By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County commissioners approved a resolution to place on the Nov. 3 ballot a 0.5-mill, five-year renewal levy for the county Mental Health and Recovery Board.

The levy, first passed by the Mental Health Board in 1976, generates about $915,000 annually and costs the owner of a $100,000 home about $5.56 a year.

The county’s Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services boards merged Feb. 23 to form the Mental Health and Recovery Board.

“One in four individuals this year will suffer a mental-health or [substance abuse] recovery issue,” said Toni Notaro, compliance and evaluation director with the mental-health and recovery board.

“Mental-health issues have no boundaries” and affect people of all races and religions, she told the commissioners Thursday. “Services need to be there” when those issues arise, she said.

An Ohio Attorney General’s Office opinion says the levy may be used for both mental-health and substance-abuse recovery services because “recovery is a subset of mental health,” said Duane J. Piccirilli, Mental Health and Recovery Board executive director.

The county’s other local Mental Health and Recovery Board levy is a 0.85-mill, five-year measure, which expires at the end of 2019.

The commissioners also approved an $865,000 agreement with the Mahoning & Columbiana Training Association to administer the summer youth-employment program sponsored by the county’s Department of Job and Family Services.

Bert Cene, MCTA director, said the program, which will run from June 22 to Aug. 12, will serve 275 to 300 Mahoning County youths, who will be paid $9 an hour, at about 100 work sites.

An orientation for participating youths will take place June 15-19 at Oakhill Renaissance Place, 345 Oak Hill Ave., he said.

The commissioners also voted to advertise for bids for an estimated $2.3 million upgrade at the Campbell wastewater treatment plant.

This project is part of an overall $5 million upgrade at that plant, said William Coleman, office manager in the county sanitary engineer’s office.

The commissioners’ next meeting will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Canfield City Hall, 104 Lisbon St.