Boardman springs into action after levy passes

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By Elise Franco

Township officials are thrilled by the approval of three major levies.

BOARDMAN — Voters showed up in a big way for the township’s safety services.

Approved with 62.8 percent of votes, the 2.2-mill Boardman police and fire levy will raise $2,078,924 annually over a five-year period. It will allow Police Chief Patrick Berarducci to hire 10 new patrol officers.

“I’ll be contacting the Civil Service Commission today,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll get those by the end of the week so we can start scheduling interviews.”

Berarducci said he plans to hire the best officers he can find.

“We’re not going to lower the standards of the Boardman Police Department just to do things quickly, because the people we hire we’re going to be with for a long time,” he said. “If we get through these applicants and still haven’t filled all the positions, we’ll request more.”

Berarducci said he has 30 possible candidates to choose from to fill the open positions.

Fire Chief James Dorman has work to do as well, to get his department fully up and running once again.

He said immediately upon his from a vacation in Key West, Fla., he will sit down with township administration to discuss when the fire station on South Avenue can reopen and six firefighters can return to work.

“I’ve heard [trustees] have a desire to get these people back to work as quickly as possible,” he said.

Township Trustee Robyn Gallitto said Dorman has already been given the go-ahead to reinstate the firefighters and reopen the station.

“I think with in the fire department that process can happen immediately,” she said. “Those employees don’t need training so they can just come back to work.”

Harry Wolfe, president of the firefighters’ union, said the community saw the need for the police and fire departments to be properly staffed.

“I know we still have to reduce costs,” he said. “There are lots of things to look at: health care, future wages. I’ve tried telling everyone I spoke to personally — this isn’t just an open check. We still have a duty and responsibility to the community with this money.”

Wolfe hopes the three firefighters still laid off can return to work soon.

Township Administrator Jason Loree said Station 74 on South Avenue will reopen Friday, and two of the six firefighters will return to work. The other four will return on Saturday.

Both chiefs said they were overjoyed when they found out the levy had been approved.

Dorman said he had nothing but high hopes.

“As we talk to the people more and more we became aware that there was positive feedback,” he said. “When we went into the actual Election Day, I was very optimistic.”

Berarducci shared Dorman’s view but said he was more cautiously optimistic until just before the election.

“The talk show people ... had been supporting it in its last week, and that kind of told me that we’d addressed the public’s concerns,” Berarducci said. They have a wide audience, and they’re solid thinkers, so for them to support it was an important thing.”

He said he feels as if a cloud has been lifted from over the township.

“I’m able to take a deep breath and able to start enacting some plans we’ve made,” he said. “It was the township taking the first step in rebuilding our safety forces and rebuilding the community.”

Gallitto said she didn’t expect such widespread approval from voters.

“I was pleased to hear how uniform the passage was from precinct to precinct,” she said. “Voters recognized the message and the need to restore services.”

Voters in Boardman also approved two renewal levies — a 2.4-mill, five-year renewal levy for the school district for emergency requirements to raise $1,999,547 annually; and a 0.3-mill, five-year renewal levy for park operations and maintenance to raise $240,444 annually.

Gallitto said the swell of voter turnout is what ultimately determined the fate of the township’s levies.

“The voters will determine what kind of community they want us to look like,” she said. “Maybe things are cyclical because a lot of communities go through tough times.

“Boardman had to hit this rough point and go through this correction, and now we’re going to get back to where we need to be.”

efranco@vindy.com