely, factual information…Communication is always key, my door is always open.”
“What is the greatest change you’ve seen since becoming mayor eleven years ago?”
“Rocky River is a very stable community. One of the things we are seeing is wide spread investment. There was even investment even during the down turn in the economy. We’re seeing residential investment, commercial investment, institutional investment in the city; which really speaks to residents desire to invest, the community is worthy of their investment. They want to stay here, build the community, strengthen the community. In terms of infrastructure, we got grants to pay for some of our largest infrastructure projects…It’s a great day when you hear people from Chagrin Falls come over to visit our shops and eat at our restaurants…”
“Do you have a message for the Rocky River community?”
“Get involved, especially if there’s something you want to see improved. We’re always looking for great ideas and great solutions for things residents care about. There’s a real openness to those ideas and how those ideas can turn into action. It doesn’t do the residents any good if we don’t turn their ideas into action; when we can or at least explain what we have to overcome before we can make something a reality. I always talk about building and strengthening and sustaining a community that our children can be proud to call home. Rocky River should be a place we are proud of to call home. Somethings government controls and other things government can’t control, like what gets posted on Facebook. The things that we can control, we want to be that momentum, an active force and participant in making this the best community we can be. We do that in partnership with our residents, first and foremost. Also with business owners and property owners that care. I have the greatest job in the world.”
“Who would you like to nominate for a SHOUT OUT?”
“I nominate Samantha Manoloff. She is the creator of River Sprouts.
During our conversation, Mayor Bobst spoke passionately about wanting to help all Rocky River residents, both young and old. When my son was 6 years old, he called 911 because I had fainted. A couple weeks later after the incident, Mayor Bobst sent Elijah a note telling him how brave he acted. We framed the letter and he still talks about it to this day. Thank you, Mayor Bobst, for your dedication and hard work. GO PIRATES!
Mayor Bobst greeting elected Mayor Duke of Cormorant, Minnesota. Mayor Duke is up for re-election this coming Saturday. Good luck Duke!
It's All Good 