By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The proposed use of $2,500 in Mahoning County hotel bed-tax revenue as a sponsorship grant for a religion-based event Nov. 4-5 at the Covelli Centre was removed from the county commissioners’ meeting agenda to allow an assistant county prosecutor to research the issue as it pertains to the principle of church-state separation.

Carol Rimedio-Righetti, chairwoman of the commissioners, said Linda Macala, director of the county’s Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, who had placed the proposed sponsorship on the agenda, removed it to allow time for the legal research by Gina Bricker, an assistant county prosecutor.

In response to a Vindicator reporter’s question on Wednesday, Macala said she viewed the Lifeway Christian Resources women’s Christian conference at the downtown center, titled “Living Proof Live,” as a local economic benefit that fits CVB’s mission of promoting travel to the Mahoning Valley, and not as a church-state separation issue.

When the reporter presented the matter Wednesday to Bricker, she initially characterized it as “very interesting.” She added: “I’ll look into it.”

Bricker said she’d have to do legal research concerning the permissibility of using bed-tax dollars to sponsor the religious gathering.

“It probably will be back on the agenda next week,” Rimedio-Righetti said, adding she believes she would likely support the grant for that event.

The commissioners’ next meeting is set for 10 a.m. Tuesday in the county courthouse basement.

“I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to approve that. I mean it’s interdenominational,” Rimedio-Righetti said.

“It’s not only about religion,” she said based on her attendance at a preliminary meeting at Victory Christian Center in Coitsville before the Covelli conference.

“It’s about women’s rights. It’s about what women do with different issues dealing with children and marriage and relationships,” she said.

Lifeway Christian Resources is promoting the conference at the Covelli Centre, featuring Beth Moore, a nationally known public speaker, Macala said.

Event promoters are expecting more than 5,000 people to attend the conference, for which registration is $69, she said.

Lifeway is a Nashville, Tenn.-based nonprofit organization, whose parent organization is the Southern Baptist Convention.

Lifeway owns and operates more than 180 Lifeway Christian Stores around the country, including those in Canton and Copley.

The two-day Youngstown event provides an “overwhelming benefit to the community,” because attendees will patronize local restaurants, stores and hotels, Macala said.

Many local hotels will be filled to capacity during the conference, and reservations already are sold out for that time period at some of them, Macala said.