Supporters of an anti-fracking charter amendment unveil billboards

Supporters of an anti-fracking charter amendment unveil billboards

YOUNGSTOWN — Supporters of an anti-fracking charter amendment in the city on the May 7 ballot unveiled two billboards today in their campaign to convince voters to cast ballots in favor of the issue.

Members of Frack Free Youngstown also urged registered voters in the city to cast early ballots for the “community bill of rights.”

“We have to protect ourselves,” said Lynn Anderson, a Frack Free member, in front of one of the billboards on South Avenue, near the Dewey Avenue in the parking lot of Crim’s Corners South Ave. Gas Mart.

She called fracking “an unregulated, deregulated dangerous industry.”

Frack Free members said they received numerous donations of $2 to $5 to pay for the two billboards — the other is on Meridian Road, just south of Interstate 680 — but those at today’s press conference didn’t know how much was raised.

Alan Wenger, a member of the Mahoning Valley Coalition for Job Growth and Investment, an organization working to defeat the charter amendment, said the proposal isn’t enforceable.

But if the issue passes, “it will be very bad for economic development in the area,” said Wenger, an attorney with Harrington, Hoppe & Mitchell and chairman of the law firm’s oil and gas practice group.

For the complete story, read Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com