Political cronyism led to Austintown bond failure

Political cronyism led to Austintown bond failure
EDITOR:
It's official, Austintown. The Austintown School Bond Issue has been defeated by a mere 19 votes, and we may never know if the end result resulted from a lack of support from voters of our community or lack of direction from two Austintown Board of Education members, the chairman of the Austintown School Bond Issue, a retired board of education member and a retired Austintown school teacher who is now a state representative.
Somewhere along the line, priorities got confused, and in a last ditch effort to persuade voters of our community to vote for a "friend" of theirs for township trustee, these men questionably went out on a limb, were photographed in a flyer with the candidate indicating they felt & quot;their friend & quot; was the most qualified to be the new trustee and circulated it in a local newspaper having no regard whatsoever for the negative impact this flyer would have on the Bond Issue. We very possibly had at least 19 disgruntled voters, supporters of other candidates, who acted negatively to the Bond Issue and expressed their displeasure at the ballot. The record shows that 73 percent of the voters in our community did not vote for "their friend" for trustee. Hardly a vote of confidence in the educated mind! One would ask & quot;Was it worth the price of $32 million for these men to get their new trustee? & quot; or & quot;Is their friend willing to donate his $11,500 annual trustee salary toward the down payment on a new school? & quot;
Finally, a review of contracts awarded by the Austintown Board of Education to local business & quot;friends & quot; warrants review.
KEVIN TOTH
Austintown
Habitat not permittedto add wheelchair ramps to existing homes
EDITOR:
I am writing to you in response to a wonderful letter you published on Thursday, Nov. 22, from Judy A. Marsh of Austintown.
In her letter, Ms. Marsh expressed her gratitude to General Motors, Austintown Community Church (where she attends), A.G. Sharp Lumber, and Habitat for Humanity for building her a new wheelchair ramp at her apartment. And she thanked all the volunteers who designed and built her ramp.
Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning County is also pleased that this generous act took place in our community. But the Marsh ramp was not a Habitat project.
We must make it very clear to all involved including especially to those with accessibility problems in the county, that Habitat does not build ramps or make repairs or modifications to existing homes.
Our local Habitat affiliate is mandated only to build new, decent, affordable homes for and with low-income, working families in Mahoning County. We do build ramps on accessible Habitat homes if our partner owner requires such a home.
There is a desperate need for some local organization to step up to the plate and provide this kind of repair service for our community where the housing stock is old and much of it requires major repair. Habitat receives many calls each year for such services but we are required to refer them elsewhere.
Interfaith Home Maintenance does a great job, but the repair tasks in our Valley exceed their capacity as well as their guidelines. And there are other groups who respond to these calls for help. They are mainly unorganized, uninsured, goodhearted, skilled volunteers (like those who built the Marsh ramp). And those generous workers may not be there another day when someone else requests a ramp, a roof repair, a porch straightening or a furnace upgrade. This situation presents an exciting entrepreneurial opportunity for a new non-profit organization to be formed.
Habitat is very pleased that Ms. Marsh has a new wheelchair ramp, but we cannot accept any credit for having built it.
WILLIAM FARRAGHER
Youngstown
X The writer is president of Mahoning Valley Habitat for Humanity.