MAHONING COUNTY Officials to unveil 20/20 plan

The plan shows how some goals can be reached with and without home rule.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Welcome to the Austintown of the future, as proposed by the Austintown 20/20 plan.
All township government offices are in a "one-stop shop" building on state Route 46 south of Mahoning Avenue, the area that has been developed into the township center. Some Mahoning County government offices also are in the building.
On South Raccoon Road, near the library and new middle school, a civic center has been built to serve as a site for community activities. There's also a memorial grove with a tree for each township resident killed while serving as a soldier, police officer, or firefighter.
To the west, on Mahoning Avenue, the fa & ccedil;ades on the buildings in Austintown Plaza have been refurbished, and area farmers are holding a public market in the parking lot.
To the east, the Wedgewood and Wickliffe neighborhoods have been revitalized. Neighborhood residents meet regularly to discuss how they can improve their community.
Official's comments
"Goodness knows, Austintown needs to pull together and get on with it," said Fred Owens, president of the Austintown Growth Foundation. The foundation paid for the creation of the 20/20 plan.
"I hope [the plan] is one way of getting on with it," he said.
The 160-page plan is to be unveiled at 7 p.m. tonight at a public meeting at the Austintown library on South Raccoon Road. It has been described as a "cookbook," with step-by-step instructions on how to reach the township's goals.
For example, to revitalize the Wickliffe and Wedgewood neighborhoods, the plan calls for residents and business owners to first create neighborhood associations. Each association would then open a "service center" where members can meet to identify the needs in their neighborhoods and determine which should be addressed first.
The associations would work with township trustees to obtain funding, then conduct programs to address their neighborhood's needs.
The township's goals were determined through a series of community meetings conducted last year by planners and students from Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. The Ball State group was hired by the growth foundation to create the plan.
Working with residents
Dr. James Segedy, who led the Ball State planning effort, described tonight's meeting as a "work session," and said he will review the plan with residents and ask them what goal they want to reach first. He said he hopes to start small, then build momentum in the community to carry the plan into the future.
Both Segedy and Owens said the plan was designed so much of it could be accomplished without relying on government officials and so it wouldn't be affected by township politics, which can be volatile. The plan, however, does include several sections about home rule, a limited form of self-government that has been a hot-button political issue in the township.
Home rule was defeated by township voters when it appeared on the ballot in 1992, 1995, 1997 and 2002. The 20/20 plan includes step-by-step instructions on how the township could adopt home rule this year.
Segedy stressed that those instructions were only a recommendation, and noted that the plan also includes step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish some goals without home rule.
But he added that if home rule is not established, township officials and residents will not have the legal power to reach some of the goals. They would have to work with county officials, who have more legal power.
"It's just so much easier with home rule," Segedy said. "There's that frustration that if we don't do it, we're at the mercy of the county, where we might be priority eight out of 10."
Owens urged residents to examine the plan before deciding if home rule is needed to reach the community's goals.
"If it maps out a future that's compelling, why wouldn't we want to look at what we need to do to make it happen?" he asked.
hill@vindy.com