Editorials

Orchids and onions

ORCHID: To former Youngstown State University faculty member Barbara Brothers, who recently endowed a scholarship for African-American Youngstown City School graduates at her alma mater. The new scholarship will assist undergraduate black students majoring in education.

ORCHID: Also to the YSU Foundation Board of Trustees members who helped gift $1.6 million to establish an endowed faculty or executive administrative position in the name of YSU President Jim Tressel to honor his leadership. The surprise announcement nearly brought Tressel to tears. Helping with the funding were Jocelyne Kollay Linsalata, Alan Cope, Anthony Cafaro (Cafaro Family Foundation), Anthony Payiavlas, Lee and Bonnie Burdman, Marty Solomon, Ed Muransky, Don Constantini and Dr. Gary Bitonte (Bitonte Foundation).

ONION: To a caller who recently engaged in an illegal tactic known as "swatting" by calling police to a reported shooting of a 13-year-old boy at a Leetonia home. Police and emergency services arrived to learn there was no shooting. Swatting is an outrageous form of criminal harassment in which emergency services are dispatched to someone else's address. It is a waste of time and money, and it is potentially dangerous for police rushing to the fake call, as well as potentially delaying their response to other simultaneous calls. When the caller is caught, he or she must be charged. Maybe then it won't seem so funny.

ORCHID: To the City of Youngstown for its decision to offer $220,000 in grants to small businesses to help reduce financial problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The city is using $200,000 from Community Development Block Grant funds that came from federal COVID-19 relief money and $20,000 from KeyBank's Business Boost and Build Program for this effort to assist small businesses in the city. Information and grant applications are available online at www.valleyedp.com.

ORCHID: To U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, for extending an invitation to President Joe Biden to visit the Mahoning Valley to see firsthand the strides being made here in electric vehicle and clean energy technology, as well as to participate in a round-table discussion with local leaders. If the president accepts, the visit would likely bring national attention to the vision of the newly named "Voltage Valley."

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Editorials

Orchids and onions

ORCHID: To the city of Campbell for seeking transparency and community input. A city committee, comprised of Mayor Nick Phillips, police Chief Pat Kelly, clergy and city residents, is sending residents surveys about Campbell Police Department actions and policies. The mayor said the effort is a "learning tool" intended to help strengthen policies, rules and regulations. That sounds like a wonderful approach.

ONION: To Western Reserve Fire District for its volume of "dropped calls" -- calls that went answered. A newly released consultant's study has revealed that in 2019, 12 percent of calls went unanswered, and another 7 percent went unanswered in the first half of 2020. That's just unacceptable.

ORCHID: To area police departments utilizing body cameras and dash cameras equipped with the very useful "look-back" feature allowing access to about 30-seconds of footage before the officer officially activates the camera. The feature has gained attention because it was utilized in the Columbus police fatal shooting of an unarmed black man on Dec. 22. Locally, departments like Austintown and Girard have cameras with the feature; and Warren has ordered 20 new cameras with the feature.

ONION: To former Youngstown police officer Phil Chance Jr., 41, of Boardman, who will spend six months in jail, convicted on charges stemming from improperly issuing hundreds of concealed-carry weapon certificates. The mess led the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office to spend enormous amounts of effort tracking down and notifying as many of the 263 people as possible that they now need to replace their bogus permit with real ones. That effort cost taxpayers some $6,900 -- an expense Chance also now is ordered to repay.

ORCHID: To construction crews and the Cardinal Joint Fire District for safely capturing and releasing a fox that got trapped this week in the basement of new home being built in Canfield. Fire officials said it was a first, but they weren't dissuaded. They put their heads together and ended up dropping a dog stair into the basement, used to shoo the fox up and out safely.

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Editorials

Orchids and onions

ORCHID: To the city of Campbell and its police department for working to get new cameras, hardware and software that will allow police body and cruiser cameras to work in sync. The project creates, according to police Chief Pat Kelly, "complete transparency." City leaders seem serious about their commitment to openness and are putting $58,000 toward the project. Additionally, $30,000 in grant funds went toward body cameras.

ORCHID: To the Ohio Department of Transportation for working tirelessly to ensure a bridge pillar affecting traffic on heavily traveled spans of Mahoning Avenue and Interstate 680 was stabilized after a fiery crash Monday caused significant damage. The bridge has a traffic flow of 9,193 vehicles daily.

ONION: To land owners who either refuse to upkeep their properties or, worse, simply walk away, leaving the mess for someone else to deal with. Boardman Township trustees this week declared two nuisance properties, at 7443 Sierra Madre Trail and 5515 West Blvd. Director of Zoning and Development Kristen Beniston said each address is vacant with rubbish and debris around the property.

ORCHID: To twins Max and Zac Prizant, 25, who have made a cross-country trek from San Francisco to the Valley on foot, all in an effort to both accomplish something great and also give back to the world in some way. The twins, who grew up in Poland, raised funds along the way for Heart to Heart International, an American charity that helps countries around the globe with disaster relief, and now COVID-19 relief.

ORCHID: To the David Bermant Foundation in Santa Barbara, Calif., that recently gifted a kinetic art collection valued at $3.4 million to the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown. The 98 pieces of artwork now are part of the Butler's permanent collection. The jewel of the collection, according to Butler Executive Director Louis A. Zona, is an early work by Marcel Duchamp, considered a pioneer in kinetic art.

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Editorials

Orchids and onions

• ORCHID: To Youngstown officials for moving forward on a logical cooperative project with the Ohio Department of Transportation to demolish the aging and unneeded Crescent Street Bridge. The 78-foot steel girder crosses an abandoned railroad line just west of West Rayen Avenue. Officials called the span a "bridge to nowhere." Since the rail line is no longer in use, the bridge will be removed and replaced with a roadway that is less costly to maintain. Estimated cost is $947,650, with the state covering all but $207,000, which the city will pay. The whole project makes sense.

• ONION: To scam artists who have been calling local residents claiming to be from the sheriff's office and pressuring residents to pay money to avoid being jailed on a supposed outstanding arrest warrant. Crooks always seem to find new ways to deceive. If you get a call like this, don't be fooled! Always independently verify claims from callers before ever sending money.

• ORCHID: To Youngstown City Schools and Trumbull Educational Service Center, which received a portion of $2.6 million in grants through the Collaborative Fund for Educating Remotely and Transforming Schools. As part of the grants that will benefit 107,516 students statewide, Trumbull ESC received $55,400 to establish a new Science, Technology, Education and Math program.

• ONION: To the driver who sheared off a utility pole in Campbell last week, knocking out power, but then bailed out of the vehicle and ran away on foot, leaving the SUV behind.

• ORCHID: To Austintown Rotary for its donation of new coats to 100 needy Austintown students as part of "Operation Warm." The Rotary found a way to raise funds for the needed outerwear despite the challenges created by the pandemic.

editorial@tribtoday.com

Editorials

Orchids and onions

ORCHID: To the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County for hiring a community support specialist who will help patrons with needs in social service and mental health areas. Jim Young will help people with needs greater than library services; he will link patrons to help with homelessness, addiction, depression and more, according to library Executive Director Aimee Fifarek. Patrons who would like to talk with Young can contact the library at 330-744-8636 or talk with a librarian, who will connect them.

ORCHID: To the American Red Cross of Greater Akron and the Mahoning Valley, which includes the former local Lake to River Chapter in Liberty, for finding a centralized location to best serve residents in its six-county region. The Red Cross is moving its office from Belmont Avenue in Liberty to Canfield Niles Road in Austintown on Monday. There will be no disruption in services. Last year, the local Red Cross that served Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties was renamed and expanded to include Portage, Medina and Summit counties. The move to Austintown matches the mission of the realignment -- to better serve the Red Cross' mission and local communities.

ORCHID: To Michigan-based retailer Meijer, which is building a superstore on U.S. Route 224 in Boardman, for making good on its promise to donate about 20 acres of land behind the project to Boardman Township so it can stay in its natural state. Meijer had bought 40 acres for the project and developed half with the intent to donate the rest to the township. Attached to the donation is a conservancy, meaning it cannot be developed in the future. And to further protect the land from development -- keeping it in its natural wetland state -- it later could be transferred to the ABC (Austintown, Boardman, Canfield) Stormwater District. Doing so would let the land "continue to thrive," said Boardman Township Administrator Jason Loree.

ONION: To 2020. The unrelenting viral outbreak that struck in mid-March has so far killed more than 330,000 people in the U.S. -- fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends and co-workers -- and sickened millions more. COVID-19 has bludgeoned businesses, sent the economy into a tailspin and caused joblessness to soar. It has taxed the U.S. health care system and health care workers, working tirelessly to save lives.

The year also saw the tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The deaths sparked outrage and protests, some violent, in communities nationwide and calls for end to racial injustice. That outcry caused America to examine head-on issues of civil injustice in the black community, a much needed step toward equality.

ORCHID: To the CASTLO Community Improvement Corp. and Redex Industries for donating personal protective equipment kits to safety forces in Campbell, Struthers, Lowellville, Coitsville and Poland, the five CASTLO communities. Redex Industries, a local family-owned business best known for its Udderly Smooth hand cream products, developed the PPE kits to address a need in the community. The kits are small enough to use in patrol cars, but complete enough to meet a range of needs. They include thermometers, hand sanitizers, sanitizing wipes, Udderly Smooth hand cream tubes and masks.