AUSTINTOWN Trustees disagree on usage of funds

Trustees received an offer to buy property on Woodridge Drive.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- A plan that would allow the financially strapped township to collect an additional $18,000 annually remains in limbo while township trustees disagree on how the money should be used.
The plan, worked out in negotiations with Trustee Lisa Oles, calls for Lane LifeTRANS Paramedics to pay $1,500 each month to store ambulances at Fire Station No. 3 on South Raccoon Road. The company also would pay for all utility costs and any needed remodeling, a memo from Oles states.
Oles wants to use the money to reopen Fire Station No. 4 on South Turner Road, which was closed by trustees last year in an effort to save money. She also has proposed using some of the money to rehire laid-off part-time firefighters.
Oles said Lane's has agreed to the deal; company officials could not be reached to comment.
Prefers reducing deficit
Trustee David Ditzler, however, said the money should go toward reducing the township's deficit. Township Clerk Michael Kurish said the township had a $412,000 deficit at the end of last year.
Trustees closed the fire station, which was staffed by part-time firefighters, and laid-off police and part-time firefighters and made other cuts in an effort to avoid the deficit.
"You don't look to return things to the way they were until the deficit's eliminated," Ditzler said. "It's Basic Finance 101."
Trustee Bo Pritchard said he wasn't aware that Oles had been negotiating with Lane's. On Saturday, Oles sent a memo to trustees and some township officials stating that Lane's had proposed to move into No. 3.
Trustees "were not approached at all about any negotiations about the fire station," Pritchard said. "Mrs. Oles appears to be going off on her own."
Oles said she felt Ditzler and Pritchard were dragging their feet in an effort to discredit her and ensure that she doesn't keep her campaign promises. Before she was elected in November, Oles promised to rehire laid-off police and firefighters while living within the township's budget and not increasing the tax burden on residents.
Trustees voted 2-1 Monday to put a 2.5-mill levy on the ballot in March. Oles was opposed. The levy failed by about 900 votes when it appeared on the November ballot.
Property deal
Oles noted that Pritchard and Ditzler also haven't been willing to work toward a deal to sell about nine acres of township property on Woodridge Drive. A letter from Atty. Lou D'Apolito to the township states that Leonard Kirtz school, across the street, is willing to buy the property.
The value of the property has been appraised at $10,000 an acre, according to D'Apolito's letter.
Pritchard and Ditzler both said they didn't want to sell the land because it is used by residents in the Woodridge Drive neighborhood for recreation.
"I'm not in favor of putting buildings in neighborhoods just to get money," he said.
hill@vindy.com