Trustees learn about youth programs

By ELISE FRANCO

The Austintown Police Department appointed its 40th officer to the force.

AUSTINTOWN — In every appropriate case, formal court action should be avoided, and other community resources should be used to handle situations brought to the court, states Juvenile Rule 9A.

Judge Theresa Dellick of Mahoning County Juvenile Court and several of her staff explained to the township trustees just how important it is to follow that rule.

“We need to keep as many youth as we can out in the community instead of sending them to juvenile hall,” she said Monday at the trustees’ meeting.

Judge Dellick said through the Intake program, the court offers a variety of services to help children and parents, such as the Parent Project, anger management, enlightenment and ways to end bullying.

Anthony D’Apolito, juvenile court administrator, said the services cost the taxpayers nothing because they are funded through Reclaim Ohio, a state program that divides $30 million each year among all 88 counties.

“How much we get is dependent upon how many cases we handle and how many kids we send to the Department of Children Services,” he said. “Last year we received $800,000, which was down from $1 million the year before.”

D’Apolito said the reason the county received less funding was because more juveniles were sent away.

Christine Lowe, director of Intake, said the county has seen an increasing number of unruly children but hasn’t had the resources to take action against the problem.

“The Intake department pulls the serious reports,” she said. “But with the ‘gray area’ reports, we deal with the parent and the child to try and get to the root of the problem and try to get that person back on track.”

These four factors go into determining whether a child should be handled with the Intake department or be sent to the prosecutor’s office for official charges — information received by referring party, age of the child, type and degree of offense, and prior involvement with the court.

Lowe said the mediation program, which brings the victim and offender face to face, has a 98 percent success rate.

“Most of the time, the offender sees the victim and feels really bad,” she said.

She said the main goal of the Intake department is to do everything possible to keep kids out of the criminal system.

Trustee Bo Pritchard said he’s been glad to see the county’s juvenile court system evolve over the years.

“What you see in the program is the evolution of people who care, people who do more than just a job,” he said. “They’re the bridge that will keep so many kids from graduating to adult crimes.”

In other business, fiscal officer Michael Kurish swore in Brian Heinz, a township resident, as the newest member of the police department.

Police Chief Robert Gavalier said the appointment of Heinz brings the department up to 40 officers since passing a levy in 2006.

“It’s a pleasure to bring the police department up to full force and see fine young men coming up the ranks,” said Trustee David Ditzler.

The board also presented two Austintown boys, Zachary Krohn, 9, and Joe Puntel, 12, with proclamations for first-place wins in their divisions at the Greater Youngstown Area Soap Box Derby in June.

Joe went on to win third place in Super Stock division Saturday at the All-American Soap Box Derby World Championship in Akron.