Fathers are blessing to family, asset to society

Fathers are blessing to family, asset to society

Fathers who set good examples for their children and others by their use of language and actions are a blessing to their loved ones and an asset to society.

Responsible fathers provide for their families’ needs, make time for them, show them his love and concern, and how important, wanted and needed to him they are.

Mothers, however, are remembered for their hands that rock the cradle, for often fathers are forgotten as the ones who built the cradles and support their rocking.

Blessed are those who have fathers to share their lives. Those with fathers who reside with their Creator are in the thoughts, the hearts, and in their prayers of loved ones.

It’s been said, “True love never dies; it just takes a rest,” and for those left behind to give. Thanks for the memories.

Mary Lou Jurina, Youngstown

Please fix the bumpy ride

Am I the only one in the entire Youngstown area who finds it an absolute embarrassment that the pavement on South Avenue heading into downtown between the north end of the South Avenue Bridge and Front Street has not been fully paved in many, many years?

There are so many patches in this short distance that your car rocks from side to side. All I can think of is what our guests coming into town from Cleveland, Pittsburgh or parts unknown for a concert, dinner, etc., must think.

I find it totally incomprehensible that the city cannot find any money to pave this very short section of road. Please someone, do what should have been taken care of a very long time ago, and get this road paved.

Phyllis Ricchiuti, Poland

Boardman residents tire of fueling ‘economic engine’

Recently one of the Boardman Township trustees boasted that Boardman is the economic engine of Mahoning County. Imagine, Boardman Township with an average family income of $49,000 per year and an average home value of $99,000 an economic engine. With an average age of its residents approaching 50, it’s an economic engine – not to mention the highest property taxes in Mahoning County.

Township trustees, along with school board members, once again “protected the tradition” of maintaining that distinction. These leaders used their skillful tactics of convincing the residents of Boardman of the impending doom and gloom if emergency levies on last month’s ballot were to fail once again prevailed.

While Boardman is, no doubt, a mecca of shopping centers, restaurants, entertainment complexes, and let us not forget those essential grocery stores, who is it that actually pays the bills in order for this mecca to exist? The tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of visitors from other townships and cities who come to Boardman and use these facilities contribute nothing to the police, fire and rescue, and roads necessary to protect them while in the township’s confines.

If Boardman is the economic engine of Mahoning County, then are not the Boardman property owners the financial engine that allows the economic engine to exist? Are the Boardman trustees “protecting the tradition” of these establishments and those who visit them, or are the already financially strapped Boardman property owners?

And to the Boardman Township trustees, what is the percentage of Boardman residents employed at all of these businesses compared to those employed from other townships or cities? What is the percentage of jobs that provide full-time employment with benefits? What is the annual wage of these jobs, and is it adequate enough to attract young people with families into locating to Boardman and purchase a home? Are non-residents taxed for the privilege of working in Boardman Township, or do you just arrogantly assume that cost should be gladly absorbed by the property owner?

It is time that Boardman Township residents evaluate what tradition our township trustees are protecting.

Chuck Johnson, Boardman

Time to challenge actions of leaders in Y’town, US

Having read a cou- ple of the articles in Sunday’s Vindicator, I am, once again, compelled to write. I cannot understand or justify how those in highest power, whether it is local or national, get away with decision-making that goes unchallenged.

Let’s begin with Youngstown. Mayor Jamael Tito Brown who has only been in office since January and already has made poor decisions without anyone challenging those decisions. A new SUV was purchased, and now paying three times more for city mowing than previously. Is there nobody to speak out about this? Is city government asleep or just complacent?

Then we go to the national level and see the same scenario.

President Donald Trump is doing the same as local leaders. The president calls all the shots, and nobody says a word. The people in the United States need to get their heads out of the marijuana and opioid discussion and see what serious changes are being made.

One day it’ll be too late to recover from what President Trump has already done. Why aren’t the people contacting their representatives and telling them: Enough is enough.

Per articles in Sunday’s Vindicator, Social Security and Medicare are in jeopardy, and the low-income housing is as well.

Wake up, America, and speak up now.

Georgie Arkwright, Youngstown

Not voting in midterms invites more of same woes

I have some questions for the citizens who did not cast a ballot in the 2016 presidential election.

Would you vote for dirtier air? Would you vote for contaminated drinking water?

Would you vote to slash funding for public schools?

Would you vote to cut Medicare and Medicaid services?

Would you vote to open our national parks to the mining and timber industries?

Would you vote to have children – including toddlers – forcibly separated from their families when these families are seeking asylum in this country?

Maybe you’re good with all of the above. If so, sit back, sink back into a torpor and stay home this coming November for the mid-term elections.

Sara Culver, Canfield

Springfield Township will dearly miss Heher

Several weeks ago your paper shared an interview with Springfield Township Administrator Mike Heher about his career and retirement. I would think that an appropriate definition of “retirement” is “transition”. I remember when I first met Mike in the terrible winter of 1993 and he brought in very large machines to clear my one-third of a mile lane. I was told later that his kindness to the neighbors of Essroc was already a known fact.

Later in 2014 when we struggled with FirstEnergy about placing high tension wires across our farm, Mike facilitated a meeting with the spokesmen and helped in getting us a representative from that corporation who would cooperate with us. When we had water problems, Mike had them repaired at no cost to us.

Later I learned that he had helped a lot of people – the neighbors – to see problems turned into solutions better than we could have expected.

Springfield Township has been the recipient of several million dollars for road projects much needed for our communities. He knows how to make friends, foster trust, insist on quality of workmanship, live a life of integrity and Biblical values as well as having a realistic view of life. His influence lives on, but we miss the man – a true friend to Springfield Township.

Zonda Haase, New Middletown

The writer is president of the New Springfield Township Historical Society.