Staff photo / Dan Pompili Boardman Township Trustee Tom Costello holds a plaque made to commemorate his 22 years of service during Tuesday’s trustees meeting, which was his last, following his defeat in the November election. Trustees Larry Moliterno, left, and Steve Yacovone, right, applaud him. Yacovone, who was elected to his first full term, was sworn in Tuesday.

BOARDMAN — Trustee Tom Costello’s final meeting was a busy one.

The township’s board of trustees had an executive session, then a hearing on a zoning matter before the final regular meeting of 2025.

Costello, a trustee for 22 years — 16 of them consecutive, since 2009 — lost his reelection bid in November to attorney Matt Gambrel. His fellow trustee, Steve Yacovone — appointed in March by Costello and Larry Moliterno after then-trustee Brad Calhoun became the township’s fiscal officer — was sworn in for his first full term on Tuesday.

Yacovone came in just behind Gambrel [29.5%] in the Nov. 4 election, with Yacovone receiving nearly 28% of the vote and Gambrel receiving nearly 30%, according to results from the Mahoning County Board of Elections.

“Tom, all of the involvement that you’ve had, at the state level and the different boards that you’ve sat on, you’ve been respected throughout the state of Ohio,” Moliterno said. “We know the work that you’ve done and the benefits, the things you’ve done for this township, are going to be felt for years to come and you have that to be proud of, and it’s been a privilege and I’m very proud to have had the opportunity to work with you and beside you all these years.”

The trustees continued that work Tuesday.

In a special session, they gave initial approval to proposed zoning code changes recommended by the township’s zoning commission, regarding parking standards for new businesses.

Initially outlined for the zoning commission in November, Zoning Inspector T.J. Keiran said the changes will largely focus on rewriting the code to replace required parking spaces with recommended parking spaces, and only projects proposing parking at a level greater than 100% of the recommendation would need zoning variances.

Keiran said the changes will give the township more flexibility and administrative authority to easily accommodate reasonable requests by incoming businesses, and are mostly based on sensible variances that the zoning board of appeals has already issued on multiple occasions in the past.

Trustees must approve the resolution twice for it to become law in the township and they will hold an identical hearing for that purpose in January.

Trustees also added a motion to Tuesday’s agenda to authorize Keiran to begin a review of the zoning code covering mobile homes, modular homes, mobile and modular home parks and tiny homes.

In addition to approving the regular agenda items, Moliterno and Yacovone addressed three major issues they feel the township is facing. Moliterno said the first two issues that Boardman will continue to seek remedies for are the ambulance service and property taxes.

He said they will continue to seek a sustainable remedy for providing blanket EMS coverage in Boardman, and are exploring options to contend with the possibility of a ballot measure next year repealing property taxes statewide. Property taxes comprise 88% of township budgets.

SOUTHERN PARK MALL

In addition, Moliterno said Southern Park Mall remains at the forefront, and trustees are taking action to address the problem posed by owner Kohan Realty Investment Corp.

Yacovone said Kohan has written multiple bad checks for the mall’s property taxesand now Boardman, with the support of U.S. Rep Michael Rulli, R-Salem, State Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, and State Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, are referring the matter to Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro’s office for review, who in turn will likely forward it to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office for investigation.

“There’s a responsibility, right? They benefit from the citizens of this town and of Mahoning County, and they should be responsible and pay their taxes, and they shouldn’t be sending us checks they either know are going to bounce or are likely to bounce,” Yacovone said.

A draft of the letter that will be forwarded to Yost’s office states that “bounced checks for tax payments raise serious red flags. If a business repeatedly fails to make good on its tax obligations, especially a large commercial property like Southern Park Mall, this may not be a simple ‘bookkeeping’ error but rather a pattern of deceptive practices or even fraud.”

The Vindicator will provide more detailed coverage of this issue and others covered at Tuesday’s meeting in upcoming editions.

Other items discussed Tuesday included a resolution to petition the Ohio Legislature to pass Senate Bill 216, which would include renaming a portion of Market Street for late philanthropist Clarence W. Smith.

Township Administrator Jason Loree said the ABC Stormwater District will conduct an assessment of a retention pond in the Garden Ridge, the responsibility for which lies with that neighborhood’s homeowners association until it was recently disbanded. Loree said ABC has the means to conduct the assessment and perhaps even to manage the pond, but this is only the beginning of what he sees as a troubling trend that other counties do not have.

Near the meeting’s end, Costello was presented with a gift from a friend of his, Matt Gianitti — a decorative wooden plaque reading “Thomas Costello, Trustee” underneath a likeness of the township government building.

“My wife and I, when we got married back in the 1970s, we chose Boardman to live in,” Costello said. “We chose it for a number of reasons, the township, the government here, the schools, the park, and that still holds true to this day. I may not be sitting in this chair, but my heart is still in Boardman, and I will do whatever I can.”