GOSHEN TOWNSHIP Road-paving pact generates questions from federal agency

An investigator has received the requested information from the township.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
GOSHEN -- A federal agency is questioning township officials about a road-paving contract that mirrors a similar project in Struthers under investigation by the FBI.
Township Clerk Karen Novak and Trustees Robert Spencer and Robert McCracken said that Special Agent Matthew K. Dunn of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Inspector General's investigative unit in Chicago has been given the information he requested about a 1996-97 paving of a one-mile stretch of Smith-Goshen Road.
About the project: The minority business set-aside project was awarded to Tone Crack Sealing and Supply Inc., a paving company operated by Renee Smith, a clerical secretary at the Laborers International Union of North America Local 125. Smith is Tone Crack's president.
Hardrives Paving and Construction Inc. of Youngstown was the primary subcontractor on the job, Novak and McCracken said.
Township officials could not recall the cost, but most of the money came from state Issue 2 funds.
"DOT is involved because it was federal transportation money," McCracken said.
The inspector general's office is responsible for investigating possible fraud in federally-funded projects. The agency's investigations since 1997 have resulted in 134 indictments, 97 convictions and recovery of more than $60 million, according to its Web site.
Dunn and David Barnes, spokesman for the inspector general's office, could not be reached.
Relied on subcontractor: As was common with Issue 2 minority-only contracts, a program that has been eliminated, Tone Crack, the minority contractor, relied heavily on Hardrives as a nonminority subcontractor to do the work.
That also was the case in Struthers, where Tone Crack was awarded a 1995 contract for $132,000 to repave State Street.
Hardrives received at least $55,000 as subcontractor. Tone Crack, which operates out of Smith's home, has no paving equipment.
The FBI questioned Struthers officials about the State Street job, but Goshen officials say only Dunn has asked about their project.
Smith has said she has testified in front of a federal grand jury about the Struthers contract and other undisclosed issues. When asked Monday about the Goshen investigation, Smith declined to comment.
When the Struthers contract was awarded, Smith's boss at the union hall was Struthers Councilman Robert D. Carcelli, D-at large.
Struthers officials say they were asked whether Carcelli and his brother, Ron, the city's street foreman, benefited from the contract. The Carcellis deny any wrongdoing.
Will turn over records: The U.S. Attorney's Office subpoenaed Struthers documents related to any business the city did with Hardrives, as well as Prime Contractors Inc. of Canfield in the past decade. The city will turn over the records to an FBI agent by Wednesday.
Prime, no longer in business, was owned by Anthony R .Bucci, his wife, Cheryl, and his brother, Robert.
Federal authorities have looked into whether U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. had any involvement in helping get a $1.2 million state contract for the company in 1996 or in a 1994 tax dispute between the Buccis and the city of Girard, where they operated another company.
A federal grand jury in Cleveland is investigating allegations against Traficant of bribery, violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, the Hobbs Act (extortion) and tax evasion.
Unlike in Struthers, Goshen officials say they have not been questioned about any possible Traficant involvement in the Tone Crack contract.