COUNCIL MEETING City brings in Easy Street for summer

Legislation regarding roll-off trash containers also passed.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The city plans a stroll down Easy Street this summer.
Mayor Michael J. O'Brien said at a council meeting Wednesday that the Youngstown-based Easy Street Productions will perform July 31 on the south lawn of the W.D. Packard Music Hall. The event is sponsored by AVI Food Systems of the city.
Other performances by the company likely will be scheduled in August and the fall, O'Brien said.
"It involves a lot of people from the public sector and the private sector working together," the mayor said.
Easy Street Productions' performances combine this summer with programming at the new Warren Community Amphitheater and programs July 6 through July 10 in a tent set up next to the Kinsman House as part of "Ohio Chautauqua 2004: The Roaring Twenties."
Roll-off rates
In other business, council members passed legislation allowing Doug Franklin, safety-service director, to set rates for city-owned roll-off trash containers.
Councilwoman Virginia Bufano, D-1st, cast the only dissenting vote.
Bufano said she didn't want to be one of the people putting more material into the Warren Hills landfill, which has been plagued with problems of residents' complaints of hydrogen sulfide odors and heavy dust.
The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is collecting volunteers to conduct a hydrogen sulfide exposure study in the area, stemming from residents' odor complaints.
The construction and demolition debris items residents place into the trash bins will be transported to the landfill, the only licensed facility in the area.
"There's a problem there and we shouldn't be contributing to it," Bufano said.
Council members also passed a resolution commending Gene's Jewelers on the 50th anniversary of the store's founding. The downtown business started in 1954 by Gene and Alda Lee Battista and is now owned and operated by their daughter Patricia Crowley and her husband, Thomas.
Thomas Crowley told council members he believes the downtown is a good place to do business and he has no plans to move.