Don't delay development in Austintown Township

Don't delay development in Austintown Township
EDITOR:
Kudos to the Austintown trustees and thank you, Mr. Levy, for giving us the opportunity to have a beautiful development, which will improve the aesthetics in the state Route 46 area, provide jobs for the area youth and relieve the tax burden on homeowners.
Why are the Austintown Concerned Citizens trying to stop something positive for our community? Is it their loss of the free use of land that they have never owned or paid taxes on? The developer will leave 300 feet of woods, build a 30-foot wide, 10-foot high earth mound planted with pine trees, and another 40 feet of grass before a structure is built. Most of the affected residents have existing backyards of approximately 600 ft.
Yes, there are some vacant buildings in industrial areas, but you cannot put a B1 Industrial Park in a building. Neither can you attract clean, self-contained, upscale businesses to the existing areas. Further, the freeway access is not available at the other locations. Yes, it is virgin land. All the land around it was virgin land before residential and commercial developments were built. This park will retain many of the trees and have a wildlife pond with a picnic area for employees.
To the other 42,000 residents of Austintown, please, before you sign a petition to put this on the ballot, be knowledgeable regarding this development. Do not take the word of a group who are "concerned & quot; only about their own issues. Take the time to view the developer's plans and consider the benefits to our community. Signing the petition will only delay our reaping the benefits.
PATRICIA J. BENYO
Austintown
Credit should be given where credit is due
EDITOR:
I read with bemusement the letter in the Nov. 15 Vindicator crediting Vicki Sherlock for passage of the sales tax. This would be like crediting Saddam Hussein for passage of the United Nations weapon inspection resolution. The scandals involving Ms. Sherlock's misuse of county credit cards led to the defeat of the sales tax in May.
The person who could be credited for passage of the sales tax this November is Commissioner David Ludt, who showed great political courage by actively campaigning for the sales tax while up for re-election. The political realities are that the sales tax passed on the coattails of Commissioner Ludt's vote total in excess of 70 percent, and that Commissioner Ludt's active campaign on behalf of the sales tax convinced many to vote for it who otherwise would not have.
The letter states that Ms. Sherlock was pressured by the other commissioners to impose the tax, and since the authors use commissioners in the plural, they include David Ludt. This is an absolute falsehood. Commissioner Ludt was the only commissioner to stand up to the special interests demanding imposition of the tax at the August commissioners' meeting, and vote against even holding hearings on imposing the tax. State law requires that a county hold public hearings before commissioners can impose a sales tax, and Ms. Sherlock at that same August meeting voted to start the process of imposing the tax without a vote of the people.
When Commissioner Ludt made it clear after the hearings that he would never vote to impose the sales tax, and thus prevented its imposition since a "yes" vote by all three commissioners is required, Ms. Sherlock decided to score public relations points by claiming to be against something she could have blocked months earlier by voting with David Ludt to end the issue of imposing the tax before it even began.
The authors of that letter owe David Ludt an apology for their blatant misrepresentation of the facts, which is typical of the Morley/Antonini faction of the Democratic Party in Mahoning County.
Atty. SHERMAN J. MILES
Campbell