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DeWine to speak at safety summit
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Father Gregory Maturi
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Chief Jimmy Hughes.
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Bishop George V. Murry
YOUNGSTOWN
For the third time in less than seven months, the state attorney general will discuss the city’s crime with local public and law-enforcement officials at a South Side parish.
A safety summit is planned for 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Dominic Church, 77 E. Lucius Ave. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, BCI Superintendent Tom Stickrath, Mayor Jay Williams, Police Chief Jimmy Hughes and the Rev. George V. Murry, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, are among those on the panel of presenters.
The event will be led by the Rev. Gregory Maturi of St. Dominic Church and will include a public question- and-answer session.
At the first safety summit Oct. 27, convened by Father Maturi, city officials outlined “Operation Redemption,” which called for the physical transformation of the neighborhood, such as the demolition of 27 vacant houses near St. Dominic Church, heightened law-enforcement presence and social transformation.
The summit largely was a response to high crime levels on the South Side and the murder of two elderly St. Dominic Church parishioners. Then-Attorney General Richard Cordray said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation would process DNA and fingerprints from Youngstown crime scenes without limit.
In his first meeting with Father Maturi on Jan. 25, DeWine spoke of Cordray’s pledge generally and said the goal of the crime lab is to reduce wait-time so the lab can process property crime in addition to personal- crime evidence.
Father Maturi said he has been pleased with the result of the previous safety talks.
“Things have been going wonderfully. There is a stepped-up police presence and all these houses have been torn down,” Father Maturi said, adding that now, the focus is greening out those lots.
Delores Womack, a precinct leader in the 6th Ward, attended the earlier safety summits and lives on Boston Avenue.
“I feel it’s a lot safer because I’m on the street all the time. I haven’t seen more police presence, but the police department is very responsive. I can honestly say that,” she said. “The people’s perception is that they’re still afraid, but that’s an assumption on my part.”
Of the four homicides in the city this year, only one has occurred on the South Side. At this time last year, five of the city’s 11 homicides had occurred on the South Side.
At the fall safety summit, many city residents and leaders said the crime problem isn’t just on the South Side and worried efforts were too concentrated in one neighborhood. City officials countered that Operation Redemption would serve as a model for the city.
Jackie Adair lives on the city’s East Side and attended previous safety summits. She said the plan has yet to spread.
“In terms of what happened in that area, the mayor tore houses down just like,” she said, snapping her fingers. “The rest of us [in the city], have things improved? No.”
The safety summit “will be the same old game,” she said.