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Township officials battle loss of state funds with renewal levies, cooperative services
AUSTINTOWN
Township officials are trying to battle a $2 million loss in state funding with renewal levies and cooperative work with other communities.
Trustee Chairman Ken Carano said because of state cuts in various public funds, Austintown has lost an estimated $2 million.
“It’s insufferable. The Legislature cutting funds to us makes it more difficult to serve the people that we have simply because you don’t have the money to do it,” Carano said.
Because all townships and cities in the state have lost state funding, many communities are working together to make things more efficient and save money.
“We’re not here just to take care of Austintown. We have to be the leaders in the community with other organizations and political subdivisions,” Carano said. “We have our police working together with Poland, Boardman and Canfield. And our fire departments are working closely together. ... Austintown is no longer isolationist.”
Trustee Rick Stauffer emphasized the need for township voters to approve the three levy renewals on the March ballot: a 0.8-mill park levy, a 1.5-mill road levy and a 0.5-mill senior-citizen service levy.
“It’s really important for us to be able to have this township run the way it does and for those levies to be renewed,” Stauffer said. “We understand taxes are a part of life, and we are very responsible in trying to care for them.”
In other news, Todd Shaffer, township park supervisor, announced he collected more than 400 trees this year for the Christmas-tree recycling program, a program in conjunction with 13 other communities headed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The program uses live, used Christmas trees tied to cinder blocks to sink them to the bottoms of Lake Milton and Mosquito Lake in Trumbull County to make fish habitats.
Trustees also approved a list of obsolete items, broken or overused workout equipment from the Austintown Senior Center, giving people the freedom to take them or for the center to dispose of them.
Jim Henshaw, center director, said he was thankful for the donated items given to the facility before it was funded by taxpayer money.
“We have used them faithfully over the last four years,” Henshaw said. “We wore them out.”