Boardman motels pose unique dilemma for officials

By JESSICA HARDIN

jhardin@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

Marilyn Lucente-Royal fondly remembers growing up in the Plaza Motel.

Patrons were greeted each morning with the aroma of fresh coffee and homemade doughnuts wafting from the lobby. After a long day of driving, families settling into a room picked up steaming pizzas from a shop in the motel.

For more than 30 years, the Lucente family provided business people and travelers an enjoyable place to rest at their business on Market Street.

The Wagon Wheel Motel, which operates in the shell of the Plaza, is unrecognizable from the picture Marilyn paints.

In 2018, Boardman police made 121 calls to the Market Street establishment.

Complaints of bed bug infestations and reports of overdose deaths at the Wagon Wheel have roused the ire of the community.

Even the founders join the chorus of voices condemning the motel.

“It hurts to say this, but the best thing to do would be to shut it down,” Marilyn Lucente-Royal said.

In describing the deterioration of their family’s business, the Lucentes point to many factors – ownership changes, the corporate takeover of the hospitality industry, the construction of Interstate 680.

Law enforcement, neighbors and even members of the addiction recovery community are daunted by the task of determining a place in the community for the establishment and others like it.

HISTORY

Prim and Lillian Lucente opened the Plaza Motel at 7015 Market St. in 1955.

The Plaza was one of the businesses operated by the prominent Youngstown family. The Lucentes also owned a construction company and founded Southpark Pizza, which had an outpost in the Plaza Motel.

There, Lillian Lucente worked on the recipe for the shop’s pizza sauce.

Lillian’s daughter, Marilyn Lucente-Royal, remembers the well-known guests that visited the Plaza when they came to town.

Duncan Renaldo, who played “The Cisco Kid” on television in the 1950s, stayed there on a trip to Youngstown.

“He brought me a bullet and a signed photograph,” Marilyn said. “I was 5 years old. I never forgot.”

“[Harlem Globetrotter] Meadowlark Lemon also came to the Plaza,” Marilyn added.

“We had wonderful clientele,” echoed Melissa Symons, Marilyn’s daughter. “It was clean and comfortable and always full.”

After the death of her husband, Lillian Lucente sold the motel in 1986.

The Lucentes point to a series of ownership changes as the beginning of the motel’s downfall.

They also recognize how developments in Boardman impacted the business and others like it.

The construction of I-680 between 1960 and 1976 provided travelers with an alternate route to downtown Youngstown, allowing drivers to bypass Market Street.

At the same time, chains such as Best Western and Holiday Inn grew in popularity, squeezing out their independent counterparts.

“It got too corporate. Small businesses can’t make it today against the franchises,” Marilyn said.

TODAY’S OWNERS

According to the Mahoning County Auditor’s website, Akm and Nasrin Rahman acquired the Wagon Wheel Motel in 2003.

The family that runs the motel said this information is outdated. Chirag Patel purchased the Wagon Wheel in 2014.

Ken Patel, Chirag’s father, said he and his son do their best to dispel criminal activity.

“We try very hard to eliminate this kind of problem, but it’s very hard to screen people,” Patel said.

To those who demand his business be shuttered, Patel asked, “If people use drugs in the mall, will you close the mall down?”

Patel said police should be more strict in enforcing drug laws.

“They need to do more than just treating [drug offenders] in a hospital and releasing them,” Patel said.

POLICE CALLS

Last year, police made 43 calls to the Melbourne Suites, 53 calls to the Traveler’s Suites, 64 calls to the Town and Country Motel and 104 calls to the Boardman Inn.

The Wagon Wheel Motel topped the list with 121 calls.

Mark Brandenstein, who lives on Buchanan Drive, said he doesn’t know how the Wagon Wheel stays open.

“This isn’t something like a bar fight or a shooting. You’ve got people dying in this place,” Brandenstein said.

In 2018 alone, a man died at the motel, a fight took place in the parking lot, a patron reported a theft of $2,000 and the motel was robbed by a man carrying a hammer.

As a result of the opioid epidemic, for many, these low-cost establishments operate as injection sites or recovery housing, in a community squeezed for resources.

“It’s not giving any positive impact for the recovery community. I don’t think anything bad will come of closing those motels,” said Hope Lovrinoff-Moran, the Mahoning County coordinator for Ohio CAN.

“If my parents [could see] how it is now, they would cry,” Marilyn Lucente-Royal said.

For the family, being associated with the motel’s current condition is painful.

“Our legacy has been destroyed. It’s a shame. I don’t want to be affiliated [with it],” Symons said.

They join a crowd who want the establishment shut down.

“It needs to burn down, and if I were able to, I would be the one who throws the match,” said Jennifer West, who lost her daughter to addiction and suicide at the Wagon Wheel in 2015.

HEALTH STANDARDS

The property is under the jurisdiction of the Mahoning County Board of Health, which oversees issues such as bed bug infestations.

When the board receives a complaint, an inspection is conducted, and, if bed bugs are found, the owner is given seven days to remedy the issue.

“Because of the complexity and persistence of bed bugs, it sometimes takes several treatments to clear things up. We do try to work with the owners,” said Brian Bohnert, public information officer at the Ohio Department of Commerce.

If a facility has ongoing problems with bed bugs, its license could be revoked.

The Ohio Department of Commerce Code Enforcement bureau investigates bed bug complaints in hotels and motels. The bureau received three complaints regarding the Wagon Wheel in 2016, three in 2017 and four in 2018.

“Of those complaints, our office only discovered bed bugs at the establishment once – during an inspection on June 21, 2016. When one of our inspectors returned to the facility on Aug. 15, 2016, the issue had been taken care of,” Bohnert said.

The other inspections did not yield evidence of beg bugs at the facility.

LEGAL PROCESS

Shutting down the Wagon Wheel Motel using the scope of law enforcement would require declaring the property a nuisance, which is an arduous legal process, Boardman officials said.

“Our fire department doesn’t have the ability. Our fire inspectors don’t have the ability, and our police officers don’t have the ability to shut any business down,” said Trustee Brad Calhoun.

“We protect property rights and due process. They don’t make it easy to shut businesses down, and that’s a good thing,” said police Chief Todd Werth.

The process requires the township to compile extensive evidence of specific criminal conduct at the establishment.

“We would have to prove criminal conduct and that owners or operators are aware of the conduct and acquiesced,” said Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains.

Gains reminded residents a municipality cannot shut down every business at which an overdose occurs.

He used the example of a gas station. He asked: If someone overdosed there, could it be shut down?

Moreover, since the process involves the government taking property, the burden of proof necessary to proceed is high.

The township, as a political entity, is limited in terms of legislation it can consider to mitigate property upkeep issues.

“If we were a city, we’d have more legislative abilities to deal with some of the nuisance aspects of it,” Werth said.

When trustees hired Werth, they made clear that addressing this problem was a priority.

“My quote to Chief Werth when we hired him, I said, ‘If you can shut down these motels, we will hoist you on our shoulders and march you down Market Street.’ This was the No. 1 thing we asked our chief, was to concentrate on Market Street, because that’s the main artery into Boardman,” Calhoun said.

POLICING

Earlier this month, the police department released a statement describing the efforts to police the “Market Street corridor” this past summer and fall.

In an effort known as the Safe Community Initiative, the department introduced increased patrols, which resulted in 964 traffic stops/pedestrian contacts, 162 citations and 56 arrests. The department used police dogs to assist with enforcement.

The program was made possible by a $30,000 grant from Coalition for a Drug Free Mahoning County.

“I know it had a good impact – not only from the residents seeing the enforcement actions taken. It deterred a lot of activity and generated a lot of investigative needs for us in other

areas,” Werth said.

The proximity to commercial property makes the area unique, Werth said.

Sgt. Jon Martin, who oversaw the initiative, echoed Werth’s assessment: “It’s a unique blend of businesses and residential houses that butt up against the property of the hotel.”

Despite the outrage over the Wagon Wheel, Werth assured residents “the sky isn’t falling.”

“We are always going to have crime in Boardman. What we see is not out of the ordinary, based on similar communities in the country. ... There are good people there that don’t have some of the opportunities others do. The easy knee-jerk sound-bite reaction is, ‘Just shut them down,’” Werth said.

Werth plans to take the Safe Community Initiative a step further by promoting more police interaction with neighborhoods surrounding Market Street.

“My next step is reaching out [to motel owners]. ... We’re looking to do a better job of engaging the communities in that area and continue to monitor. If something changes from that enforcement standpoint, believe me, we’d be all over it,” Werth said.