By BOB COUPLAND

Staff writer

McDONALD — Village officials are asking residents to make sure they are paying their income tax, as the Regional Income Tax Agency has provided them a list of more than 750 nonincome tax filers in the past few years in the village.

Mayor Ray Lewis said at this week’s village council meeting he received a report from RITA on the filings.

“We are concerned with the financial shortcomings and the many nonfilers,” Lewis said.

A few years ago the village had more than 1,400 income tax filers, he said, with some residents paying taxes to other municipalities where they work.

Lewis said that in 2024 there were 264 nonfilers and 750 who had not filed income taxes for several recent years.

“I urge anyone who thinks they may be on that list to contact the village. We will find you, and if you owe income tax, you will pay it.

“The streets, police and fire are not free. If we do not have the money coming in, we can’t survive as a village,” Lewis said.

He said it upsets him when the same people are not filing or paying their taxes for multiple years.

Lewis said some people on the list may be retired or deceased, and some may not owe anything.

“If we don’t collect the income tax, we can’t sustain what we have,” he said.

Lewis said the village has looked at different revenue streams to maintain the current level of service, such as having residents pay for trash collection for the first time.

Council President Sean Schmidt said it is disturbing to have residents who have not paid their income tax for multiple years.

“They should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.

Schmidt said there may be some residents who do not realize they need to be filing.

Councilman Don Smith, chairman of the finance committee, said there is a RITA office on Salt Springs Road, which can provide assistance to residents for income tax filing.

Officials said they send mailers to village residents who have not filed. RITA then checks into the status.

Lewis said if necessary, repeat nonfilers will be subpoenaed into mayor’s court.

Residents with questions can call the municipal building at 330-530-5472.

DATA CENTERS

In other business, residents at the meeting asked what is being done in the event the village were to get a data center.

Lewis said the former McDonald Steel property has not been sold, but he suspects plans are to sell the former mill property in the future.

“As soon as we know something as a village, we will make sure the public knows. That property could be sold for any potential business such as manufacturing or a data center. We can’t speculate until something is official,” Lewis said.

Resident Lynn Miller said the village needs to have guidelines in place to deal with the possibility of a data center locating in the village.

“We need to have something on the books,” Miller said.

Lewis said officials are looking at zoning restrictions to be prepared for what could possibly happen in the future.

He said any zoning changes would require action by the village planning commission and also public hearings for citizen input and comments.

Resident Kahy Miskell said she has seen what is happening in Niles and Weathersfield over a possible data center.

She said McDonald, Niles, Girard and Weathersfield should collaborate to address the issues related to data centers such as lighting, noise and odor, since “a data center would affect a whole area.”

Also, police Chief Ryan Ronghi said he attended a police chiefs’ meeting with the Trumbull 911 Center over concerns between the center working with the police departments. He said issues of concern were being addressed.

Ronghi said the village is adding Flock cameras for identifying vehicles that come in and out of the village and seeking quotes for police cruisers.

Fire Chief Fred Marcum said the fire department will be working with neighboring fire departments such as Weathersfield and Austintown, and will take part in a practice live burn of a house as part of a training exercise.