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Struthers seniors take over city government for a day
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
STRUTHERS
Michael Pape spent much of Friday morning in the place he aspires to call his own one day: the mayor’s office.
Though the 18-year-old Pape’s mayoral term lasted only a few hours, and also didn’t stretch beyond the realm of Civics Day, it was “a cool experience” to see firsthand how the city of Struthers is run from day to day, Pape said.
He was elected to the position by his fellow seniors — another 14 of whom also assumed city-government roles for the day, including safety-service director, judge and clerk of council.
“I like Mayor [Terry] Stocker a lot, and I consider myself a leader of my school,” said Pape, who added that he has assumed a variety of academic, athletic and extracurricular leadership positions during his time at SHS. “I thought, ‘So, why not try being the leader of the city?’”
Participating seniors convened at Struthers City Hall, 6 Elm St., at 8 a.m. Friday, where Stocker congratulated them for being selected — and advised them that “our job here is a probably a little different than you might expect,” giving them a “crash course” on each of the positions.
Stocker also encouraged them to stay in the city after graduation, and to perhaps eventually reprise their temporary roles on a more-permanent basis.
The 15 students then were paired with their counterparts, who assisted them during a mock city-council meeting — complete with an agenda and three pieces of legislation up for passage — in council chambers.
Before the meeting, Joseph N. Rudzik, a councilman-at-large, explained the process to McKenna Shives, the senior selected to shadow him for the day. Shives, 18, said she’d recently attended a city council meeting where she was honored for her basketball accomplishments, and was excited to “be a part of that now.”
She added that she also wanted to find out about the differences between meetings of student council, of which she is the senior-class president, and meetings of city council. Plus, Shives said she felt it was important to know more about the “people we could be voting for.”
Rudzik agreed, explaining that the seniors, a number of whom already are 18 years old, are soon “going to have a voice” in the city and should be well-informed about its inner workings.
“It’s good for them to see what really goes on,” he said.
After the mock city-council meeting, students toured city hall as well as the Carbon Limestone Landfill in Poland Township. The day concluded with a luncheon program at Donavito’s Italian Grille in the city’s downtown that featured Judge Theresa Dellick as guest speaker.
Carol A. Crytzer, 2nd Ward councilwoman, said she looks forward to Civic Day every year because of the opportunity to meet with the students and see “how they interact with us and with the positions in council.”
Crytzer’s counterpart was 17-year-old Marcus Donnadio, who said he liked being a member of city council — and especially having “a say in what’s getting passed or not.”
“A lot of them probably never attended a council meeting, but have an interest in government,” Crytzer added. “On a small scale, they can decide if they want to come here or not. Most of these kids really care about Struthers.”