COLUMBIANA CORNER For sheriff, funding 'is another story'

Columbiana County Sheriff Dave Smith isn't coming right out and saying that he's contemplating a lawsuit against commissioners over a lack of funding to run his department, but he's certainly hinting at it.
During a recent meeting with commissioners at which Smith pleaded for funding to keep his department going, the sheriff said there's other recourse available to him.
Asked after the meeting if the "recourse" to which he referred was a lawsuit to get more money, Smith didn't deny it. "That's another story for another day," he said.
School levy
While touting the district's permanent improvement levy, Columbiana schools Superintendent Patricia Hura is emphasizing two things:
One, that the sports complex under construction is being paid for entirely by donations, not tax dollars.
And, two, she is also emphasizing -- as did her predecessor, Dr. Joseph Rottenborn -- that the district does not intend to move varsity and junior varsity football, baseball and softball from the confines of Firestone Park.
The athletic complex behind the new high school on Waterford Road will include an all-weather track, with a soccer and football field in the center.
The Clippers track teams will have their meets on the new track next spring, and the field being developed in the center of the track oval will be used for varsity soccer -- a new sport -- and middle school football beginning in the fall of 2003.
The school district has a long-term agreement with the city for use of the stadium and baseball fields at Firestone Park, but public speculation about moving athletic fields from the park has been ongoing since school officials first talked of building a new high school more than five years ago.
XCONTRIBUTORS: Norman Leigh and Nancy Tullis of the Salem Bureau.