43
YSU happening place in 2014
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The travails and triumphs of Youngs-town State University are the top news story of 2014.
In voting by The Vindicator’s editorial staff, the university’s loss of a president followed by the hiring of a legend to take his place and the precarious state of the school’s finances led to YSU’s garnering the most votes for lead story of the year.
Photo
Jim Tressel is all smiles inside Beeghly Center during the ceremony for his formal installation as Youngstown State University’s ninth president.
1) Hail to thee o Youngstown
The university community was stunned when Dr. Randy Dunn, who was named president of the school in July 2013, announced on Feb. 17 he was leaving to become president of Southern Illinois University, his “dream job.”
The reaction was swift and furious, as people across the region lambasted Dunn for leaving so soon. He offered to stay on until August, but the university’s trustees instead approved an agreement to have him leave March 21.
Calls immediately began for Jim Tressel, former football coach at YSU and Ohio State, to take over. Tressel was working at the University of Akron and still is widely popular because of his four championships with the Penguins and his title with the Buckeyes. Right away, lobbying of the trustees began by prominent community members to pick Tressel, because, they said, he would inject excitement and enthusiasm into the university.
The trustees agreed. Tressel was selected as president May 9.
And that excitement and enthusiasm is needed because of the state of the university’s finances. The university is staring at a $10 million operating budget deficit, and plans are underway to cut vacant positions to save money.
Photo
McNally
2) The never-ending story
The Oakhill Renaissance Place conspiracy saga has been around since 2006, when two of three Mahoning County commissioners voted to purchase the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center from bankruptcy court and move the county’s Job and Family Services unit from the decrepit McGuffey Plaza to Oakhill. That, in turn, led to fierce opposition by McGuffey owner Anthony Cafaro and the third commissioner and now Youngstown mayor, John A. McNally, county Auditor Michael Sciortino and a host of other officials.
Since then, there were a taxpayers’ lawsuit, state charges that Cafaro and his company and the officials opposed to the move broke laws in opposing it, and the dropping of those charges because of the reluctance of the federal government to part with more than 2,000 hours of tapes related to the case.
But that changed May 15 when McNally, Sciortino and attorney Martin Yavorcik were indicted in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on corruption charges related to their opposition to the county’s purchase of the building. The case was taken up again by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
All three have said they are not guilty. Lawyers for the three have filed several pretrial motions in the case, including one to have it heard in Mahoning County instead of Cuyahoga County. Because some of the recordings have now been released and defense attorneys are expected to pore over them, the case should drag well into next year, if not longer.
Photo
December 27, 1988 - Traficant at a press conference in his office in Boardman.
3) Jim Traficant dies
A wave of nostalgia was released when former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. died Sept. 27 from injuries he suffered when a tractor rolled over on him Sept. 23 at his family farm in Greenford.
From the time of the accident, where initial reports were grim, people reflected on the popular congressman and former Mahoning County sheriff, whose 17-year stint in the U.S. House of Representatives was cut short when he was found guilty of corruption charges and served a federal prison sentence.
But that conviction never deterred his supporters, who elevated him to folk-hero status when he beat the feds on similar charges in the 1980s. As the death- watch went on, they praised Traficant, known for his outrageous wardrobe and speeches, as a person who reflected the persona of the Mahoning Valley.
His detractors also came out and said Traficant was a black eye on the area, no better than the endless number of public officials who were tried and convicted on corruption charges.
But the naysayers were drowned out by Traficant’s thousands of supporters, who came out and honored the ex-congressman in a public memorial service at the DeYor Performing Arts Center downtown Nov. 30.
Photo
The Vindicator ( Youngstown)
ROBERT K. YOSAY | THE VINDICATOR.. Ray Mancini and his wife Tina... .. Opening DAY at the Austintown Hollywood Gaming as Ray 'BOOM-BOOM' Mancini was the high light of the ribbon cutting... -30-
4) If you build it, they will come
And they did, when the Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course — or the racino — opened Sept. 17 on state Route 46 in Austintown.
The highly anticipated gambling establishment was a hit from the start, the $125 million casino and racetrack drawing rave reviews from the public at its grand opening. Racing began Nov. 24 at the facility.
Numbers so far since its opening have been good, and the project is expected also to create about 1,000 jobs, most of them employees at the racino.
Photo
Photo of 16-year old Gina Burger; the victim found June 24, 2014 in a Mercer County landfill.
5) The murder of Gina Burger
Gina Burger’s short, 16-year life had enough turmoil for two lifetimes.
The Austintown teen’s body was found in a Grove City, Pa., waste facility after she was killed at the Compass West apartment complex in Austintown on June 23 and stuffed in a playpen that was later put in a trash receptacle.
Police found her killer shortly after the body was found, as 18-year-old Ricky Williams IV of Youngstown was charged with aggravated murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Court records show Gina had a troubled upbringing. Her father died of a drug overdose in 2007, and she was living with an adoptive mother when she left her to come to Austintown last summer to visit her birth mother, Jackie Bacher.
But Bacher had troubles of her own and was treated for a heroin overdose July 2. She later died from what is suspected to be a heroin overdose in a West Side home in October. Gina had been taken from her parents by authorities in Florida in 2000 after an investigation into drug dealing in her home at the time.
6) Mahoning County Sales Tax
Harkening back to the days of the Accountability Tax Force, Mahoning County’s two 0.5 percent sales taxes have always led a helter-skelter existence, and 2014 was no different.
In May, a renewal of one of the county’s 0.5 percent sales taxes was shot down by voters at the polls, which came after commissioners decided against placing an additional quarter-percent sales tax on the ballot for the fear both issues would be defeated. So they gambled with the renewal on a continual basis and lost.
That May defeat came after it was revealed in April that more than 700 pay raises exceeding 3 percent were given to county employees in 2013. In some cases, employees received two or three raises during the year. County officials said there was no blanket reason for the increases. Some came after 250 employees received a Public Employees Retirement System “flip,” where the county, instead of contributing the employees’ share to the PERS, put the onus back on the workers but also gave them a wage increase to make up that difference.
Other jobs also had longevity clauses built into them, promotions, or employees who took on expanded workloads because of job restructuring.
After May, commissioners had bandied about the idea of placing a 1 percent sales tax on the ballot just for the county’s criminal justice system, which eats up 70 percent of the general-fund budget, but opted instead for a 0.75 percent sales-tax increase for the criminal justice system, which renewed the measure that failed and added an additional quarter percent. Voters approved that tax in November.
Photo
Mark Belinky, left, a former Mahoning County Probate Court judge, listens as J. Gerald Ingram, his attorney, makes a point about putting his client on probation and not in prison.
7) Judge Belinky resigns
For years, rumors had circulated about Mahoning County Probate Judge Mark Belinky as some said he was facing an investigation. But the judge who took office in 2007 and won retention in 2008 had a generally good reputation for honesty and it was hard to believe the rumors.
They came true beginning in February, when his office in the courthouse and his home were searched by several law-enforcement agencies. The returned search warrants showed investigators were looking for campaign finance and financial records.
Belinky, who resigned in March, wound up pleading guilty to a bill of information to a charge of tampering with records, which stated he failed to record more than $7,500 but less than $150,000 in contributions, expenditures or loans to his campaign fund between Oct. 23 and Dec. 10, 2008.
He was sentenced to two years’ probation, 60 days of house arrest and 200 hours of community service by a visiting judge in July, under the proviso that he cooperate with prosecutors in other cases. Although he escaped jail time, Belinky said the shame was punishment enough.
“It’s not easy to see your life come crashing down,” Belinky said at his sentencing hearing.
Photo
Epicenter of the earthquake that occurred early Tuesday morning.
8) The (not so) missing link
In April, word came from a team of state geologists and regulators that two earthquakes in Poland Township in March were linked to a fracking well at the Carbon Limestone Landfill there.
An investigation headed up by the Ohio Department Of Natural Resources determined that hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, aggravated a small, previously undetected fault that caused the earth to shake.
ODNR’s findings prompted the agency to take the unprecedented step of changing its permit conditions to require drillers in certain areas to monitor seismic activity.
The requirements — the first of their kind — will require companies seeking horizontal drilling permits within three miles of known faults or in the vicinity of seismic events greater than a 2.0 magnitude to install “sensitive” seismic monitors.
If the latter detect movement of a magnitude of more than 1.0, drilling and related activities would have to stop while the quakes are investigated. Drilling would be suspended if fracturing is determined to be the cause.
9) The Youngstown School Board
The Youngstown city schools had some of their autonomy stripped in October when the state Aca- demic Distress Commission, which has been in place since 2010, took away the board of education’s ability to recommend and hire administrative personnel, such as principals, leadership and special assistance positions.
Under state law, the commission has the power to basically run the district.
School board members have sparred with members of the commission this year, and Richard Ross, state superintendent of public instruction, criticized the lack of progress the district has made and asked community members to get more involved.
The commission was appointed after the school district failed to meet adequate yearly progress for four consecutive years on the state report card.
Board members say the commission ignores their input. They have also sniped with superintendent Dr. Connie Hathorn as well.
The district also has to find a way to cut between $1.5 million and $2 million from its budget in 2015 in order to avoid a deficit.
Photo
Brothers and developers James, left, and George Pantelidis and Dominic J. Marchionda of NYO Property Group discuss the plans for a hotel in downtown Youngstown at the First National Bank Building. The collaborators announced Wednesday that Marshall Hotels and Resorts Inc. will operate the building as DoubleTree Hotel, a Hilton brand.
10) Downtown Hotel
A long-awaited goal for some was fulfilled in November when it was announced a hotel would be in place in downtown Youngstown by 2016.
Marshall Hotels and Resorts Inc. will operate a DoubleTree Hotel at the site beginning in June 2016 at the Stambaugh Building, 44 W. Federal St.
DoubleTree is rated as a three-and-a-half star hotel. Rates are expected to be in the range of $125 to $130 a night. Marshall Hotels operates about 55 to 60 hotels.
The multimillion-dollar project was a collaboration between NYO Property Group and the Pan Brothers Associates, a real-estate services company in New York City.
The project is expected to cost $25.5 million. Plans call for 120 rooms.
Market studies commissioned by the NYO Property Group revealed that the demand exists and the market will support a 120-room hotel, along with auxiliary hotel uses such as an exercise room, banquet room, conference space, hotel restaurant and hotel lounge.