CANFIELD — Canfield City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to oppose the expansion of the Cardinal Joint Fire District.

The expansion would include Boardman joining the fire district.

CJFD Chief Don Hutchison addressed council and those in attendance during the public comment section of the meeting, asking to delay a decision.

“A committee was formed to research this (idea) and they are not done gathering information yet,” he said. “I would ask to hold off for a month or so to get all the numbers.”

Hutchison said his main concern is the mutual-aid agreement with Boardman. He is concerned about how Boardman would view it, which currently has Boardman automatically responding on a mutual-aid call. If they choose not to “auto respond” it could take up to eight minutes to have a mutual-aid response when a call went out, the chief said.

Hutchison said recently a fire alarm went off for Panera Bread and with Boardman there were 15 firemen on scene in a matter of minutes. He added that Canfield used to have over 25-30 firefighters living in town. Now there are only five. He said he appreciated the mutual-aid agreement with Boardman.

Council President Christine Oliver said, “Fire fighters take an oath to save lives and property. I don’t believe that will change.”

She went on to add she received several phone calls from residents in Canfield City and Township and a couple from Boardman Township, all asking to not support the expansion of the district.

Before Hutchison left the meeting, Councilman Chuck Tieche asked, “If Council passes this opposition to expanding tonight, will that affect the CJFD response within the city or township?”

Hutchison replied, “Nothing changes.”

After Hutchison left the meeting, Mayor Don Dragish said, “We should not base our decision on Boardman Fire Department, but should base it on what’s right for Canfield.”

D’Apolito added, “We need to let residents know we are listening to them.”

Before the vote, the resolution was read along with a note that the CJFD’s collective-bargaining members unanimously voted in opposition of the expansion.

In other business:

l A public hearing was held prior to the council meeting on an ordinance to rezone a portion of lot 2988 at 445 West Main St. from M-1 manufacturing to B-2 general commercial. The ordinance was voted on during the meeting and unanimously passed. Attorney Mark Fortunato explained the ordinance would change the zoning on the front 1,536 square feet of the 37,000-square-foot building to allow for a skin spa business from Poland to open up. The balance of the building will remain M-1 and Fortunato said it would not make a spot zoning issue as neighboring zoning would match up.

l Council unanimously voted for Christine Oliver to serve as a voting member of the Mahoning County 911 System Committee. Christine was one of four up for representative of county municipal corporations. The other three are Dallas A. Bigley of Struthers, Michael S. Patrick of Struthers and Julius Oliver of Youngstown.

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