Our great community

NEIGHBORS SPOTLIGHT | John Elias

Age: 39

Groups: I like to golf and I like to support my children in their youth sports and extracurricular activities. I help coach my son’s hockey team during the winter and his soccer team during the summer. My daughter is on a competition cheerleading team and enjoys dance so my wife and I are always on the go with one of their various activities. I was a board member of the Canfield Soccer Club at the beginning of the push for the community soccer fields on the township property on Herbert Road.

Education: I went to Canfield High School and Clarion University of Pennsylvania.

Visitors to Canfield should head to the Village Green

What do you like best about living in your town?

Canfield is a quiet community that prides itself on its cleanliness and safe neighborhoods. Canfield is centrally located to all the major shopping in the Mahoning and Trumbull counties and provides easy access to the I-80 I-76 corridor. The community supports our schools. And our schools provide our children with a quality education with many extracurricular activities to make our children well rounded and diverse. Canfield has that small-town feel even though it has seen tremendous growth in the past 10-15 years. The commercial and retail growth has been very beneficial, but it has not taken away from the quaint small town atmosphere.

What one thing would you add to your town if money was not an issue?

I would add a community recreation center. Something similar to the YMCA in Boardman or the Salem Community Center. I believe that these centers would provide our entire community — the elderly to our youngest children — a place to increase their quality of life through exercise and various activities.

Describe the last community event you went to:

The last community event besides a high school football game I attended was the July 4th activities on the green in Canfield. The organizers do a wonderful job with the various activities for the kids and the organization of the parade. It is nice to see all the familiar faces that come home to Canfield for this event. So many of the people that have lived here or went to school in Canfield and move on to the “bigger cities” come home for this celebration and there is one common theme among all of them. “It is amazing how close and tight our community is” and “how the town supports all the various entities.”

If there was a store or business to add to your town, which would you like it to be?

With the proximity of all the major stores and shopping malls I don’t feel that there is one store or business that is necessary. I would hope that the township trustees or the Canfield city council and zoning departments would be forward thinking and make sure that any new development — residential or commercial — is carefully planned and the long-term effects would be taken into consideration.

Where is your favorite place in town to go for a little hideaway time or bite to eat?

I really do not have a favorite place. I like to support all the local businesses. The more support the community shows all the businesses in town helps keep people employed and keeps our economy moving in a positive direction.

What one place would you direct an outsider to visit to experience your town?

I would send them to the Village Green in Canfield and I would have them take a tour of the Canfield Fairgrounds and the Mahoning County Parks and Recreation building on Route 46 across from the fairgrounds. The Green has a lot of history surrounding it. I believe its one of the first county seats. And the fairgrounds is home to one of the top five largest county fairs in our country.