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AFD promotes two, Wyndclift Circle concerns continue as resolution is pursued
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Trustees approved two promotions in the fire department and addressed continuing concerns in the Wyndclift Circle area this week.
Firefighter Tom O’Hara was promoted to lieutenant, and that lieutenant spot was opened after Lt. Tim Heitzer was promoted to captain.
Austintown Fire Chief Andy Frost III said that captain vacancy was from Don Conroy’s retirement earlier this summer.
The two promotions finish filling vacancies, but in a “year and a half, there are several people, including myself, eligible for retirement, so we believe we will have some openings then,” Frost said.
Both men were made full time in 1995. O’Hara was making $49,126 as a firefighter and will now make $53,604 at his new rank. Heitzer had made $53,604 as a lieutenant and will now make $61,606 as a captain.
There were six candidates who took the same test and “those two tested as the top two and they’re well deserving,” Frost said.
The subject of residents firing their own guns in their backyards in the western end of the township on Wilcox Road and in the Wyndclift Circle neighborhood was also discussed Monday night. The concern in that area is that those bullets aren’t staying in yards and have hit homes and condos.
“We advised [residents] that the Ohio Township Association and the state Legislature confirmed that this is a subject that is always part of discussions down in Columbus. However, it’s been very difficult ven to [get it] to a hearing, much less in bill form to be voted on over the years,” said Mike Dockry, Austintown Township administrator.
Trustee Ken Carano, a former state legislator, has talked about large, urban townships pursuing new rules to allow townships to create laws for firearms. Area state legislators and working with the Ohio Township Association to pursue that again once summer recess is over at the statehouse.
Carano said Austintown officials want residents who fire their guns in their yards “to be logical. Don’t go shooting at 8 a.m. or 10 p.m.”
No trespassing signs were posted in the Wyndclift Circle neighborhood on a piece of township-owned land that area residents had been shooting on.
“We have not had an episode lately of any type of bullets going into any type of property,” Carano said.
Trustees approved, on recommendation of the Austintown school district, R.T. Vernal Paving and Excavating Inc. of North Lima for the $149,662 tennis court construction in the township park. The school is paying for the cost to build the courts while the township will pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the courts to be used by the Austintown tennis teams.
The school district signed off on the contractor last week and R.T. Vernal has already begun the work at the park, 6000 Kirk Road.