After 20 years as Champion trustee, Jeff Hovanic to retire

Staff report

CHAMPION

A member of the Hovanic family has been a Champion Township trustee most of the last 52 years, but that will end Dec. 31.

Jeff Hovanic, who’s been a trustee 20 years from 1998 until now, chose not to run for re-election to another term.

His current term ends this year. The filing deadline to run for trustee was Wednesday.

His father, Adrian J. Hovanic, was a trustee for 24 years, from 1966 to 1990.

Jeff Hovanic, who is also a bailiff for Judge Thomas Gysegem of Warren Municipal Court and a former production planner at Copperweld Steel, says he’s stepping aside to spend more time with family.

“My family is still young enough to still spend some time with my kids,” Hovanic said.

Over the years, he’s been busy, with 17 years of volunteering with the March of Dimes and eight years on the board of the Trumbull County Board of Alcohol, Drugs and Mental Health in the 1990s.

Hovanic said he was “raised on public service” because of his father’s role with the township and “took to local government” at a young age.

Hovanic remembers campaigning for his father when he was only 8 years old.

When asked whether one of his two kids might be leaning toward a similar path one day, he said he isn’t ruling it out.