Mahoning County ‘wipes out’ tax revenue for Poland Township

By Denise Dick

POLAND — Nine years after the township paid about $17,000 to clean up a Struthers Road property, it’s dealing with a different kind of mess.

After the November 1998 cleanup of 120 junk vehicles from the property, the township assessed the clean-up cost against the owner’s property taxes.

A few months ago, though, township officials learned the township wouldn’t be getting that money back.

The Mahoning County Treasurer’s office sold the lien as part of a tax certificate sale.

Under state law, the county treasurer can sell the right to collect taxes on specific parcels to a private company.

The lien “was wiped out because of the sale of the certificate,” said Jim Scharville, township administrator.

The township is out that money.

“Had we known we were not going to get it paid, we would have taken a different approach,” Scharville said.

If the township had received the $17,000 back, the money likely would have been used as matching funds to secure grants such as those from the Ohio Public Works Commission, he said.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.