CAMPBELL — City officials have adopted an emergency ordinance to place a 3.6-mill continuous property tax levy on the Nov. 7 general election ballot for more consistent ambulance service.

The measure would allow the city to enter into a three-year agreement to use funds generated from the levy to pay North Canton-based Emergency Medical Transport for such services, George Levendis, city council president, said after Wednesday’s council meeting.

The levy would raise around $250,000 annually and cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $120 per year, he noted.

The city has one ambulance that operates 24 hours per day, seven days per week, but has only enough American Rescue Plan Act dollars to subsidize Emergency Medical Transport for the next three months, said Levendis, who called the current situation “unsustainable.”

Last December, Youngstown City Council voted to use ARP funds to pay nearly $4 million over three years to Emergency Medical Transport for ambulance service, and with a two-year renewal option. Early this year, EMT replaced American Medical Response, which had served as the city’s ambulance provider for more than 30 years.

DEMOLITIONS

Also at the session, Levendis and city Councilman Timothy O’Brien, D-1st Ward, said that at least 15 units of former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. homes on Robinson Road were razed Tuesday. The work was part of ongoing efforts to tear down most of the derelict structures that were once home to many immigrant steelworkers who worked for the company, and significantly reduce blight, they said.

About a month ago, a series of about 17 such homes met the wrecking ball along Blackburn Street, along with others on nearby Andrews and Ensley avenues, O’Brien noted.

Calling the demolition of the homes “my pet project” and “a new chapter in Campbell’s history,” O’Brien said the work will increase property values in the neighborhoods and create better opportunities for the city.

“This is going to make the city of Campbell look so much better in the end,” he added.

City officials intend to continue their partnership with the Mahoning County Land Bank this year and into 2024 to continue removing the structures, which many officials and neighbors contend are dangerous, uninhabitable and longtime eyesores. For the work, the city is in line to receive additional funding from the land bank and the state, Levendis noted.

“We’re going to take advantage of every dollar we get,” he said, adding that beautification efforts for the properties will likely be a second phase of the demolition work.

Levendis also plans to use eminent domain to seize the remaining properties and, if necessary, relocate those who still live in the homes. In some cases, only one of seven or eight units in a row house was occupied, he explained.

MILITARY HONORS

Also during the session, Mayor Brian K. Tedesco said that 254 banners honoring military veterans are hanging throughout the city as part of a banner program that was implemented two years ago.

The banners, designed to recognize and honor living and deceased veterans of all military branches who served from World War II to the present, are hung in March and remain through Veterans Day in November, Tedesco added.

The mayor thanked Roslyn Torella of the Lowellville Historical Society for organizing the effort.

Also during the meeting, Tedesco announced his next town hall gathering, set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Campbell Community Center in Roosevelt Park off Struthers-Liberty Road. The meeting is open to all residents.