As one of the most sought-after suburbs in Northeast Ohio, Westlake has a lot going for it: enviable housing stock, incredible amenities, excellent schools and it’s close to everything. But unbeatable city services and civil servants who regularly go above and beyond for residents help make it a true community.
Find out more about how the city services assist residents:
COMMUNITY SERVICES DEPARTMENT
Driven by an overarching mission to engage, enrich and empower those they serve, the Community Services Department focuses on social service programs for residents of all ages and programs for those who are 50 and older.
Those social services include a food pantry for residents in need, outreach and home visits for those who could benefit from extra assistance, youth services and about 50 rides a day for residents over 60.
“We have all kinds of low-cost or free activities, classes and programs for people who are plus 50, such as lifelong learning classes, art classes, movies, social gatherings, luncheons and a lot of very fun and different activities like cardio drumming and chair volleyball, Things you’re not going to find everywhere,” says Lydia Gadd, director of Community Services.
It’s the plus 50 programming that you’ll see on display at the new Community Services building on the campus of the Recreation Department, which along with a caring staff, are the true standouts of her department every day, Gadd says.
“First and foremost, our facility itself is above and beyond. Every aspect of this building was geared toward age-friendly design,” says Gadd, noting that the building was nationally recognized. In fact, Gadd and the architect team presented at the National Convention on Aging on the topic of reframing aging with building design.
“We really looked at decreasing all the obstacles that keep someone at home and isolated. There are special features for people who are hard of hearing, have diminished vision and/or mobility issues. We are a one-story building, and we don’t have any curbs. Even our restrooms are designed in a way that helps break the obstacles that keep people home.”
The building is modern industrial with an open and airy feel and lots of windows inviting in natural light.
“It’s just kind of a joyful place,” Gadd adds. “We break the perception of what people envision when they think of a senior center.”
A cafe serving from-scratch sandwiches, soups and salads (open to anyone in the community 10:30 a.m to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Friday) and “spontaneous seating” areas are the heart and soul of how people actually start turning acquaintances into friendships, Gadd says.
“What we’re trying to do is give people an opportunity to have social connections as they get older,” she says. “It’s all about creating community. We all want to belong at any age.”
Community Services is staffed by caring, empathetic employees who are invested in the lives and well-being of residents.
“We want to know who you are. We want to call you by name and hear your stories,” Gadd says. “And if we notice someone hasn’t shown up for something and it’s not like them, someone will give them a call to check on them.”
Community Services also partners with the other city departments to promote the health, wellness and safety of Westlake residents. Those efforts include blood pressure paramedic clinics once a month with Westlake Fire and St. John Medical Center, as well as regular visits from the police for education on keeping safe and to warn about scams. In addition, police officers co-host a monthly coffee get together with veterans.
ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
Working hand-in-hand with the Building Department, the Engineering Department is responsible for plans and programs related to the city infrastructure such as storm and sanitary sewers, roadways, sidewalks and drainage.
“Anytime someone wants to pour a driveway, then engineering’s involved. We’re also responsible for the drainage of lots and grading,” says Jim Smolik, director of Engineering. “All capital infrastructure runs through the engineering department.”
But where the Engineering Department truly shines is when it comes to community outreach. In fact, Westlake is widely considered one of the leaders in Northeast Ohio for public education on ways to mitigate flooded and wet basements, Smolik says.
In the case of a basement flooding, a member of the Engineering Department will come out, do an investigation and then recommend a mitigation technique to solve the issue.
“We actually perform diagnostic testing in homes where people have repeated flooding problems,” Smolik says. “We do what we call a dye test, and we introduce water in their downspouts with dye and test their exterior plumbing of the home to make sure all that was functioning properly, and then to identify where the weaknesses are for their system.”
In 2023, the city expanded this long-standing program. Every time a waterproofing permit is submitted, Smolik will review and make sure it’s an appropriate fix for the issue because basement flooding is not only very complicated, not all contractors are created equal. He is watching out for the residents of Westlake.
“Anytime someone calls with an issue with a basement flooding, I have a conversation with them. If it’s something that I might not be able to assist them on the phone I might have a follow-up with one of my inspectors at their house just to get some additional information,” he says. “After every call or investigation we write up a report so we have a lot of good historical data on the housing stock here in Westlake.”
That institutional knowledge held by the city can be leveraged as an invaluable resource for individual homeowners.
“I actually call the property owner and we have a discussion,” Smolik says. “It is private property, and I can’t force them to do anything, but we want to provide public education on it. And then we leave it up to the property owner to make an educated decision on if they want to continue with that waterproofing permit or if they want to modify it in any way.”
It’s not always because the walls need waterproofing, he says. There are other scenarios that deem it necessary to determine the root cause of the flooding.
“We are special here in Westlake because we do reach out to our residents, and we do provide a lot of public education. We’ve had meetings on flooding. We do PowerPoints and try to explain the
different scenarios about how people’s basements flood,” he says.
All these city services are free.
“The strong leadership of the mayor and the retention of his employees has created a great community where we’re able to offer all these great programs for the residents,” Smolik adds.
RECREATION DEPARTMENT
By nature of its aspirational mission, the Westlake Recreation Department and its employees regularly go above and beyond to assist residents in their pursuit of fun and enjoyment.
“Our mission is to enhance the quality of life for those we serve and to help enrich the community by providing exceptional facilities, programming and customer service,” says Paula Horner, director of Recreation at the City of Westlake. “We offer a wide variety of facilities and activities. We truly offer something for everyone.”
That includes the Westlake Recreation Center, the Westlake Aquatic Center and Meadowood Golf Course and all the amenities available at city parks including the Recreation Center Park, Clague Park, Roman Park, Bradley Nature Park and Tri-City Park.
“The city consistently goes above and beyond when renovating existing or adding new facilities,” Horner says.
A master plan was completed in 2015 and levy funding later secured the groundwork for future capital plans.
“Some of the recently completed projects from these plans include the addition of the Westlake Aquatic Center in 2019, notably one of the best outdoor aquatic facilities in Northern Ohio,” Horner says. “Clague Memorial Ballfields opened in 2020 and serve as the model for the design of all future athletic fields within the city. And in 2022, the city opened a new highly accessible playground at Clague Park to replace an antiquated 1960 play structure. This new playground is roughly 20,000 square feet and was designed to exceed standard ADA compliance and to be highly accessible for individuals of all abilities.
Here are a few more:
- Pickleball Courts
“We listen to requests from the residents,” Horner says. “Although not identified as a need in the 2015 master plan, pickleball is rapidly growing and we have received many requests for additional courts.” In response, the department added two dedicated pickleball courts at the recreation center and made 10 pickleball courts available on the tennis courts at Clague Park and Recreation Center Park. In 2023, 12 new pickleball courts opened at Tri-City Park.
- Meadowood Golf Course
The city has been working on plans to renovate the Meadowood Golf Course in the future, and, in 2024, plans are in the works to develop a driving range/practice facility at Meadowood.
- New Athletic Fields
In 2024, the city plans to make significant improvements at the Parkside location, formerly Parkside School, by adding multi-purpose artificial turf athletic fields. Design plans for the renovation of the athletic fields at Recreation Center Park are also slated for 2024. Significant improvements are budgeted for the renovation of the historic Clague Cabin at Clague Park as well as additional trails at both Clague Park and Bradley Nature Park.
“We foster strong partnerships with a variety of organizations to enhance our offerings,” Horner says. “The Recreation Center is used as the home of the Westlake High School’s Swimming & Diving team, as a training facility for Westlake Police and Fire as well as additional outside groups. The Recreation Center is also used by groups such as AARP and the American Red Cross to offer services to the residents.”
FIRE DEPARTMENT
From helping an elderly woman with a leaky water tank to putting new batteries in smoke alarms to suiting up to fight a fire, no call is too big or too small for Westlake firefighter-paramedics.
“The way I want to lead this department is that nothing is above and beyond for us. We’re here to do whatever we can for our residents and for the people who work in and visit the city,” says Fire Chief Matt Moran. “It’s not all fires and rescuing people out windows. An elderly person who has slipped and fell on the floor and can’t get up might call us. You might not think that’s an emergency, but if you’re living alone and you physically don’t have the strength to get up, that’s an emergency to you.”
Beyond the 6,000+ emergency calls received each year,, Moran says the department regularly installs and replaces smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms for people. “We even change out the batteries,” he says. “We do a lot of that because we have a lot of elderly residents here, and some of these relatively new condos have a lot of vaulted ceilings and places where people shouldn’t be going even if they have the ladder.”
Learn a few other ways the Fire Department assists residents:
- Roper Box Program
Residents can purchase a residential lock box that a key to their house is placed inside that only the Fire Department can access for emergency use. “So if you are alone or live alone and you need help, this gives us a way to get in without having to break down the door,” Moran says.
- File of Life
The File of Life is a card that contains vital personal medical information and is kept on the outside of the resident’s refrigerator in a bright red magnetic pocket, readily accessible to EMTs when they arrive on an emergency call. The medical card lists the patient’s emergency medical contacts, health problems, medications taken, allergies, recent surgeries and more.
- EMT Paramedic Clinical Precepting Site
The department works with two different paramedic programs at University Hospitals and Tri-C so students can get real-life clinical experience on scene. “As they go through the program, they’re able to do more advanced skills,” Moran says. “Typically when they start with us they’re just observing or doing basic vitals, but by the end they have to do a certain number of IV starts and they can even intubate a patient.”
- City Departments
While the Fire Department has always worked closely with the Police Department, Moran has made it a priority since he took over as chief a year ago. “We need to be very much on the same page with our police officers,” he says. “I want these guys to know each other by first name when we meet at three in the morning at a terrible accident or a fire. We need to be on the same team and ready to work together.”
That team approach extends to all the departments in the city. “A good example of that is Community Services,” Moran explains. “On the first Thursday of every month, we send guys to take blood pressures and health screenings with individuals, and we bring literature about preventing slips and falls. We also help them with their Adopt-A-Family program every year to provide Christmas presents and food to families in need. On the big day, the fire department always jumps in. We’ll load all the cars, and then we make the deliveries for them in one of our fire department pickup trucks.”
POLICE DEPARTMENT
The stats are impressive: 56 full-time officers sworn to protect and serve more than 30,000 residents, and thousands more who come to the city to work at businesses located throughout the city’s 15.97 square miles.
Then there’s the full-service detective bureau, property and evidence specialist, digital forensics expert, the Westlake Schools partnership that stations a school resource officer at every city school, and a highly trained all-volunteer auxiliary unit. Add in the 30,000 annual call volume, and that’s just the start of what the Police Department collectively does, says Capt. Jerry Vogel.
“We are pretty proud of the people we get to work for the police department — both those we’ve attracted from other police departments with amazing skills and character and those inside the police department we’ve supported to better themselves with leadership or technical skills,” he says.
Here are some standout programs:
- Are You OK?
Through a partnership with Community Services, this national program allows
residents to sign up and receive an automated call each day, at a predetermined time, that requires them to answer and correctly respond to a prompt. “Usually, it’s older residents who sign up. It may be someone who lives alone or doesn’t have family close by and needs a little extra help,” Vogel says. “They have to answer the phone, listen to the message, and follow the prompt that’s given. So it’ll say, ‘good morning, would you hit the number 5?’ It not only tests that they’re answering the phone, but it also tests their cognitive ability to push a certain number.” If the resident doesn’t answer or correctly respond to the prompt, the department sends a police officer to check on them to make sure they are OK. “It really has saved some people before who have fallen and they can’t get up, or they’ve actually had a serious medical issue,” he says.
- Community Police Academy
An annual 12-week program invites people who live and/or work in Westlake to apply for an intensive behind-the-scenes look at the Police Department. “It covers everything from how we do things, why we do things, what our specialties are and what our facilities look like,” Vogel says. “They get to drive police cars. They get to hear about our digital forensics program from the expert here. They get to fire guns if they wish. They get to meet all the police dogs. It’s really a neat program. It’s really an open book. It’s great for our police officers, too, because they are able to talk about their specialty and what their passions are. It’s a well-received program and we get great feedback from it.”
- Cadet Program
Designed for older kids (teenage years), this is another inside look at the Police Department. Participants attend meetings, receive trainings and go to competitions. “Usually, it’s kids who are interested in law enforcement and have some kind of aspiration to be a first responder,” Vogel explains. “It’s a great way to connect to the public, and the kids get uniforms and get to be at the police department, meet police officers, meet the dogs and really get involved. We’ve had participants go on to be police officers.”
- Crime Prevention Program
As part of this program, officers will evaluate businesses and residences and teach owners how to make their homes safer or what to do in the case of a burglary or active shooter at a workplace. “It gives people peace and a sense of security in the city when they can call their police department and have that service done for them,” Vogel says.
- WIN (What I Need)
A school-run program allows school resource officers and others to engage with kids by doing everything from playing chess, flying drones (the department has a robust drone program as well for search and rescue efforts) and practicing photography with the students.
- Cops and Kids
This program is organized through the schools and the Community Services Department. The Police Department raises money for local families and kids who need some extra help around the holidays. Officers take the kids out for breakfast and then go shopping at Walmart. “It’s a great way to connect with the kids and the parents in our community and give back,” Vogel adds.
