Canfield asked to study effects of merging

What would happen if the township couldn’t be one
anymore?

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

CANFIELD — Government leaders in the township and city are being asked to consider merging the two into one government entity.

Marie Cartwright, a township resident, has asked township trustees and city council members to meet about doing a study on merging.

She brought up the issue this spring at township and city meetings, but said at the trustees’ meeting Monday that she is still waiting for some response.

She wanted to know if trustees have considered the idea or have spoken with council members.

Trustees Randy Brashen and Paul Moracco said they would be willing to talk about it with the city. The third trustee, Bill Reese, however, said he is against dissolving the township.

Cartwright said she is not necessarily for or against a merger, but she would like to see it studied because the township is losing square miles as property owners request annexation to the city so they can get utilities.

“What would happen if we couldn’t be a township anymore?” she said after the meeting. “We need to know the facts.”

Dissolving the city

Reese said during the meeting he would consider a merger if the city wants to dissolve and become part of the township “like they were before and like they should be.”

Residents in the city, though completely surrounded by the township, voted to secede in 1992.

“Boardman and Austintown are doing fine,” he said. “Why can’t we be a township, like we always were?

“All we’re asking for is a study,” said Bruce Neff, a city resident. “How else would you know what’s in the best interest [of the community]? Maybe the city should dissolve.”

“We’d never give up the city,” said Andrew Skrobola, city council president, in a phone interview after the meeting.

The city has its own “built-in protection,” he said, because Youngstown cannot annex another city. He said the Tippecanoe area of the township gets water from Youngstown, and it might be vulnerable in an annexation attempt.

“Look at Boardman and Austintown,” he said. “They are shaking in their shoes.”

City’s advantages

The two larger townships depend on water from Youngstown and are concerned the city might force an income-tax-for-water plan on them with the threat of annexation. An Ohio Supreme Court ruling in 2006 gave a city the right to annex properties outside its borders that receive its water.

Skrobola also said the city has services, such as its own police force, that the township does not have.

The township contracts with the sheriff’s department for services, an arrangement Reese has indicated he’s proud of because of its cost-effectiveness.

Skrobola also said the city’s legislative authority, such as its zoning regulations, is more operable and manageable.

“We have built up zoning regulations and lived with them a lot longer,” he said.

Even so, Skrobola said, he advocates a study on merging. He said the city and township would have to agree that each has benefits to offer the other.

“It’s got to be a mutual thing.”