Orchids and onions
* ORCHID: To Michael Crosby, supervisor at the Mahoning County Juvenile Justice Center, for winning the Patriot Award from the Employer Support of The Guard and Reserve. Crosby gained the attention of the group after JJC employee Brandon Mitchell wrote a letter to the U.S. secretary of Defense applauding Crosby for understanding and supporting Mitchell’s commitments as an Air Force Reservist. Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick also sang the praises of Crosby as a “great asset” to the center.
* ORCHID: To Steward Health Care for giving women in Mahoning and Trumbull counties a new convenient option to receive mammograms. Steward last week unveiled its state-of-the-art 3D Mobile Mammogram Center. The center will travel weekly to Steward sites in Austintown and Bazetta to operate its 3D system that better detects signs of breast cancer than traditional 2D methods. We hope women in both counties take advantage of this new weapon to fight breast cancer.
* ONION: To parents and guardians who fail miserably in their supervision duties, particularly those who allow toddlers to wander aimlessly and dangerously in the streets. Cheyanne Busse, a mother from Austintown and Mineral Ridge, pleaded guilty earlier this year to child endangering after her 3-year-old wandered from home in only a diaper. Then this week, that same 3-year-old was discovered wandering alone again on a nearby street. The mother’s excuse? She was sleeping. Sorry, but there’s no excuse for jeopardizing the health and safety of her young child.
* ORCHID: To Mercy Health Youngstown for opening a new ambulatory surgery center on Westford Drive in Canfield. The center is designed to lessen the growing volume of cases straining Mercy Health’s hospitals. This new facility provides more convenience, lower costs and speedier procedures — a win-win-win for the state of local health care.
* ORCHID: To Team Falco Tech 3193, Austintown Fitch High School’s robotics team, for winning the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Upper Ohio River Region Chairman’s Award, the most prestigious award at FIRST. The team’s award was for its timely community-focused project providing LEGO kits to children throughout the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
* ONION: To irresponsible drivers allowing distractions to upstage their focus on the road. The Ohio State Highway Patrol this week reported a significant increase in distracted driving violations statewide, rising from 3,852 in June 2020 to 6,916 this month. The problem is particularly troublesome in work zones, where 28,275 crashes and 106 fatalities occurred in five years in Ohio. The state also reports 87 more traffic fatalities this year, 14 more in the Valley compared with this time last year.
* ORCHID: To Marcie Consiglio and Pastor Jim Barton of Rush Church in Canfield for founding Moab House, an initiative to give support and shelter to foster children before they age out of the system. Moab House is designed to be a group home with house parents to mentor girls on critical life skills before gaining their independence. Show support by attending a benefit car and truck show for Moab House on U.S. Route 224 in Boardman behind Texas Roadhouse 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today.
* ORCHID: To the Ohio House of Representatives Finance Committee for incorporating into the state’s 2022-23 budget plans to award some $844 million in American Rescue Plan COVID-19 relief funds to townships and small municipalities in the state. The action corrects a glaring oversight in original plans that essentially neglected aid to 1,308 Ohio townships. We’re counting on the full Ohio Legislature to agree quickly to the provision so many townships in the Valley and state can rest assured they will not be outcasts from the massive federal relief program.
editorial@vindy.com
Orchids and onions
ORCHID: To contributors of about $7 million for the new Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley. The almost-completed new Mission on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Youngstown is a testament to local generosity and compassion. The new building is double the size of the outdated nearby structure. It will house approximately 70 more individuals. An additional $500,000 is needed to furnish the 50,000-square-foot state-of-the-art structure. Visit www.rescuemissionmv.org/donate/ to make a contribution.
ORCHID: To the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. for purchasing the former Foster Theater, an adult pornographic movie theater for the past several decades. YNDC’s plan to repurpose the building to a productive community use ends years of complaints by neighbors in the growing Glenwood Corridor neighborhood about the seedy image and impact the theater has had on the community.
ONION: To absentee land owners who fail to maintain their properties to even minimal health and safety standards and contribute to urban blight. In Warren, for example, the annual cost to the city to cut high grass has nearly doubled in four years, rising from $6,000 in 2017 to $12,000 in 2020. In Youngstown, city council learned last year that errant and AWOL property owners owed the city about $9 million for grass cutting, demolitions and blight removal.
ORCHID: To the Poland Village Gardeners for volunteering their time, talent and resources to keep the gardens at Village Hall in pristine condition. Members of the 30-member nonprofit club work in teams to regularly water, weed and trim the greenery to ensure the nearly century-old formal garden remains a vibrant symbol of pride and beauty for the village.
ORCHID: To the Anderson-Dubose Co. of Lordstown for being selected McDonald’s USA’s 2021 U.S. Supplier of the Year. McDonald’s rightly recognized the company’s gold-medal level of commitment to quality and food safety; product, equipment and process innovation; and exemplary customer service and value. The company supplies 450 McDonald’s restaurants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia.
ORCHID: To Youngstown State University women’s golf coach Nate Miklos and Mathews High School senior Emily Razo for being honored recently by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Steel Valley. The student golfers, under the direction of Miklos, won the Horizon League championship this past season. Razo’s prowess in cross country led her to the state finals this season.
ONION: To those who donate unusable items and downright trash to Goodwill Industries and other thrift and second-hand stores. Goodwill reports a dramatic upswing in broken furniture, unwearable clothing and other substandard donations since the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged large-scale home cleaning. Not only can these substandard items not be sold to help nonprofits operating the thrift stores, they also pile on unnecessary costs for Goodwill and other nonprofit agencies for hauling them away as trash.
ORCHID: To the South Range High School softball team for winning second place in the state for its division. Though their loss to Findlay recently was disappointing, the squad proved their power by defeating Ursuline and Champion in regional and district games. The team’s superlative performance reflects well on themselves, their school and their community.
ORCHID: To 135 married couples from throughout the six-county Youngstown Diocese honored Sunday at a special Mass marking milestone wedding anniversaries in St. Columba Cathedral in Youngstown. Bishop David Bonnar led the service and cited the selfless giving and patience needed for the couples to continue in happy marriages, some as long as 70 years.
ORCHID: To the McDonald Board of Education for keeping its commitment to district voters who in November 2016 passed an emergency levy to help fund a new track and athletic complex for the high school. At its meeting earlier this month, the board approved some of the final expenses for the expansive $2.6 million complex expected to open this fall. For the first time in 20 years, the district can host track and field meets.
editorial@vindy.com
Orchids and onions
ORCHID: To Col. Jeff Van Dootingh for returning to the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna to serve as the new commander of the mighty 910th Airlift Wing. Van Dootingh, who officially was installed Sunday, returns to familiar turf, having served in leadership roles at the 910th for many years. His knowledge of YARS, coupled with his sterling military background, will serve the base, its 1,400 Air Force Reservists and civilian professionals quite well. We’re confident, too, that Col. Van Dootingh will work with military and political leaders effectively
to forge more growth for the base and its
colossal economic impact on the Mahoning Valley.
ORCHID: To the Ohio National Guard for providing much-needed humanitarian service to the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley and other food banks in the state since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 20 Guard members helped the Valley food bank package, transport and distribute goods, doubling the food bank’s manpower and playing a large role in distributing a record 15.6 million pounds of food in the tri-county area last year. Their work was made even more crucial because much of the food bank’s volunteer force was suspended last year due to the pandemic. We second the praises from Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., Ohio adjutant general, who credited Guard members with “significantly increasing the productivity of food banks.”
ONION: To Youngstown city law and planning departments for their error in reviewing companies and agencies considering the purchase and renovation of 20 Federal Place, a downtown office building owned by the city. Officials originally indicated receiving no purchase offers. After The Vindicator reported that, those officials discovered they neglected a bona fide offer from Downtown Development Group of Warren. Because of the misperception, the city had extended the deadline for offers, which understandably rattled the Warren company’s president, who said he worked assiduously to meet the June 1 deadline. We accept the apology from the law department for the fumble, but we hope all involved with the building’s marketing now pay closer attention to details. Rejuvenating this downtown landmark is too important to be squandered by carelessness.
ORCHID: To Boardman Center Intermediate School counselor Kendra Baltes for leading the charge in establishing the first sensory room for students at the school. The room, the first of its kind in Boardman schools, is designed to help its student users better control their emotions or to simply relax and re-energize from the stresses of the academic environment. We hope the sensory room succeeds in lessening anxieties among students and in helping them concentrate and focus to their maximum effectiveness on academics.
ONION: To the Trumbull County Combined Health District for closing its offices to the public for the next several weeks because of road work and detours near its building. While we can understand the inconvenience the detours may cause, closing the building is not the correct answer. After all, the district is a public health agency to which resident taxpayers who support it should have dependable direct access without need for an appointment.
ORCHID: To Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, Warren Mayor Doug Franklin and the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber for planning to host a summit meeting among representatives of local governments and groups in the Mahoning Valley. Their idea is to collaborate on a unified plan for spending some $250 million in federal COVID-19 relief funding to the Valley. Planners hope to pinpoint legacy projects that would benefit the greatest number of people over an extended period of time. We commend these leaders for recognizing the long-term value of taking a regional approach
toward bettering the quality of life for all in our region.
editorial@vindy.com
Orchids and onions
ORCHID: To the 500-plus volunteers who today are scheduled to take part in Youngstown CityScape’s 24th annual Streetscape cleanup project in and around downtown. Projects will include removing debris, trimming grass, planting and mulching. Focus areas include Central Square, West and East Federal streets, the John Young Memorial, the South Avenue Police Memorial Bridge and others. The annual project makes a noticeable difference in cleaning and beautifying downtown Youngstown and Youngstown State University corridor. In so doing, it also saves city taxpayers dollars otherwise spent to keep the downtown vicinity clean and attractive.
ORCHID: To Poland Union Elementary School Intervention Team for winning the highly prestigious Franklin B. Walter Oustanding Educator Award recently. The team of teachers works assiduously as advocates and educators for special education students. For example, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, team members created two new reading initiatives, one of which now has nonverbal students speaking in complete sentences. Their work that rises above and beyond the call of duty is a fitting honor to the legacy of Walter, who served with distinction as state superintendent of schools 1977 to 1991, longer than any other.
ONION: To Trumbull County Commissioners Frank Fuda and Mauro Cantalamessa for slamming the brakes on efforts to establish full bus service in the county by the Western Reserve Transit Authority. Though we are not ready to endorse or reject the service or the 0.25 percent sales tax increase to finance it, we believe commissioners should have allowed placement of the tax issue on the ballot for all voters (and potential riders) to decide. In the meantime, educational campaigns could have been mounted for and against the initiative.
ORCHID: To Boscov’s department store for displaying strong community goodwill for the Mahoning Valley by planning a “Shop for a Cause” day at its new Eastwood Mall store set to open in early October. The benefit will give participants a sneak-peek shopping day just before the family-owned department store chain officially opens. It is expected to raise as much as $250,000 for as many as 225 nonprofit groups and organizations in the region. That investment tells us that the Reading, Pa.-based retailer is destined to become a good neighbor to our community.
ORCHID: To the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation for breaking ground recently on a $3.7 million expansion of its Heritage Manor retirement and rehabilitation community on its 18-acre Gypsy Lane campus. The health-care center is one of only a handful of Jewish-operated nursing homes in Ohio and has thrived for more than 40 years. It welcomes residents of all religious backgrounds and has maintained quality reviews even from Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, who praised staff there for taking great care of his 94-year-old aunt who was a resident there. The expansion extends the growing array of quality community services provided by the federation.
ONION: To Rachelle Barb of Youngstown who pleaded guilty in court this week to aggravated theft of more than $250,000 from SS. Mary and Joseph Catholic church in Newton Falls between 2014 and 2019. According to Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Charles Morrow, Barb, who served as bookkeeper for the parish, had linked her personal account with the church’s account. Clergy and parishioners at SS. Mary and Joseph clearly invested far too much faith in Barb. Her callous and despicable theft from such a hallowed and sacred institution merits maximum penalty.
ORCHID: To Dominic Adams, 18, of Boy Scout Troop 83, for creating a poignant memorial in Tod Park in Girard dedicated primarily to first responders and health care workers who were affected by COVID-19 as well as to all of those who lost their lives to the pandemic. The memorial consists of a refurbished flagpole, decorative rock and stone pathway and a bench, which includes a dedication plaque with the Boy Scout logo. What a heartwarming and community-minded Eagle Scout project Dominic has completed for the ages in the heart of Girard. His parents, Michael and Christine Adams of Girard, have every good reason to be proud.
editorial@vindy.com