Sounding off \ About Austintown

Here’s some of what’s being said about a Forbes report declaring Austintown Township the fifth-fastest-dying town in America. The article was complied using statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau’s three-year American Community Survey, which gathered findings between 2005 and 2007. Forbes tracked four metrics: income growth, the rate of domestic in-migration, the change in poverty and the percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

“This is the nicest community in the whole area — no comparison. I don’t think anything is going to really shut it down.” — Norm Holfer, of Austintown.

“I think Austintown is holding up better than a lot of communities — better than Youngstown.” — Jim Clark, of Berlin Center, who works in Austintown.

“I was surprised to hear about [the article.] We’ve been the leader in home starts for the last umpteen years.” — Austintown Police Chief Robert Gavalier.

“A lot of recent home starts have been new couples.” — David Ditzler, township trustees board chairman.

“I’m not in denial on some of Austintown’s shortcomings. I do realize we’ve seen a decrease in population and increase in home foreclosures.” — Austintown Trustee Lisa Oles.