Workers in Austintown deserve a 3-percent raise

Workers in Austintowndeserve a 3-percent raise
EDITOR:
As an Austintown trustee for the past 10 years, I take exception to the editorial in Monday's Vindicator that condemns us for offering the lowest paid group of firefighters, road department and office staff a 3 percent increase proposal.
In Austintown it has been almost 20 years since there has been a township government tax increase, other than safety forces, and even then, only two such levies have been passed. How many private sector businesses can claim that they have been able to stretch their dollars for more than 10 years without any increases?
During the same 10-year period, Austintown has led the Valley in home starts every year, which has drastically increased the need for additional services. In fact, since 1994 the cost-of-living index has increased by 24 percent, and the prices of our utilities and goods and services have increased dramatically for all of us.
Last year with an $11 million budget, Austintown faced a deficit in excess of $500,000. That deficit was erased and the budget balanced for 2004 through manpower reductions in every department that were set in motion in 2003. Every township employee, in every department, felt the pain from these reductions, having to do more with less, even though they already were, and still are today, understaffed in every department by any standard.
Throughout the entire painstaking process to cut costs, the township has not reduced services to the residents of Austintown in any way.
We are fortunate to have the same hard working people who epitomize our township. Too often we see the private sector companies cut the little guy and reduce or two-tier the salaries of the hardest working people in the company while the top get richer.
Well this is one trustee who will defend the fact that we gave these dedicated employees a raise of about $11 net a week. Isn't it about time that the little guy, who makes the sacrifices, is rewarded, no matter how small? Don't we all wish that when we are forced to do the work of two that we could at least receive a 3 percent raise, and be viewed as well deserving?
DAVID DITZLER
Austintown Township trustee
Don't miss the big picturethat the Sweets are creating
EDITOR:
We are writing to support the wonderful contribution of hospitality that David and Pat Sweet have brought to Youngstown. They came here with a mandate from YSU to help both the university and the city to grow and thrive. They have lived up to that challenge in every way, and the gracious "entertainment" events that they host are essential to the creation of a community spirit.
We came to Youngstown from the Philadelphia area, where our neighboring colleges and universities were Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Villanova, well known places of higher learning, but these institutions had little concern for their surrounding communities. The Sweets are all encompassing in their vision that a rising tide must lift all boats. Through their hospitality, they rally the community, not only around the university, but in building a new Mahoning Valley.
We urge you to look at the bigger picture and their entertainment as a particularly fortunate investment. We are thankful every day for their work.
The Rev. JOHN and Mrs. ANNETTE HORNER
St. John's Church
Youngstown
Parents: do you know where your kid 'found' the bicycle?
EDITOR:
This is addressed to some parents in Campbell:
If your son or daughter came home with a black, 12-speed Schwinn bicycle, they didn't find it. It was stolen from my mother's garage.
Would you kindly have them return it to where they "found" it?
EVELYN OWENS
Hubbard