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Liberty trustees move forward on 2016 paving project
By Sarah Lehr
LIBERTY
Trustees will apply for funds from the Ohio Public Works Commission for its 2016 resurfacing program.
This year, the township will pave Yvonne and Will-o-Wood Drives.
OPWC funds, available from the state for local transportation and capital improvement projects, will cover about $169,350 of the project’s estimated $277,686 total cost.
Liberty voters approved a five-year 1.25-mill road levy in 2012.
Additionally, trustees voted to reduce an irrevocable letter of credit with Pern and Perni Architects LLC from about $625,000 to $200,000. Pern and Perni of Hubbard is completing infrastructure projects outside the Comfort Suites hotel on Belmont Avenue.
In other business, trustees heard a presentation about speed cameras from Cory Kudytz, an Optotraffic representative.
Township officials are considering adopting a manned-speed-camera program, which would be similar to a program implemented by Youngstown in August 2015.
Under Youngstown’s contract, the city receives 65 percent of revenue from the cameras, and Optotraffic receives 35 percent. Opotraffic, based in Lanham, Md., provides the cameras at no cost and mails the civil citations. Drivers have the option to appeal the citation through a magistrate.
Under state law, the camera must be operated by a police officer, and a municipality or township must post signs informing motorists of camera use.
Liberty resident Ed Palombo spoke against the cameras. “This is nothing but greed, pure and simple,” Palombo said. “As [Fiscal Officer] Mr. Shelton has said, we have a spending problem. We don’t have a revenue problem.”
Currently, the majority of revenue collected from speed violations in Liberty Township goes to Girard Municipal Court. If Liberty implemented the speed-camera program, a portion of the revenue would go directly to the township instead.
Youngstown has collected about $250,000 from the cameras since the August implementation, according to the most-recent figures.
Liberty Township currently has a $1,432,279 balance aggregated from all funds but a $103,349 deficit in the general fund.
In January 2016, the general-fund deficit was about $125,000. Trustees Chairwoman Jodi Stoyak expressed hope that the township will continue to shrink that deficit when tax revenue, particularly from hotel bed taxes, comes in.
Stoyak also noted there is pending state legislation that would make funds available through the state auditor for local governments deemed to be in financial distress. That money would come from the state’s rainy-day fund, which has a balance of more than $2 billion.
The township is in fiscal caution as designated by the Ohio auditor.