AUSTINTOWN — The township will end its support for a student-run media program in another effort to save taxpayer dollars.

At Monday’s regular meeting, trustees approved a motion to cut $27,000 in funding that it has provided annually to Austintown Falcon Media, which is known as ACTV.

Austintown Local School District Treasurer Blaise Karlovic said the funding cut will not pose a considerable detriment to the program and ACTV will continue to operate as it has, with the exception of covering Austintown trustees meetings. Karlovic said the students’ services were provided out of gratitude for the donation.

The township has maintained a relationship with the program for nearly 40 years, but Karlovic said he and other district officials understand the decision.

“They’re making some budget cuts and trying to be more fiscally responsible, and they felt they could make some better use of that money,” Karlovic said. “They were giving it to us to enhance the program; it’s not a direct bill for services. It was just funding the township provided to promote that program and assist our teaching staff and students.”

Karlovic said the program, which covers sporting events, community events, graduation ceremonies and other school-related goings-on, will continue uninterrupted.

“There will be no detriment to the program; we’re still going to have it. We have 122 kids who get a lot of great benefits and experiences from it, and it benefits our district, and we will continue to operate it,” he said.

Trustee Bruce Shepas said the decision was not an easy one to make, given the long history of the relationship.

“Before cutting it, I did reach out to (Austintown Local School District Board of Education member) Harold Porter and (Superintendent) Tim Kelty and Blaise,” he said. “I gave everyone advance notice, and they totally understood, and they assured me there would not be any cuts and the program would not be dismantled and it will run smoothly without our contribution.”

Shepas said the decision simply came down to business and using taxpayer dollars efficiently.

“That was $27,000 to effectively use ACTV maybe 15 times a year, and that’s $1,800 each time they come out, for 60 to 90 minutes max,” he said. “This board will continue to look for ways of stretching taxpayer dollars and levies; this way we don’t have to go back and ask for more funds of any kind.”

The donation was paid out of the general fund.

“It was something that was always done, but we were so involved with looking at other departments — the police, our senior center — that we didn’t really take a look at it until now,” Shepas said.

“That’s a cable channel, and I don’t even know how many people have cable. We are looking at different systems (for recording trustees’ meetings) that wouldn’t be a quarter of that cost.”

In November, residents narrowly passed a five-year, renewable 2.22-mill levy that will generate about $2 million annually for police operations. Voters supported it by a 52% to 48% margin — the same margin that defeated a 2024 2.4-mill continuous levy.

Shepas said he and his fellow trustees, Robert Santos and Monica Deavers, are doing everything they can to avoid requesting additional funding.

“If it can be helped, we’re not putting another levy on as long as I’m here,” he said.