Engineer’s office to lay off nine

By Peter H. Milliken

Public safety this winter won’t be compromised, officials say.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County engineer’s office will be laying off nine members of Teamsters Local 377 effective Dec. 31, according to county Engineer Richard Marsico.

The layoffs are due to the current budget squeeze facing the engineer’s office. Gasoline tax and license plate revenues have declined, and road salt and asphalt prices have doubled, said Marilyn Kenner, chief deputy county engineer.

Due to high fuel prices earlier this year, the department spent about $150,000 more for fuel this year than in previous years, she added.

“If we want to continue to serve the public at a high level of service, we have to reduce our staff in order to buy the materials that are necessary,” Kenner said.

The gasoline tax revenue decline is due to the fact that fewer miles are being driven, and the license plate fee revenue drop is due to a shrinking local population and fewer vehicles’ being licensed, Kenner said.

The nine to be laid off are a truck driver, a mechanic and seven laborers, who constitute all union members hired since 1995. The union local has 69 members at the engineer’s office. Layoffs are in reverse order of seniority. This is the first layoff in the department since 1997.

The department hopes to call back laid-off workers as it gets a clearer idea of next year’s materials costs and as some of its staff retires in 2009, Kenner said.

“We’re considering them as being a temporary layoff, and we want to call everybody back as soon as possible,” Marsico said.

Kenner and Marsico said the layoffs won’t affect snow and ice removal this winter, and the safety of the driving public won’t be compromised.

That’s because the department has transferred staff from its bridge, traffic sign, and buildings and grounds divisions to snow and ice removal activities, they said.

The layoffs are expected to save the engineer’s office $800,000 a year, Kenner said, noting that number is inflated by the high cost of hospitalization and pension benefits. “There will be some savings from the layoffs, but we have no way to predict what the cost of everything is going to be next year,” Kenner said.

The department derives almost all of its $11 million annual operating budget from gasoline tax and license plate fees. The engineer’s office is responsible for maintenance and snow and ice removal on 483 miles of county roads.

At the county’s board of mental retardation and developmental disabilities, meanwhile, Superintendent Larry Duck said state funding cutbacks may force the layoff of two teachers and two aides at the Leonard Kirtz School, effective at the start of the 2009-10 school year.

The board suffered a $350,000 state funding cut in October and will likely be cut an additional $100,000 to $150,000, he said.

Unless these cuts are reduced or retirements occur, the teachers and aides will have to be laid off, he said. The board has planned its 2009 budget with these layoffs in place. Those to be furloughed must be notified by April 30.

Even if those four people are laid off, the board will still be within the state-mandated special-education teacher-student ratio of 1-to-8, Duck said.

The board is covering part of its state subsidy losses by keeping two workshop specialist positions vacant, Duck said.