There was hope for historic house

There was hope for historic house

We would like to clear up some misinformation that was published in The Vindicator and in The Jambar regarding the fate of the Sacherman House on Lincoln Avenue.

Gene Grilli , YSU vice president for finance and administration, stated to The Vindicator that no uses were identified by anyone on campus for the Sacherman House. This is categorically false. The Department of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences had repeatedly requested to utilize the Sacherman House as a Forensic Crime Scene House. The close proximity, the lack of designated crime scene space on campus, and the fact that interior aesthetic improvements to the house would not be needed for our purposes made the house an ideal area for mock crime scene work. These requests were made in meetings with YSU administrators and documented in numerous emails and memoranda and in the department’s annual reports for 2008 through 2010.

Following the installation of a new roof, Health and Human Services Dean Joseph Mosca gave us the go-ahead to explore cleanup costs and the installation of a handicap ramp for the House in March of 2010. In the spirit of YSU’s Urban Research Plan, we garnered support from numerous agencies including the YSU’s Peace Officer Academy, YSU Police Department, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department , Mahoning Valley Crisis Response Team, and the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office, who were also very interested in using the house for training purposes.

In the Fall of 2009, Hunter Morrison, YSU’s Director of Campus Planning and Community Development, estimated that renovations to the building would cost approximately $171,000. In March of 2010 we were advised by Provost Ikram Khawaja to consider adding these costs to the BCHHS College plan for the year 2011. Soon after, our department heard that the building would be demolished.

Community members, including the Historic Preservation Committee, several members of the YSU Board of Trustees, and even Mrs. Sacherman complained to YSU about the decision to demolish such a historic gift to the university. Our department was informed that a committee would be formed and our voice would be heard on the plans to preserve and use the house. At no time were we notified that such a committee had ever been formed, at no time did we hear from any member of the alleged committee, and to our knowledge no public request for proposals was ever announced.

We respect the administration’s decision not to renovate the house due to budgetary restrictions, but are disturbed by its announcement that no one expressed any interest in salvaging it. Such a statement undermines our efforts with other agencies in Youngstown, who were working with us to utilize the house.

It is a shame that the previous administration wasted a precious historic gift from a donor by allowing it to sit vacant, and it is a shame that current administrators failed to exercise candor in announcing their plans to demolish it.

Susan Clutter and Rob Wardle III, Assistant Professors of Forensic Science

Atty. Patricia B. Wagner, Chair of the YSU Department of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences.

Cigars, young athletes don’t mix

As a parent and former coach, I find it appalling to see Cardinal Mooney’s football team smoking cigars. Where were the coaches when the parents handed the cigars to the young men? How could the coaches allow players to smoke?

I think the coaches and parents should apologize to the fans and followers of Cardinal Mooney football via the media.

Neil A. Rauchfuss, Youngstown

Priests give kids wine all the time

I have been listening to the news about the celebration and use of tobacco and now alcohol of some of the team members.

I think the school and superintendent are blowing this out of proportion. He turned this over to the police for further investigation. They were celebrating a big win with the parents boasting about their boys. One or some of the parents gave them cigars, which they got suspended for, but now they are making a big deal about them sipping champagne.

Can someone tell me the difference between parents giving them champagne in celebration and a priest giving our second grade and older children a sip of wine after communion, which represents the blood of Christ. I am a 62-year-old Catholic and always thought wine at Mass should be for adults 18 years and older.

Andy Pappagallo Sr., Mineral Ridge

Is doing the right thing for saps?

There are times in our lives when we are faced with making decisions based on our morality. I experienced one of these times when I lost my job.

After joining the ranks of the unemployed I made the decision to return to school, broaden my skill set, and make myself more marketable. Upon doing so the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services (ODJFS) informed me that, “You are not required to look for work during calendar weeks in which you maintain satisfactory progress in your approved training program.” I appreciated the offer to remain unemployed during my schooling, but I viewed unemployment benefits as a social safety net, not a hammock. So, I made the decision to find employment that would allow me to work when my school schedule allowed. I felt this was the correct moral decision, until recently.

There came a point this semester when my school workload temporarily prohibited me from working. It was at that time the ODJFS reclassified me as voluntarily unemployed and denied by unemployment benefits. I appealed the decision to the ODJFS and was denied on two separate occasions before having my case transferred to the Unemployment Compensation Review Commission (UCRC). I pleaded my case to this independent body with the hopes they would appreciate the fact that I was on a temporary leave of absence from part-time employment I was not even required to seek in the first place. Unfortunately, the (UCRC) was of the same opinion as the bureaucrats at the ODJFS. Their denial stated that while I may have been participating in schooling that had been approved by the ODJFS, such approval only relieves me of the duty to actively seek work. Once I had a job, I was expected to maintain the employment. By taking a leave of absence to continue with my schooling, I cannot maintain that I was involuntarily unemployed, and available for work.

When you boil it all down, what they are really saying is I was a sucker, a sap and a chump for finding temporary part-time employment. There would not have been an issue if I would have just gone to school, cuddled up to the government teat and collected my unemployment benefits. Shame on me for believing in doing the right thing.

Bill Hegarty, Poland

Huge embassy invites trouble

Anti-American cleric Moqta- da Al-Sadr, who leads a Shiite militia in Iraq, stated in November “that it was a duty” to resist any large State department presence in Iraq.

The U.S. embassy has had a warning of “severe threat” of kidnapping of Americans in place since Dec. 3. Our State department employs nearly 16,000 people in the world’s largest embassy. With our sky high deficit problem, why does our government need that many people to run an embassy?

Maybe the president should form another super committee to find out why our government built the world’s largest embassy in Iraq to begin with.

Kevin Flaherty, Poland