Charges will be filed in tree-cutting deal

A civil suit is unlikely, a city official says.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city prosecutor says he will file a first-degree misdemeanor charge Friday against a Youngstown man accused of cutting down 30 trees on city-owned property and of harvesting timber on an East Side property without a permit.
Ron Eiselstein, 46, of Fifth Avenue is to come to city hall that day to receive a citation charging him with timbering without a permit, said Prosecutor Jay Macejko and Bill D'Avignon, the city's Community Development Agency director.
An agreement with Eiselstein calls for him to plead no contest to the charge in Youngstown Municipal Court as early as Monday, Macejko and D'Avignon said.
Eiselstein could face up to a 1,000 fine and six months in jail if a judge finds him guilty. Macejko said he hasn't recommended a sentence for the Youngstown man.
City officials say that during the first week of October, Eiselstein cut down 30 cherry and oak trees -- worth at least 1,800 -- on city-owned property on the lower South Side without permission. Eiselstein was permitted to keep the trees.
He then cut trees on an East Side property with the owner's permission, but without a city permit to harvest timber, D'Avignon said.
Eiselstein couldn't be reached Wednesday to comment.
Agreed to deal
Macejko said Eiselstein agreed to a plea agreement to combine the two incidents into one charge.
"It's an adequate resolution," Macejko said. "The biggest part is he agreed to stop this and is complying with our timber requirements. It's a fair decision."
Macejko said it's up to the city law department to file civil charges against Eiselstein to receive payment for the 30 city-owned trees he cut down. Law Director Iris Torres Guglucello said she doesn't have enough information to file a lawsuit against Eiselstein but isn't ruling out filing one at a later date.
D'Avignon said after discussing the issue with Macejko he doubts there will be civil charges filed against Eiselstein because a lawsuit would be costly and time-consuming.
"He'll get his hand slapped, and we'll tell him not to do it again," D'Avignon said.
If Eiselstein gets the maximum fine, it wouldn't amount to the profit he'd receive from the tree harvesting, city officials said. Eiselstein also faces charges filed in Boardman accusing him of cutting down trees and taking the wood from a property on Beech Avenue without the owner's permission. A pretrial hearing is set for Nov. 28 in Mahoning County Court in Boardman.
Last month, a misdemeanor theft charge filed by Boardman police against Eiselstein was dismissed. He was accused of cutting down three trees that belonged to the township.