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2 challengers seek to unseat Divito as Poland Twp. trustee
POLAND
Three candidates are running for one seat on the Poland Township Board of Trustees.
Incumbent Annette Jeswald-DiVito, a real-estate sales agent, faces challengers Eric C. Ungaro, a special- education teacher in Howland, and Anthony Sferra, Struthers Municipal Court bailiff and assistant chief for the Western Reserve Joint Fire District.
Ungaro said his priorities are to be accessible to residents, re-create neighborhood associations and restart the school-resource officer program.
“I believe 100 percent if you’re a quality community, you need cops in schools,” he said, adding that the school district, village, township and perhaps private entities could contribute to the cost.
DiVito, first appointed trustee in 1999, said when the township had a school-resource officer, a grant funded the position. The school paid for nine months and the township paid for three months, she said.
“When the grant went away, the school didn’t want to pick up their nine months and we couldn’t afford to lose an officer and pay 12 months and have him exclusively in the schools,” she said.
DiVito said if funding becomes available, she would rather restart the police department’s youth diversion program, which helped children in trouble in and outside of school and required them to do community service.
Ungaro is presenting himself as an outsider, even though he has lived in the township for nine years.
The son of former Youngstown Mayor Patrick Ungaro has run for political office before — Mahoning County commissioner in 2007 and Youngstown City Council in 1999 — losing both times.
“I’ve always worked hard [in campaigns] and now I’m working extremely hard because I know what’s at stake here. I present the biggest change as far as the activity involvement in the community,” Ungaro said.
DiVito said she is accessible to residents and would be happy to address neighborhood groups and individual residents but she has “never been asked.”
DiVito, who said her signature accomplishment is the township park that was started with no taxpayer funding, said the township’s finances are stable now.
“We’ve had $2 million carryover as long as I’ve been in there,” she said. “We did try last year for a replacement levy, and the voters didn’t want it. ... We just worked with what we have and we put renewals up.”
DiVito said she will continue working with the other trustees and elected officials to secure grants for large projects, such as the South Struthers Sewer Interceptor Program.
Poland Township has a $2.6 million annual budget and usually carries over between $2 million and $2.5 million, and most of that carryover is savings from inheritance tax, said Fiscal Officer Joseph Granitto.
The township uses the carryover to pay for government services during the first few months of the year before property taxes are collected, and that carry-over is expected to dwindle to nothing in several years, Granitto said.
Granitto also is being challenged this election. His opponent is Paul J. Canter, of Chablis Lane.
Sferra declined an interview at The Vindicator but has said in the past that he thinks the township needs to go in a “different direction” and that “there’s too much micromanagement.”