Some residents get fired up over plans to expand Poland district

By Denise Dick

Residents worry about increased traffic and decreased property values.

POLAND — Just the suggestion of a training facility on South Hubbard Road for the Western Reserve Joint Fire District has some residents hot.

The district, which covers Poland Village and township, is finalizing the purchase of about 18 acres behind its fire station on South Hubbard. The cost is about $5,000 per acre.

Chief David “Chip” Comstock said that for about two years, the fire board has been planning to expand the station to add space for another firetruck and for a police substation.

They had been trying to buy about two acres for a couple of years, but when the 18 acres became available, the board decided to buy the whole thing and decide how to use it in the future.

“Around February or March, President Obama and Congress was handing out money left and right,” Comstock said.

Since before he was chief, he’s talked about the need for a training facility for firefighters in the area.

Last March, Comstock sent a letter to five Ohio and Pennsylvania congress members seeking federal funding for a two-state, multicounty fire training facility. The estimated cost is $900,000.

Similar facilities are in Wayne County and in Cleveland, but there’s no such training opportunities in the Mahoning Valley. To get training, the district must wait for someone to donate a home, a practice that’s becoming more and more rare, he said.

Having such a training facility in the community also would help lower residents’ insurance rates, the chief said.

Comstock said he received no reply from any of the congressional delegation.

“A training facility is a dream of mine,” Comstock said, adding that he, not the fire board, wrote the letter to the lawmakers.

Other plans are higher priorities, he said.

Comstock listed repairing the main station and the North Hill station, improving drainage and electrical issues at the stations, expanding the Youngstown-Pittsburgh Road station and building a fourth station to serve the district’s eastern portion as some of those higher priorities.

“We have a dream too,” said Lisa Donofrio, a Coitsville resident who owns property near the acreage. “That dream is to keep our property residential.”

She was among about 35 people who attended a fire board meeting Wednesday.

Donofrio said she’s not opposed to the idea of expanding the fire station and providing a police substation there. She even likes the idea of a fire training facility. She just doesn’t think the property at South Hubbard and New Castle roads is the right place for it.

Neither does Angela Lanzo, who lives on South Hubbard. She worries about increased traffic and decreased property values.

Donofrio suggested other sites such as near the Allied Waste landfill or along U.S. Route 224 where there’s no residential property.

“Sell the land and use the profit for the new facility” in a different location, Donofrio said. “Let us buy back what you don’t need.”

Beverly Miller of New Castle Road said agricultural land in the state is diminishing, and she believes parcels zoned agricultural should remain so.

Chuck Arendas, also of New Castle Road, owns the largest llama ranch in Mahoning County and also opposes a training facility being built there.

“It will diminish our property values and take away the scenic atmosphere of the community,” he said.

Comstock said he’s open to the suggestion of exploring alternate sites.

Frank Bennett, fire board member, said there’s never been a plan to use the land for a training facility. It was a coincidence that the land became available around the same time that the federal government was offering money for local projects.