Mayor pushes crime-fighting effort

The mayor spoke of the challenges and opportunities of his first 100 days.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIBERTY -- Mayor Jay Williams is working with federal agents to plan an aggressive attack on Youngstown crime this summer.
He pointed to 2003 as a goal to reach or exceed. He said there were only three homicides in the city that summer instead of the 10 or 12 predicted for this year.
Williams was the keynote speaker for the banquet of Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods -- ACTION -- at the Holiday Inn MetroPlex Thursday.
ACTION's mission, as stated in the event program, is to build a multiethnic, multiracial interfaith organization to develop strategies to reduce poverty, fight racism and other forms of discrimination and injustice.
The mayor spoke of the challenges and opportunities of his first 100 days in office.
Usually excluded
Williams said he is working to ensure that the Mahoning Valley's voice is heard in Columbus and Washington. He said discussions among state and federal lawmakers about Northeast Ohio usually end somewhere around Summit County, and exclude Trumbull and Mahoning counties.
The Rev. David Hunter, president of Northeast Ohio Alliance for Hope, said Williams has established a dialogue with Cleveland leaders. He said ACTION and NOAH are joining with a similar group in Cincinnati for the Summit for Ohio's Future: Regional Equity in the 21st Century, to be May 26 at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.
Jim Converse of Vienna Township is one of the founders of ACTION. He applauded William's efforts to work with Trumbull county leaders.
"Trumbull County depends on Mahoning County doing well," he said. "We need that regional dialogue.
Williams also spoke of his administration's efforts to tackle the city's blight problem. He said he appreciates ACTION's efforts to draw attention to the problem of the hundreds of vacant residential and commercial properties throughout the city that pose a threat to health and safety of residents.
Addressing blight
Williams encouraged the group to continue to address blight and said he and other city leaders definitely need ACTION member's help to demolish those hazardous buildings. Demolition must be done systematically and carefully, however, he said. "We don't want the city to be engulfed in a cloud of dust."
The mayor encouraged people who work with the city's children and stressed the importance of attacking the problems that plague the city school system.
"One of the most rewarding things I enjoy doing is going into schools unannounced to interact with individual pupils," he said. "We are consumed with the whole picture -- fixing the whole school system. But we can't be so distracted that we miss those opportunities to make a difference. The next Youngstown mayor or president of the United States, or a doctor or lawyer might be among the children in our schools. We have to make a difference one child at a time."
tullis@vindy.com