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YDC supporters urge Kasich to keep facility open
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Robin Tarr’s brother has lived at the Youngstown Developmental Center for the past 30 years.
Mary Bowers’ brother has lived there for 33.
Both men are disabled and need around-the-clock care.
And both are facing the prospect of finding other residences due to the planned closing of the Austintown facility by mid-2017.
Tarr and Bowers are holding out hope that state lawmakers will be able to counter the closure. On Tuesday, they and dozens of others stood across the street from the building where Gov. John Kasich formally launched his presidential bid, letting their voices on the issue be heard.
“We want everyone to know that Kasich has turned his back on Ohio’s most vulnerable citizens, like my brother here, who’s very medically needy,” Tarr said. “He needs 24/7, eyes-on-only care, which he cannot receive in the community. Due to Kasich’s [veto], my brother’s losing the only home he’s ever known.”
She added, “We know that there’s a budget surplus. He [Kasich] should have never turned his back and thrown these vulnerable citizens out of there.”
Tarr and Bowers are taking issue with Kasich’s decision to veto a closure commission provision added to the biennial state budget, which would have required review of the planned closing of YDC and a comparable facility in the Dayton area.
YDC serves residents in Mahoning, Portage, Stark, Wayne, Ashland, Columbiana and eight other counties. About 85 residents with severe and profound disabilities who need extensive daily support live at YDC. Those residents will have to seek other services, potentially at one of eight remaining state-run facilities – the closest one is near Cleveland – or in home or community-based settings.
Some YDC residents moved to the center after the closing of the Apple Creek Developmental Center in Wayne County nearly a decade ago.
State officials cite decline in the number of people living in state-run centers over the past eight years among reasons for the closures.
But family members and employees at YDC counter that the state has been pushing residents to find other living options.
“They talk about dwindling numbers, but they ordered the numbers down,” said Sean Murphy, who has worked at YDC for 15 years. “We deal with the profound and the severely disabled. These people can’t survive in the public.”
DeWayne Shealey, another 15-year employee of YDC, added, “He’s really turning his back on the really unfortunate individuals that we take care of every day and ... chooses to ignore the pleas of the parents and the family members.”
Ernie Barkett, a sophomore economic student from Youngstown State University, said the closure commission would give the families of YDC residents and employees the chance to make a case for keeping the center open.
“We really believe that the review is the best way to go,” he said. “It would ... give these people a second chance. We believe the privatization in those facilities [isn’t] the best for them. They’re all elderly [residents]. Moving them this late in the game when they’ve been there 15-20 years is a bad idea.”
Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, and other lawmakers are pushing for the Legislature to override Kasich’s closure commission veto.
On Tuesday, the protesters held signs and hoped the governor and his administration would hear their message.