Community advisory panel to Boardman leaders will remain active

By Denise Dick

he committee met last week with incoming trustees.

BOARDMAN — A group of business-minded residents plans to remain active in offering recommendations for improvements to township officials.

The 10-member business citizens committee formed in mid-2008 to make recommendation to township leaders.

James Rosa, a certified public accountant who leads the group, said it remains active and met last week with trustees-elect Thomas Costello and Brad Calhoun.

“We discussed the history of what our involvement has been and what we have done,” Rosa said.

Committee members endorsed the township’s 2008 police and fire levy and offered recommendations to trustees for changes aimed at addressing financial difficulties.

Those recommendations included development of a capital improvement budget, an end to the township’s reliance on inheritance tax receipts for operating expenses and advice to focus on allowing no cost increases in upcoming labor contracts.

“We shared with them the information we have provided to the township over the last year and a half,” Rosa said.

The meeting with the trustees who take office next month went well, he said.

“I have great expectations that [the process] will work even better than it has in the past,” Rosa said.

Costello, who also served as trustee from 1999 to 2005, agreed that last week’s gathering, which also included Trustee Larry Moliterno and William Leicht, township fiscal officer, went well.

“I was very impressed,” he said.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.