Cutting leaf service is just 1 of many austerity moves forced upon city of Canfield

Cutting leaf service is just 1 of many austerity moves forced upon city of Canfield

Cutting leaf and brush service in Canfield will reduce spending by $105,000. This service is contracted at an annual cost of $60,000. Internal city resources of $45,000 will be applied productively, elsewhere. 2016 will see the elimination of about $25,000 spent to support First Night Canfield, Concerts on the Green, and the July 4th parade. The Fourth of July parade will still continue.

The city has and will provide police and public service resources for the parade of about $7,700 and $4,000 respectively. All of these cuts were influenced by Canfield citizen responses to a 2015 questionnaire. The most valued city services are police, 911 emergency response, snow removal and roads.

None of the cuts made in 2016 is desirable and taken together will not come close to replenishing the near $1,000,000 loss to the Canfield General Fund. About $450,000 of this loss is the result of the 2014 elimination of the estate tax. The remainder of the loss came from Ohio shifting state money away from local governments.

Canfield is not the only community dealing with these circumstances. Villages, townships and cities throughout Ohio are all looking for ways to provide services with less revenue. “Rainy day” funds are being exhausted to balance budgets. That is akin to dropping your insurance and praying that there are no unpredicted expenses.

Canfield city books are wide open and have been open. Our Financial Department received the Ohio Auditor of State Award for five consecutive years, 2010 through 2015.

To improve communication Canfield will soon be on Facebook and is looking for other ways to inform our citizens. After guidance and encouragement from Mahoning County Auditor Ralph Meacham, Canfield leaders are planning to launch a checkbook online this spring.

And a City Town Hall is scheduled 6:30 p.m. June 16 at the MCCTC Joyce Brooks Conference Center to talk about the future of Canfield. It is vital that Canfield citizens have facts. Better decisions are made with facts – not with rumor and opinion.

Before the drastic cut in revenue, Canfield leaders were focused on moving our city from a good city to a great city. Now, given our current revenue outlook, the focus is on preventing Canfield from moving backward.

Joe LoCicero, Canfield

LoCicero is a Canfield city councilman.

Two license plates make good sense in Ohio law

I recently learned that the Ohio General Assembly is considering legislative proposals that either would eliminate or dilute the state’s requirement for motor vehicles to display a front license plate.

As a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, I served in numerous capacities in different bureau locations, with my last assignment in Columbus, Ohio. My experience included organized crime, kidnappings, crisis negotiation and homeland security. I participated in the investigation into Flight 93, the plane that was heroically crashed by passengers in rural Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.

In my 26 years with the bureau, I came to appreciate the value of two license plates on every vehicle. When searching for a vehicle, it aids in three critical ways:

1) It increases the odds of finding the vehicle;

2) It saves valuable time; and

3) It enables law enforcement to readily identify a vehicle from a distance while maintaining a low profile, thereby lowering the risk of being identified by the suspect.

I recall vehicles without front plates backed into parking spaces so that I had to put myself at risk by stepping out of my car to check the rear plate. Had the suspect been hidden in the vicinity, it would not have been difficult to figure out that I was a law-enforcement agent searching for him.

In states that require two plates, we can identify all parked as well as oncoming vehicles – and motorists who remove their front plates draw attention to themselves by outwardly disobeying the law.

Ohio and 30 other states require front license plates because they are a proven tool for law enforcement to identify and apprehend suspects. Dozens of crimes are solved each year from using front license plates in the states that require them. Those states without the requirement make it more challenging for law enforcement.

I respectfully ask Ohio lawmakers to protect and support federal agents as well as local police officers by keeping the two-plate requirement on the books.

George H. Huston IV, Dublin, Ohio

Huston is a retired FBI special agent.

Our public schools should abolish standardized tests

Even though most schools make students take standardized tests, they do not measure the progress and knowledge of a student accurately, they pressure teachers, and they are income biased.

Standardized testing is not a reliable way to measure a student’s knowledge and progress accurately because when students take a standardized test they are only being evaluated during the time of the testing. Students only prepare for these exams when the date of the exam is getting close and spend large amounts of time learning the template to these exams. This, according to eCampusTours.com, hinders “any sort of creative or out-of-the-box thinking which is a skill needed in college and in the workplace.”

Also most teachers and administrators end up teaching to the test. Instead of teaching students how to learn, they end up teaching students how to take a test, and this cheats students out of valuable class time. Many schools all over the U.S. lack adequate funds They have few means of providing students with an institution that is technologically up to date, and they have little or no means of paying adequate salaries to teachers. Schools should develop students for life in today’s workplace, and not teach them how to pass a test. Standardized testing should be eliminated.

Zach Merrill, Hubbard