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Canfield Council members continue morning meetings to plan for the future
CANFIELD
Canfield City Council members said they are developing a long-term plan for the city before they make final decisions about placing a possible police levy on the November ballot.
Earlier this month, members announced a tentative plan for a 3.9-mill police levy, generating $750,000 annually, for the fall election.
“There is no reason to come to you [citizens] and ask you to support us in our efforts to raise more money until we know where we want to be and what we want Canfield to look like,” said Councilman John Morvay. “Can we work with what we have? Do we cut services? Do we keep Canfield the same?”
Members have been meeting in public session every Wednesday at 6:30 a.m. since the start of April to discuss solutions to a city revenue loss.
The decreased-revenue problem is something cities and townships across Ohio are suffering because of a loss in local-share funding from the state. The meetings will continue to take place in the administrative building, 104 Lisbon St.
“We lose sight of the fact that we did not spend our way into this problem,” said Councilman Joe LoCicero. “We did not screw up, but we want to get better anyway.”
In another matter, city Manager Joe Warino said the construction inconvenience will get better next week.
He spoke with an Ohio Department of Transportation representative who said ODOT is anticipating reopening state Route 46 next week and closing Herbert Road once traffic resumes.
Route 46 was closed in early May while the Ohio Turnpike performed bridge repairs. Herbert Road will be closed for the same reason.
Warino said the ODOT representative couldn’t say for certain which day this will take place.
Morvay also announced there is a delay in the fire station construction because the bids came in higher than expected for the $2.5 million project.
“We sat down with the architect and chief and are trying to negotiate changes to try to bring the bid in line with what we were originally planning,” he said. “Once we get that where we want it, we’ll get moving again on it.”
Morvay said at a past meeting the funding comes from a 1.25-mill levy, generating $627,854 annually, passed in 2014.