Legislative proposals move to state level

The legislator plans to seek input from the Ohio Township Association.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Changes in state law proposed by township officials are being made into legislation.
The first would increase the fee urban townships can charge transient vendors, and the second would allow urban townships to assess a fine upon a commercial establishment after that establishment has a certain number of false fire alarms.
Under Ohio law, an urban township is one with a population of at least 15,000 people that has adopted a home rule form of government.
Curt B. Seditz, township administrator, suggested the legislative changes in an August letter to state Rep. Kenneth A. Carano of Austintown, D-59th.
Carano said he's referred the information to the House legislative service commission. From there, they will be written into legislative language and then referred to the rules committee.
Carano said that could happen as early as next week.
The rules committee assigns proposed bills to House committees.
"After that, I have to get the [Ohio] township association's feelings on it," the state representative said.
If that association isn't on board, the proposals may not go any further, he said.
The maximum fee now charged to transient vendors in urban townships is $75 for a registration of at least 90 days.
Seditz said that the $75 fee hasn't kept up with inflation.
Urban problems
Urban townships such as Boardman are often deluged with permit requests, especially during high-profile periods when safety forces and the zoning department "witness this already-bustling township experience a metamorphosis into a mass gathering of vendors, bystanders, consumers, restaurant patrons, hotel guests, vehicles and pedestrians on the main thoroughfares and side streets of Boardman Township and state Route 224," Seditz's letter said.
The toll taken on safety forces and zoning officials with issuing permits, conducting inspections and performing other follow-up is something non-urban townships rarely experience, he noted.
Carano said he would propose the other two resolutions suggested in Seditz's letter at a later date. One deals with a law that requires lights to be displayed on vehicles stopped or parked within townships.
Seditz's letter also asked that urban townships be permitted to declare snow emergencies as municipalities are able to do.