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OVI task force gets grant renewed
By Joe Gorman
CANFIELD
The Mahoning County Operating a Vehicle Impaired Task Force has received decreased grant funding for fiscal year 2018, which began Oct. 1.
Canfield police Assistant Chief Scott Weamer announced the funding at a news conference Thursday in city hall, with representatives of all 14 police departments that make up the task force, plus the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Weamer said the task force received $112,000 through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, down from the $168,000 it received for fiscal year 2017.
Because of the decrease, Weamer said the number of checkpoints the task force plans to run next year will be 12, down from 17 run for this fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.
Accompanying some of the checkpoints are saturation patrols, where officers patrol roads around the checkpoint looking for impaired drivers who try to get around the checkpoint.
Weamer said the task force was able to stretch out the grant money for the upcoming fiscal year from eight budgeted checkpoints to 12 by cutting down on saturation patrols on some of those checkpoints.
This is the sixth year the task force has run OVI checkpoints, and Weamer said the results have been good. So far this year, the task force arrested 43 people at checkpoints for OVI and an additional 34 for impaired driving during their saturation patrols.
Weamer also said he believes the task force is making a difference. In 2010, when there was no task force, the county had 264 alcohol-related crashes, and 12 of those were fatal. In 2016, there were 196 alcohol-related crashes, and seven of those were fatal. There are six fatal crashes linked to alcohol so far this year, Weamer said.
Also receiving renewed grant funding is the Mahoning Safe Communities, which is receiving $55,000 from the National Safety Council.
Susan Viars, who heads up Mahoning Safe Communities, said that is a decrease of $10,000 from the previous year. She said the decrease is because of a decline in drunken-driving crashes in the county.
The money is used to fund educational efforts at events such as the Canfield Fair and also to fund the local Click It Or Ticket and don’t-text-and-drive campaigns, she said.
Weamer said it is not a guarantee the task force will receive grant money for fiscal year 2019, so task force members are brainstorming to find a way to keep the task force going without grant funds.