City mulls improvements

By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- The community is taking steps toward having its small post office on North Broad Street replaced.
City council passed a motion at its meeting Wednesday to ask the postmaster general for a new or expanded post office because the 30-year-old building there now is too small, with traffic congestion and parking problems. The motion also requests help from U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, in initiating and moving along the post office project. The city is in the 6th District.
City Manager Charles Tieche said the council, besides seeking the improvements to the post office, is supporting the effort of a committee that is planning for growth in Canfield.
Canfield Vision Plan
The panel is a steering committee for a group called Canfield Vision Plan. The group was formed under the Canfield Foundation, a philanthropic organization.
Nils Johnson, president of the foundation and a member of the steering committee, said the push for a new post office is only one of many issues the committee is taking on. He said other efforts are focusing on a new library to replace the small one on West Main Street and a new courthouse, ideally with the buildings located around the city green.
Canfield city and township, he said, are growing and projected to be the size of Boardman or Austintown in 25 to 30 years.
He said Ball State University of Muncie, Ind., a premiere institute for urban planning, helped Canfield Vision with a study on how to manage the area's growth. Johnson said the university recommends enhancing the "core," or downtown area.
Johnson said Ball stressed the need for the community to increase its tax base and said businesses would be more likely to locate downtown if there were more foot traffic. A courthouse, library and post office there would help increase the number of people downtown, he said.
Johnson said Canfield Vision began 18 months ago, working to get input from the public, officials, clergy and business people in the community. Three large public meetings took place last fall and into early 2005.