The changing landscape in Springfield is troubling

The changing landscapein Springfield is troubling
EDITOR:
As predicted, the Huns have arrived in Springfield Township. They sacked Boardman, ran out of room in Poland and hit Springfield with a vengeance, raping and pillaging the land at Five Points in two different directions.
The apartments resemble upscale military housing as they spread over the former grain fields and up against the trees. I'm told they will be building condos all around Evans Lake, and this construction will continue for at least the next two years.
I remember Mr. Guterba and his son Gerald farming this area, planting winter wheat, soybeans, field corn and their wonderful sweet corn. As they rented the land, they had no options when Consumers of Ohio (formerly Ohio Water) sold the land to developers. How we miss the Guterbas' moving back and forth -- planting, tending and harvesting months at a time. The land they own is fiercely guarded and not for sale.
The next act of desecration is on Springfield Road close to Five Points. The sloped land has been dozed to depths of 4 feet, moving the topsoil into huge piles. The trees were toppled, stacked, hauled away -- hopefully to be cut into lumber. The rest made a great fire on the hill. The landscape has been changed again and not for the better. How can this scraping of topsoil be legal, much less allowed? People are beginning to realize that buying a house in a development means the worst dirt for planting as Ohio soil is clay not far below the topsoil. Landscapers and homeowners have to buy back the dirt before planting anything! That's incredible and worse: common.
I understand the temptation to make a great deal of money selling off the land, but when the land is sold, it's gone forever. Farmers are the hardest working people I know, and they should receive more for their labor. What prices will we eventually pay for cereal, bread, dairy products as the land disappears under the force of developers? We will still need these products, and I wonder who will be the providers, and will they be American, if we allow this constant bulldozing.
Springfield Township has to get laws and provisions to deal with the onslaught. We have to get some order out here before we're lost in a wasteland of housing developments, strip plazas and all the traffic woes of Boardman. I'm more than a little concerned that this lovely township will be just like Boardman -- lost in acres of asphalt and concrete with all the flooding problems connected. We've already lost too much land to strip mining and landfills. Next we will lose what makes us unique: individuality. We will be another mass of humanity lost in the aftermath of progress.
The Huns will have triumphed.
LEE SMITHSpringfield Township
Reward property ownerswho keep up their homes
EDITOR:
As a former resident of Youngstown's East, South and North sides during the '70s, I have some observations.
While I was working on a church roofing job on the South Side, I noticed that among all the vacant lots and abandoned houses, there was one house that was well maintained. I think someone like that should be given the properties on both sides for free, not for back taxes (the city is never going to get them anyway). At least they would get land taxes. This would also green up the South Side, providing room for gardens and fruit trees.
If Youngstown rewarded the people who are trying, more people would improve their homes to get free land also.
Every vacant home torn down and the land given free to the nearest property owner will start generating tax dollars.
People will start moving into the city to fix up older homes, just for the free extra property. Values will go up, as will the tax base.
There are still a lot of very solid houses that can be renovated to make good homes.
This free land is never going to have a new home built on it anyway.
NOLAN SAUKKO
Leavittsburg