45 apply for park-board positions

The park board is expanding from three to five members.

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Forty-five people from diverse backgrounds have applied to occupy two new positions on the Mill Creek MetroParks board of commissioners, Judge Mark Belinky of Mahoning County Probate Court has announced.

Judge Belinky said he will make the appointments within the next week to 10 days for one position, which will be for a one-year term, and the other position, which will be for a two-year term, both to begin Jan. 1. The term expirations are being staggered. The application deadline was Dec. 4.

The judge urged the park board to expand from three to five members to diversify representation of Mahoning County residents on the board, and the park board decided in October to approve that expansion. The judge said he was “thrilled with the number of qualified” applicants.

Among the applicants for the new board seats are John Randolph Brashen, a Canfield Township trustee; Robert E. Bush Jr. of Youngstown, the county’s chief criminal prosecutor; Dr. Robert J. Durick, a Poland dentist; Rufus G. Hudson, a former Youngstown councilman; Linda Jean Kovachik of Boardman, a former aide to former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.; Ronald A. Marian of Youngstown, executive director of the county mental health board; Scott C. Martin of Canfield, a Youngstown State University engineering professor; George P. Millich Jr. of Austintown, a trust officer at PNC Bank in Youngstown; Samuel M. Moffie, a Boardman businessman; Richard S. Scarsella of Boardman, a historic preservation activist and president of the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society; Jon Michael Thompson of Poland, an assistant county prosecutor; and Atty. Alan Wenger of North Lima.

The judge also must make an appointment to a board seat now occupied by Carl Nunziato, whose term expires Dec. 31.