LISBON — The Columbiana County Park District Board has no members as of Friday.

Columbiana County Probate Court Judge Thomas Baronzzi requested the resignations of Chairman Joe Lawhorn and Vice Chairman Crystal Siembida Boggs and both complied, with Lawhorn scribbling out “I resign” on a piece of paper Thursday and Siembida Boggs submitting a letter Friday morning.

Later Friday, the newest board member, Megan McMaster, decided to resign too after seeing what happened to her fellow board members, even though Baronzzi said during a phone interview that he wanted her to stay.

The five-member board already had two vacancies, one since January when longtime member Tom Butch resigned, along with administrative assistant Lisa Shafer, and the other since longtime member, David Hughes, resigned in April.

But Baronzzi said the empty board won’t stay that way for long. He’s planning to contact the seven applicants who applied for positions on the board Tuesday and make sure they’re still willing to serve, then he’s going to choose who to appoint.

He also said he contacted two former board members, both Butch and Eileen Dray-Bardon, who resigned in the fall, about possibly serving again to stabilize the situation. He said they both agreed and when contacted Friday, they both confirmed they said yes.

When asked what led to the recent events, Baronzzi said, “We started losing board members.”

First Dray-Bardon left, saying at the time in October, “There are concerns with my leadership style so I thought in the best interest of the park district, I thought it best to take my leave now.”

She didn’t get into detail about what happened. Then Butch left in January, prompting a tirade of accusations and name-calling by Hughes in the same meeting against Lawhorn, claiming Lawhorn said bad things about both Butch and Dray-Bardon and posted misleading information. Hughes later said he wouldn’t be attending any more meetings until Lawhorn left. He attended one in February, when Lawhorn wasn’t there, then quit coming altogether and resigned in April.

Baronzzi said he spoke to all the current board members and started getting anonymous mailings and calls, asking if he had heard or seen certain things, without revealing what was said.

“It just got to the point I started an investigation based on what I saw unfolding. All the signs kind of pointed out the real impetus of the problem was when Joe became chairman,” he said.

He described the meeting with Lawhorn as civil. Lawhorn had been recommended by the former board members last year, and had done some volunteering with the district, plus had experience where he used to live, but Baronzzi said he told him “maybe this wasn’t the right fit” and asked him to resign.

As for Siembida Boggs, he said he spoke with her a month ago and pointed out some concerns about the appearance of a conflict of interest related to some races held on the Greenway trail by a private company she works for. She said she may have to resign because that’s her livelihood. Then on Friday he told her to resign because the conflict was continuing, so she did.

When asked about McMaster, he was “absolutely not asking for her resignation.”

He actually said he would like her to stay on, but then McMaster submitted her resignation.

Both Siembida Boggs and Lawhorn, when contacted, were critical of the judge not making appointments yet since January and then April and the three board members being stuck carrying the load. Lawhorn also made a comment about the 20 years Baronzzi pointed out with the past numbers and the fact that there were no problems and the board ran itself. He disagreed and had said before that the previous board kept failing at passing a levy.

“From many comments I have received from the public, people feel like the park is a political favoritism playground and I can’t disagree with them now. I did try to change that culture,” Siembida Boggs said in her letter.

Both talked about the many hours they’ve been putting in, along with McMaster, without pay. Lawhorn said the way the park district was going previously wasn’t working. He said the judge never appointed a board member to help them. He did admit this was a huge weight off of his shoulder.

“I have a clear conscience. I did my best,” Lawhorn said.

Siembida Boggs questioned the conflict of interest, saying the previous board knew about her involvement in those races and recommended her appointment. One race, the Halloween Dash, is through her non-profit, the Siembida Boggs Philanthropic Foundation. The other two races, the Bunny Hop and the Greenway Trail Half Marathon, are both through GCXC, her employer. She also spent a lot of time working for the good of the park district.

“It was definitely an honor to serve and I am disappointed that I won’t be on the board to see these projects and dreams come to fruition. I love the park district,” she said.

McMaster said she was grateful for the opportunity to serve and will still volunteer and use the parks, but she doesn’t want to be part of a board that’s going to be stagnant, saying other people appeared to want the board to fail. She was sad everything that happened the past two days and said the three of the worked well together. In her letter, she mentioned that efforts toward meaningful change faced challenges and resistance from parties and past board members, making it difficult to succeed.

“While I remain committed to the success of our parks, I feel I can no longer be effective in a board environment that I perceive as obstructing necessary growth and change,” she wrote.

Baronzzi did address some of the criticism and said board members serve at his discretion. He said he had to get all the pieces in place and he’s been working on the issue.

By this time next week, there may be a full board in place.

mgreier@mojonews.com