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Families press legislators to keep developmental center open
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Steven Bulvony has lived at the Youngstown Developmental Center for the past 29 years.
Frank Luketic has been there since 1998. Mark Ross has been there three decades.
All three have developmental disabilities that require help with their everyday living. All three have found the services they need at YDC and settled into residency at the facility in Mineral Ridge.
All three are facing the potential of finding new places to live, after the state’s announcement earlier this year that YDC would be closing its doors in about two years.
Tuesday, all three had family members who advocated on their behalf before a lawmaker panel at the Statehouse.
“I am begging you to listen to the parents, legal guardians and community members before you and to help us overturn this terrible decision,” Catherine David, a Cortland resident and Bulvony’s sister, said in written testimony submitted to the Ohio House’s Finance Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. “... My brother is not a number or a statistic. He’s a human being that deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.”
More than 100 witnesses submitted testimony to the legislative panel for a hearing that started just after noon and was scheduled to go past midnight. Speakers offered comments in support and opposition to provisions included in Gov. John Kasich’s biennial budget proposal related to services provided to residents with developmental disabilities.
Many also urged lawmakers to reverse course on a decision by the administration to close developmental disabilities centers in Youngstown and Montgomery County as of mid-2017.
State officials cite a 40 percent-plus decline in the number of people living in state-run centers over the past eight years among reasons for the closures.
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.
That was the case for Kent resident Gloria Ferry’s 63-year-old son Bobby, who has “profound developmental disabilities in addition to having cerebral palsy.”
He’s been in Youngstown for about nine years.
“I know Bobby is not group home material,” Ferry said in written testimony Tuesday. “He’s partially blind and epileptic. He needs 24-hour care from a nurse. I don’t believe any other facility would take care of him so well.”
She added, “I’m 83 years old. I don’t drive. YDC is close to home, where my daughter can drive to see Bobby. If you send him off to some far-off facility, I could lose him overnight.”
Staffers at the Mineral Ridge facility also provided testimony to lawmakers Tuesday, voicing concern about the consequences of closing the center.
“... I’ve watched what happened 15 years ago when the state closed the mental hospitals around Youngstown,” Alina Young, a therapeutic program worker at YDC, said in testimony. “Half of the very people I cared for I saw hanging around the rescue mission or under the bridges around Youngstown. I volunteer at the Salvation Army, and many of my old clients would come in for services there. I fear that many of the individuals I cared for that I didn’t see were already locked up for criminal offenses.”