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Hazmat gets new funding source
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County commissioners have created a new revenue source for the county’s hazardous-materials response team from the county’s general fund.
Consisting of 10 cents per capita for all 230,000 county residents, it will amount to about $23,000 per year, said Boardman Fire Chief Mark Pitzer, chairman of the county Hazmat Team advisory board.
Each community within the county also will be asked to provide its own 10 cents-per-capita match, Pitzer added.
Those two sources, totaling $46,000 annually, plus $12,000 in wastewater-treatment funds and $4,000 from the county recycling division, would give the Hazmat Team $62,000 a year, he said.
“They’re at a dire need right now of replacing some equipment,” Pitzer said of the Hazmat Team, which has been in operation for nearly 30 years.
The new source will provide reliable funding for the Hazmat Team, which previously has been dependent on state and federal grants, he said.
“We’re proud to partner with you,” Commissioner Anthony Traficanti told the fire chiefs assembled for Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting.
“It’s time to step it up with respect to our first-responders because God only knows what could happen in our community” with regard to a hazardous-materials emergency, Traficanti added.
The commissioners also voted Thursday to advertise for bids for repaving this spring of all of Norquest Boulevard and North Turner Road, both county roads in Austintown.
The job, which covers a combined total of a little more than 3 miles of road, is estimated to cost more than $600,000, said Patrick Ginnetti, county engineer.
The repaving of the two-lane roads with asphalt is being paid for by tax revenues from the Austintown racino, known as Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course.
Those roads, which are in deteriorated condition, are heavily used by racino-bound traffic, Ginnetti said.
The commissioners also promoted Audrey C. Tillis from budget director to the newly created post of executive director of the board of commissioners, effective immediately.
Tillis earns $79,365 a year as budget director, and her new salary has not yet been determined, said Carol Rimedio-Righetti, chairwoman of the county commissioners.
Tillis is being promoted after she already has been performing her new function since Jan. 1, Rimedio-Righetti said.
Tillis will continue to function as budget director in her new role, in which she will act in an expanded advisory capacity to the commissioners, Rimedio-Righetti said.
The commissioners also approved a one-year lease, under which the county Department of Job and Family Services will pay $63,060 per month, primarily from state and federal funds, to rent 81,193 square feet of office space at Oakhill Renaissance Place, where it has been housed since July 2007.
That amounts to $9.32 per square foot per year.
With 224 employees, JFS is the largest Oakhill occupant in terms of number of employees and space used.
The commissioners’ next meeting will be at 10 a.m. Monday in the county courthouse basement.