Director: Personal touch aided levy

The levy fared especially well in the more populated areas of the county.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The keys to getting voter approval of the Trumbull County Children Services levy during last week's general election may have been the personal approach.
Robert A. Kubiak, executive director of the Children Services board, told the board Tuesday he felt that the 5,000 person-to-person postcards, contacts with churches and speeches at candidate nights and the like were beneficial.
For instance, Kubiak said, the agency acquired a list of frequent voters and absentee voters and sent each person on the list a letter. The agency even printed place mats and gave them to area restaurants.
"I think the direct approach was the key," Kubiak said. He noted that billboards and newspaper and cable TV ads were also used. He estimated the campaign's expenses to be around $25,000.
He thanked Ed Bush and Shelley Taylor, honorary cochairmen of the Children Services Citizens Committee, and all the members of the committee for their role in getting the levy approved. Board members also praised Kubiak for the successful campaign.
Kubiak noted that election results indicated that the 0.8-mill, 10-year replacement levy was approved in all wards in Warren and passed in nearly every other high-population area of the county, such as Hubbard, Liberty, Howland, Girard, Niles and Lordstown. Overall, it passed by a 55 percent tally. The levy will raise $2,768,733 annually.
The levy fared worse in most smaller, more rural areas, Kubiak said.
Building plans
Before the meeting, some members of the board held an informal session to begin to discuss reconvening the building planning committee, which will begin in 2006 to plan for replacement of facilities within the agency.
Kubiak has explained that most of the facilities were built in the 1960s and will need to be replaced. With the passage of the levy, the agency can conduct this type of capital improvement without having to ask voters for a separate capital improvements levy, he said.
The agency thinks it needs an improved child residential care facility, which will cost between $2.5 million and $6.5 million, according to the agency.
In other action, Kubiak announced the retirements of Warner D. Bacak, senior supervisor, effective Dec. 31; and Frances Jeannette Lytle, cook, effective Nov. 30. Bacak has worked at the agency 30 years in many capacities and Lytle has served the agency for 25 years.
The board also learned that activities are planned to mark November as Adoption Month. It will include an "Open Your Heart" gallery exhibit at the Butler Institute of American Art on East Market Street in Howland from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 28.
It will be a exhibit displaying the photography of Diana Lynne, who will feature children and sibling groups in Trumbull County who are waiting to be adopted.