Staff photo / Dan Pompili Austintown Zoning Inspector Darren Crivelli sits stone-faced at his desk in the zoning office, which does not appear at all as if he actually intends to leave it Jan. 16. Crivelli has been on the job for 31 years, serving both Austintown and Boardman townships. Through all the acrimonious debates with property owners and dissatisfied residents, the veteran zoning official has kept a sense of humor and good nature that belies the stern facade he maintained to get the job done.

AUSTINTOWN — A year and a half after announcing his retirement plans, Zoning Inspector Darren Crivelli seems poised to make good on them Jan. 16.

Whether he actually leaves the office is still anyone’s guess, but Crivelli did give a heartfelt farewell speech at Monday’s trustees meeting and said he’s ready to hand over the reins to new inspector Dominic Moltchan.

He initially was supposed to retire June 30, but has remained on the job to continue training Moltchan, who was hired in December 2024, and tie up some loose ends.

On Friday, he begrudgingly posed for a photo for The Vindicator, insisting he does not smile in photos.

While he has had to maintain a hard shell to do his job in two townships over the past 31 years, Crivelli is known among his colleagues for a good sense of humor and an honest and caring spirit. He brought laughs after Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito praised him near the end of Monday’s meeting and the audience applauded.

“I can assure you that in 31 years — 21 here and 10 in Boardman — nobody ever clapped for me. They wanted to tar and feather me, but they never clapped,” he said.

Hired in 1995 as Austintown’s zoning inspector, Crivelli has signed off on some of the most significant land use permits issued in Mahoning County over these three decades, including the Hollywood Racino, St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital, Southwoods Surgical Center, Austintown Local School District’s newest buildings, Austintown Meijer and Chick-Fil-A.

He also has been instrumental in curtailing land uses that served the community poorly — most recently the Zodiac Club Lounge and Grille on South Four Mile Run Road — and ensuring that businesses are well placed, like the recreational marijuana dispensary slated to open this year along the state Route 46 corridor near Interstate 80.

“I want to thank him for his many years of public service and congratulate him on his upcoming retirement,” D’Apolito said. “Having graduated as an Austintown Fitch Falcon, it is only fitting that he will have the opportunity to retire as an Austintown Fitch Falcon.”

Crivelli served Austintown for four years before leaving in 1999 to go to Boardman, where he worked for about 10 years before returning to Austintown. He noted that while many leave Austintown for Boardman, only he and a dispatcher have returned.

“The path from Austintown to Boardman is very well defined and very well traveled,” he said.

“That’s because Austintown hires very good people, Austintown trains them well, and other jurisdictions look at our employees and say ‘yeah, they’re from Austintown, we probably should hire them.'”

Crivelli is proud of his efforts in both townships, and reflected on some of his successes.

In 1999, Boardman created the site plan review position for which Crivelli was hired.

“At the time, residents were beating up the trustees, and maybe rightfully so, because they said ‘we have been paved over, we are a sea of blacktop.’ The site plan review board was designed to reduce the amount of hard paving, and increase green space. I think we were all successful in changing the landscape of the commercial corridors,” he said.

But in 2008, when Boardman was in dire financial straits, they laid off more than three dozen employees, including several who worked with Crivelli in some capacity for zoning purposes. That was when he received a call from Austintown Township Administrator Mike Dockry, asking if he wanted to return home.

He told then-trustee Lisa Oles, who died last year, that he would only return if the vote was unanimous. It was. Looking back on the time since his return, Crivelli also thinks Austintown has done well.

“I think we’ve made a lot of progress with property maintenance, I took over drainage here. Through the years, we have done a lot of work to remove blight, and I can tell you, with the commercial projects, the water retention is there,” he said. “(Trustees) Robert (Santos) and Monica (Deavers) approved some amendments to improve curb appeal through the commercial corridors, and improve buffering between business, commercial and residential. We reduced parking ratios so we weren’t paving over the township.”

But while he is proud of his work, Crivelli was humble in remembering who gave him the opportunities.

“You know, 31 years later you look back at people you come into contact with, who impacted your life. Those three (Pritchard, Ditzler and Antonoff) gave me an opportunity and two of them, Mike and Bo have passed away,” he said. “John and Elaine both passed away and they allowed a Fitch Falcon to run loose in Spartan country. I worked for Judge Limbert for a year before he became a federal magistrate. To have a jurist like him hire you, I consider that a great honor. Tom Costello replaced him, and I really enjoyed working for him.”

Crivelli said those reflections are what keep him humble.

“When you’re a kid, and you’re meeting with people who are in their 50s and 60s and they hire you and they give you a career… hopefully you were worthy of it, and you worked, and you improved the community, but as you age, these people pass from the scene.”

Part of his advice to Moltchan is to remember that the job cannot be done alone.

“The one thing I learned out there is, if you want to be successful, you need help, you can’t do it on your own. As I told Dominic, large urban township zoning is nothing more than a full-contact blood sport,” Crivelli said. You can’t make anybody happy. Every zoning permit is controversial, every decision, no matter what you do, has an impact on property owners, and property owners tend to become very emotional about their property. One of the things you need to do is, you need to partner with police, fire and roads.”

He said he also has worked closely with the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office, both the civil and criminal divisions, the Mahoning County Planning Commission, Engineer Patrick Ginnetti and others.

“At any given time, I’m working with three elected officials and 14 zoning board members, so that’s 17 people who all have their own ideas about what’s right and wrong and I’ve always been able to work with them and never fought with them. We’re all working together,” he said.

D’Apolito said he and the trustees believe Moltchan’s training under Crivelli leaves Austintown in a good place.

“Dominic comes to us with a diverse resume and a drive to continue Darren’s passion for land use,” he said.

Crivelli said he’s given Moltchan two key pieces of advice throughout his training.

“I told Dominic that zoning is two things — it’s the academic end, in the office. It’s land use, so it’s a lot of law, and you almost become a very specialized type of lawyer, and you have to learn that stuff,” he said. “And then you have the field work, and that’s just the inspections, and you just have to make sure you don’t get beat up.”

Crivelli did throw a good-natured jab or two before he finished up, including teasing trustee Bruce Shepas about handing over the chairman’s gavel to Robert Santos.

“I’m just happy that in my last meeting I got to be here to see Bruce demoted from chairman,” he said.

Taking the good-natured joke in stride, Shepas, along with Santos and Deavers, lauded Crivelli for his work and his work ethic. Deavers said Crivelli was known for sending trustees texts or emails late at night and on weekends — and even late at night on weekends.

Shepas, who served on the township’s Zoning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals before being elected to the board in 2023, said Crivelli always brought good arguments to the table for why things should be done or done a certain way, even if they didn’t necessarily agree.

“I’ve learned a lot from Darren over the years. To this day, he’s one of the most intelligent people I know,” Shepas said. “I’m grateful for all the hard work and time he’s put into making Austintown a better and safer place to live.”

Santos said Crivelli’s contributions extend well beyond zoning, including helping trustees to lobby the state for reinstatement of the local share of tax revenue from the racino.

“Darren has constantly demonstrated a willingness to engage in all aspects of township decisions. His involvement has been pivotal,” he said. “Thank you for your years of loyal service. Your presence will be greatly missed. God bless you.”