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Boardman trustees appoint interim fire chief
BOARDMAN
Township trustees appointed Assistant Fire Chief Tim Drummond as interim fire chief.
Drummond will be interim chief until a permanent replacement is found for Chief James Dorman, who is retiring at the end of the week.
The trustees, meeting Monday, presented Dorman with a proclamation honoring his 42 years with Boardman Fire Department, including the four years he spent as a volunteer.
In other business, Trustee Chairman Thomas Costello updated residents about a potential levy.
He said the trustees are leaning toward a police levy, but are unsure if it would go on a special-election ballot in August or on the general-election ballot in November. The trustees must have two readings of a levy in April if they want to place the measure before voters in August.
George Farris, a Boardman resident and founder of Farris Marketing, attended Monday’s meeting and said a levy committee already is in place.
“We’re ready to go if they will put a restricted-use police levy on the ballot,” Farris said.
Also at the meeting, police Chief Jack Nichols announced a public auction of seized goods such as televisions and cars, at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the township road department, 8299 Market St.
He said many of the items came from drug investigations and described a recent narcotics raid where officers found drug dealers making bindles, or packaging, for cocaine using police levy flyers from last November’s election.
Nichols also addressed the Feb. 25 incident where a dispatcher did not send police to a Struthers mother who accidentally locked her 16-month-old daughter in a running car in the parking lot of Petco on U.S. Route 224. The child was secure in her seat and fell asleep, and the dispatcher connected the mother with a towing company.
“We just sat [the dispatcher] down and I told him I want a car sent. ... It’s not up to them to say ‘No we’re not sending a car,’ and he understood that,” Nichols said.
“He thought by sending the wrecker that he had fulfilled what needed to be done. All the cars were tied up at that point,” he added.
The trustees also approved the final 2011 appropriations of $17,131,497.