Mahoning commissioners hear about dilapidated Ponderosa Park

YOUNGSTOWN — A neighbor complained today to the Mahoning County commissioners concerning blight at Ponderosa Park, a closed former Goshen Township country music destination and resort the county is foreclosing on for $83,370 in delinquent taxes.

Todd Hartman, of Salem-Warren Road, said the back of the 3,800-seat main concert pavilion in the 340-acre park has collapsed; electric power lines are down; litter lies everywhere; and a headless deer carcass has been rotting for months in the front yard. “It looks like a war zone,” he said of the park.

All the mature trees, some up to 3 feet in diameter, have been logged and harvested, he added. “Who authorized this?” And where did the money go?” he asked.

County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains urged Hartman to call the county health department and Ohio Edison to the park on state Route 45 just north of Salem.

A spokesman for Ponderosa Park Resort Inc. of California, a listed defendant in the foreclosure action, could not be reached for comment.