Trumbull officials to apply for COPS grant

By Ed Runyan

Commissioners are expected to fire a former JFS employee.

WARREN — The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department is asking the federal government for $975,000 through the stimulus bill’s Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Recovery Program to establish a greater police presence in rural townships.

Gary Slovinsky, a Vernon Township trustee, was one of the township officials who attended Tuesday’s Trumbull County commissioners meeting to support the application, which commissioners are expected to approve Thursday.

Slovinsky said there is crime in the rural areas, such as Vernon, “just like the cities.”

Dominic Marchese, a Johnston Township trustee, said there are a lot of daytime break-ins in both townships.

“Surprisingly, a lot of that comes from Youngstown,” Marchese said, speculating that criminals are using state Route 193 [Belmont Avenue] that extends north out of Youngstown and Liberty into Vienna, Fowler, Johnston and Gustavus. Vernon is just east of Johnston.

Marchese said a lot of the break-ins would be classified as “snatch and grabs,” where the thief gets in and out quickly.

The area seems to be a target for four-wheeled farm equipment thefts, Slovinsky noted.

“We need the protection out there,” Slovinsky said. “We’ve been without it for a long time. Just because we’re rural, we still have problems, too,” he said.

Marchese said if the COPS grant is approved, the sheriff’s department will create up to three department outposts in the 11 townships that have passed resolutions endorsing the concept.

Ernie Cook, chief deputy for the sheriff’s department, said $975,000 would allow the department to hire five deputies to add to the 15 that now patrol the county’s rural areas.

The 11 townships supporting the plan are nine of the 10 townships in the two rows of northern townships (excluding Kinsman), plus Southington and Newton townships.

Marchese said if the project is funded and police protection is provided to the townships with the money, it would last only three years.

After that, the townships would have to consider forming a police district of their own and asking voters for the money to continue the coverage.

In other business, commissioners are expected to approve the firing of Kenneth Greep of Pleasant Valley Road in Vienna Township, who was arrested while working his temporary job at the county Department of Job and Family Services in North Park Avenue on March 18.

Greep received his termination letter March 23, the same day his boss, Tom Mahoney, director of the JFS, was fired and escorted out of the building. County officials have refused to say what led to Mahoney’s firing, but a sheriff’s spokesman said sheriff’s detectives were investigating Mahoney.

Greep was a temporary worker, hired after being released from prison at $9.25 an hour plus health-care benefits for up to 1,500 hours. Police charged him with trafficking in cocaine after raiding his home and finding suspected cocaine, cash and other items inside.

runyan@vindy.com