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LIBERTY – Officials have reached a standstill with a gas station property that has been abandoned for more than 30 years.
At a meeting earlier this week, trustees heard from Zoning Inspector Melissa Ritchie, who said she sent a $250 citation, as officials had agreed upon doing, to the owner and agent of the gas station property on Tibbetts Wick Road, which Steve Stoyak, a Logan Arms Drive resident, has brought to trustees’ attention in meetings since April 2025.
Stoyak presented officials at that 2025 meeting with images of the property and 103 signatures from residents on a township-wide petition declaring the gas station a nuisance, an environmental risk and an eyesore that presented a negative view to travelers passing through the area.
“It was mailed out on Oct. 6, and it was sent certified and unclaimed; they had four attempts, and it was returned on Oct. 29,” said Ritchie, who said she had a request to acknowledge the property as a nuisance and mow it on the evening’s agenda.
Trustee Arnie Clebone said officials need to do everything they can to take action against the property, adding that he didn’t think someone just being unavailable should “be allowed to stand.”
Ritchie noted the township has a lot of properties with absent owners – both commercial and residential.
“Their buildings may not be dilapidated at this time, but that’s going to end up being an issue,” Ritchie said.
Law Director Cherry Poteet said officials tried serving the property’s agent, a Hubbard attorney she did not name, adding that he was the one who refused to accept the citation.
“We can serve him through the Secretary of State, but that won’t do any good because we can’t make him fix the building,” Poteet said. “I mean we can fine him under the home rule, and we could say he should fix the building, but the building is not insufficient, (in) bad shape, that the township itself can tear down.”
Poteet said the township would have to pay her to collect the $250 and they would have to get the owner to come to a debtor’s exam, a a court-ordered legal proceeding where a creditor questions a debtor under oath to locate assets and income used to satisfy an unpaid court judgment.
Stoyak, who was present for Monday’s meeting, thanked Ritchie for the update, but also noted the property’s tax history – penalties totaling $369 in 2023, which were paid in 2024, and a $685 charge to clear and secure the property in 2025, which the owner had to pay in 2026.
“And so far this year, to date, there’s another $785 to secure and clean the property,” Stoyak said. “I would assume that if we’re going to do that again, that would result in another charge like that?”
Stoyak said the only way to obtain the attention of absentee landlords and LLCs is through their money, questioning how long a property owner would have to go into arrears on taxes before the county steps in and forecloses on it.
Trustee Devon Stanley noted that officials had Trumbull County Treasurer Agostino Ragozzino present a few Thursdays ago and he couldn’t remember the actual dollar threshold, but it was “a lot lower” than he had thought.
“Wasn’t it today in thousands, as opposed to something outrageous? It was lower than we would think,” Stanley said. “That’s a discussion we opened up with him because he was giving us a list of all those properties that have delinquent tax.”