Download “Chesapeake Energy drills in Ohio and Texas” (MP3)

(Natural sound of the drilling)

In the middle of downtown Arlington-about a mile and a half from Cowboys stadium-sits a 175 foot drilling rig. Several walls shield the platform and its workers from the Division Street auto dealerships, gas stations and restaurants. Laborers from the Chesapeake Energy Corporation man the rig 24-7. Chesapeake is the second largest producer of natural gas in the United States.

Justin Bond, Marketing Development Project Manager of Chesapeake says they’re drilling for natural gas.

(We are finding that it’s just 98% methane and that CH4 natural gas some of it’s just practically pipeline quality that you could burn it on your burner stove if you wanted…….right then)

Chesapeake owns leading positions in many shale plays including Barnett in Texas, and the Marcellus, and Utica here in Ohio.

Bond says they’re busy.

(In the last 12 months we’ve drilled about 6 wells a week. One out of every seven producing wells in the Barnett belongs to Chesapeake.)

Chesapeake operates about 6,000 wells in more than 80 Texas counties.

(more natural sound)

Within two weeks at the downtown site the frackers will take over. Frackers will inject a combination of chemicals, sand and water into the Barnett shale formations that will release the natural gas from underneath Division Street.

G. Michael Brown, Manager of Market Development says drilling for gas is directional.

(Most of the wells in this area are drilled either to the Northwest or Southeast, and that’s because that’s the actual direction of the flow of the rock. By doing it that way when we are able to open up the rock during (fracking) it opens up greater and we can get more gas from a wider area.)

The Utica shale will be drilled the same direction.

Brown says Chesapeake takes measures to control hazardous environmental effects at all of their work or pad sites.

(Also whether its sound mitigation or dust control on these pad sites if we have been controlling those….tailoring our operations to the area that we are.)

In cities, they take different approaches.

(Looking at our urban areas its canceling truck hours that would…stop at 3-9 for pedestrians crossing….local school)

Chesapeake says all parties profit.

(Obviously any product is gonna bring back a benefit for the company, here the difference is it brings back a benefit for that property owner..)

Bond says it’s not just the company and land owners.

(Individuals have really been able to benefit from the Barnett shale even if they’re not a direct benefit we’ve seen indirect benefits from additional employment or from money that’s given to school or cities.)

This is a special oil and gas report for the NewsOutlet. Doug Livingston contributed to this report, I’m Caitlin Fitch.

By Jordan Uhl
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

Damion Thomas said he has been in trouble for most of his life.

Drinking. Drugs. Rehabilitation programs. Slip-ups. More drugs. More trouble. Heroin.

“I lost everything. I haven’t seen my child in two years. My house, my car, my job. I lost trust in my family, my wife. I lost my pride, self-respect,” said the 36-year-old graduate of Community Corrections Association, a Youngstown-based alternative rehabilitation program.

Thomas, who has been serving a two-year sentence for trafficking heroin, said one little white pill that he takes three times every day is what is going to keep him straight for good this time.

In September 2011, Thomas and other inmates of CCA were offered a shot at redemption in the form of a pill some are calling a miracle drug. Baclofen, a muscle relaxant commonly used to treat spasms, is finding its way into substance-abuse recovery programs.

Supporters, such as CCA Director Rick Billak, claim the drug cures addiction by suppressing cravings for drugs and alcohol.

Thomas says that the pill is giving him back his life.

“I’m tired of this lifestyle. I’ve been in trouble for the past 32 years,” Thomas said. “I want to be a productive citizen again.”

Billak said CCA gave the drug to 56 of its residents who asked for it. He said it is being administered on a voluntary basis. There have been 11 relapses among the 56 participants — an 82 percent success rate, Billak said.

Even Billak, however, admits that the success rates may change once CCA residents are released and have access to illegal drugs.

Billak said the drug is inexpensive and nonaddictive and has only minimal side effects.

Although Billak and Thomas say they are confident in the drug, Baclofen is not without controversy.

Advocates of more traditional counseling-based approaches to recovery worry that the drug promises a quick fix to what they see as a lifelong illness, one that requires long-term support and commitment.

The drug was originally self- prescribed in high doses by Olivier Ameisen, a French physician, who used it to treat his own addiction. After his success at overcoming his alcohol addiction, he wrote the book “The End of My Addiction,” and began touting the pill as the cure.

Thomas and another CCA graduate, Anthony Williams, both say their cravings for alcohol and opiates have disappeared.

The two are now beginning to see their former, normal lives back within reach.

Williams, who said he misses his relationships with his three sons, looks forward to trying to rebuild a family.

“Wow, it’d be great [for them] to have a dad that’s not using. I could be doing everything I’m supposed to be doing as a father,” Williams said.

Williams faced six drug-possession charges, all felonies, the most severe being charges of possession of cocaine. He was ordered by the court to participate in residential treatment at CCA.

Program participants start on 10 milligrams a day and slowly work their way up to four daily doses of 30 milligrams, or what the overseeing physician, Dr. John Vargo, calls the “threshold.”

Initially, patients will experience fatigue, but no other side effects have been reported, said Harvey Littler III, the substance coordinator at CCA.

Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, a physician and assistant professor at Brown University, is wary of prescribing high doses.

“We need improved clinical trials,” he said in a recent telephone interview. “Ameisen’s book reports one case. One case is not enough evidence.”

In Dr. Leggio’s own studies, he’s found that 60 milligrams has been a suitable dosage, although it varies between patients.

Those in the CCA program will stay on the drug for 142 days. They can then wend off should they so desire, but some plan to stay on it.

The fact that Baclofen promises addiction recovery is part of the reason why those who support such treatment programs as Alcoholics Anonymous are skeptical.

Alcoholics Anonymous and others, who believe in a 12-step program, say there is no cure for alcoholism or drug addiction.

“We’ve got alcoholism over here. It’s a disease. Is that a cure for disease?” said “Billy,” a representative at Youngstown Area Inter Group of Alcoholics Anonymous. Billy refused to give his name because members of AA take a vow of anonymity.

“Paul,” another YAIG representative, said he didn’t think anything could replace a 12-step program.

While AA officials question Baclofen, Billak has his own concerns about the effectiveness of AA.

“The only thing that bothers me about AA is because it’s anonymous, you can’t establish its effectiveness,” Billak said. “It’d be nice if they could do a blind study on the effectiveness of AA and release its results.”

However, Billak said many of CCA’s clients attend AA meetings for support, and couple it with their Baclofen treatment.

“While in [the program] they’re also in our other treatment elements within our facility. We use cognitive behavioral therapy,” Billak said.

As CCA is a closed environment, the success rates may be inherently skewed due to the complete removal of any temptation to use, Billak said.

“If drugs are available and they’re not motivated, it’s not going to work,” Billak admitted. “But the research shows the longer they maintain sobriety, the longer they will stay sober.”

The U.S. National Institutes of Health conducted clinical trials examining the effectiveness of Baclofen and concluded that, when used to treat alcohol withdrawal, Baclofen does show signs of possible benefits, but Dr. Charles Gessert feels more clinical trials need to be conducted.

Gessert, who coordinated those tests, said there is more to battling addiction than merely addressing the physical cravings for the drug.

“You have to be worried about the social and psychological aspects of alcohol dependency,” Gessert said in a recent telephone interview. “Baclofen is just the physical aspect.”

Gessert said he knew nothing of the CCA program but felt its success rate claim might be distorted.

“I’m not skeptical in their findings, just in how it’s defined,” he said.

Leggio has done three studies using Baclofen as a treatment method and sees a lot of potential.

“We are very optimistic about this medication,” Leggio said.

“The problem is, people think it will solve the problem completely.”

Leggio is in the process of evaluating how beneficial Baclofen can be used in treating people who drink and smoke, and has noticed “robust benefits.”

From a phamacology standpoint, Leggio said Baclofen, like any other drug, isn’t for everyone. It’s now a matter of identifying suitable patients.

“While it may be a miracle drug for patient X, it may be noneffective for patient Y,” Leggio said.

Littler said other residents at CCA have begun to take notice of their peers’ success.

“It’s getting to the point where they come to me and say, ‘Can I get on that?’” Littler said.

For Thomas, the decision to get on Baclofen was an easy one.

“To me, it’s a no-brainer not to try it,” Thomas said.

“Especially if you’ve been out there trying other street drugs,” Willams added. “It can’t hurt you; it can only help.”

Billak is baffled as to why other agencies in the area haven’t picked up on the idea. He said he does understand why the pharmaceutical industry would oppose Baclofen as opposed to suboxone and methadone, alternative treatments with costs of up to 90 percent more per prescription.

“It’s generic; no one makes money on it,” Billak said. “And there may be some for-profit agencies that make money on relapse.”

Other stakeholders in the area are testing it on a pilot basis. Judge John Durkin has permitted some participants in his felony drug court program to use Baclofen as an acceptable treatment method through CCA.

Littler said the lifestyle changes CCA’s program stresses are necessary for a full recovery, such as job readiness and an introspective exploration.

Willams plans to attend ITT Tech and major in graphic design upon his release. Thomas intends to go back to work as a plumber.

“You’ll hear family members say, ‘Wow, I got my husband back. I got my father back.’ That’s the end result we’re looking for,” Billak said.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

Texas neighbors disagree about local gas wells by The News Outlet

Download “Texas neighbors disagree about local gas wells” (MP3)

Loch Lomond Drive in Arlington is an upper class neighborhood. Lush lawns with kids playing, bicyclists going up and down the street, canoeists paddling in a tree-lined canal that runs through the area.

And even though neighbors hand out sweet tea and lemonade to visitors, Loch Lomond residents disagree about the gas wells a few blocks from their homes.

Brown Graduate and stay-at-home mom, Ranjana Bhandari is against drilling:

(Now we have 300 wells and we’re discovering every day that they have side effects. Traffic, noise, diesel, fumes emissions, leaks,)

She says those against urban drilling were outnumbered:

(with a larger group we could have put up a stronger defense)

Her husband, Kaushik De is a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington.

(We really were the guinea pigs for this shale gas extraction)

Neighbor Steve Dixon, who works at IneoQuest Technology, says they really didn’t have a choice:

(At a point it became apparent either we sign and get something or we didn’t sign and they were going to do it anyway.)

So far, the Loch Lomond Neighbors who signed their rights away have received one check for 200 dollars and a signing bonus of 15 hundred.

In 2008, signing bonuses ranged to 30-thousand-dollars per acre, so the amount of money residents received depended on when the residents signed.

Sarah Fullenwider Fort Worth City Attorney says the gas companies know how to
get what they want:

(Typically, the gas company would send the land man out to go get the minerals and start pressuring people by saying, oh your whole ten blocks have signed, and if you don’t sign then you are going to be left out and you are not going to get the money)

Fullenwider says the process can create neighborhood anxiety:

(If you don’t have a very cohesive neighborhood or you have a very diverse one that’s not collectively together you don’t know is it true its it not true…am I really pressured to sign, do I have to sign what happens if we don’t sign?)

Vice president of Konica Minolta, Richard Langlotz (LANG-lots) agreed to the deal:

(If we had a chance to sign again we would do a much better job negotiating price…..It was all very new to us and even though it’s oil and gas country…horizontal fracking has opened up a lot of new cool doors.)

Langlots says it’s tough to go it alone:

(Groups have much more power than a single voice.)

The Loch Lomand neighbors advise Ohioans to do their homework and negotiate carefully.

This is a special report for the News Outlet. Chris Cotelesse and Doug Livingston contributed to this story, I’m Caitlin Fitch.”

Texans Offer Differing Views on Local Gas and Oil Wells by The News Outlet

Download “Texans Offer Differing Views on Local Gas and Oil Wells” (MP3)

Cliff Street in Decator is like any other neighborhood in North Central Texas. Rows of red bricks houses, green manicured lawns with the Texas flag proudly flying near one of four wells producing natural gas.

The constant hiss and sigh of the wells disturb what once was a quiet neighborhood.

(We’d just about get to sleep then it sounds like they were pulling chains and there was skewing and that kind of stuff going on. It was really annoying.)

That’s Kay and Raymond Palone, they’ve lived on Cliff street for twenty years.

Kay Palone is concerned about home prices:

(I do think it probably depreciates the value of our house, having the wells behind us.)

And to make matters worse, the Palones don’t get any money from the wells because previous owners sold the mineral rights.

Three houses down the street, Betty Carson doesn’t mind the wells:

(The industry itself has been good, the Barnett shale has been good for Texas)

Betty and her husband JE, both retired teachers, have benefitted from the wells. He sold his family farm in the 1980’s :

(These two little old wells probably made more money in one year, than we netted for fifty years.)

Although the wells in their own back yards don’t put any money in their pockets, Betty says she still likes them:

(we think perhaps the gas wells saved us)

Betty’s also happy because the wells tie up the neighborhood land:

(Of course you can hear it and I thought…. hmmm…we’re not going to hear that then I told JE, I said that sounds so good to me, because I said when they get that well they’re not going to develop this back here.)

Betty is also pleased for her community:

(There are a lot of people, farmers in particular, that it’s helped. People that have struggled and it’s kind of nice, to see them be able to buy new cars and to do things they haven’t been able to do. )

Kay Palone advises potential homeowners to read the fine print;

(I would say to try and get the mineral rights to their property when buying the property so they can decide whether they want to be bothered with having someone trying to do a well there or not.)

The Palones urge Ohioans who may be exploring drilling possibilities, to be careful:

(Look into what regulations can be invoked to restrict the noise and how close to a residence, be certain those are enforced as the regulations are.)

This has been a special oil and gas report for the News Outlet. Caitlin Cook contributed to this report, I’m Caitlin Fitch.

Texans say natural gas can solve domestic energy crisis by The News Outlet

Download “Texans say natural gas can solve domestic energy crisis” (MP3)

(“Natural gas is cheaper and its cleaner…it’s a no brainer.”)

That’s Author, Jack Edmondson. He is a member of the Tarrant County Historical Commission. He’s one of many Texans who’s concerned about the rise in gas prices as is Ken Morgan, a geology professor at Texas Christian University. He’s pushing natural gas production.

(“I want it dedicated I want it two bucks a gallon. Clean and American and domestic fuels.”)

Morgan wants it any way he can get it.

(“It’s all about domestic energy solutions and I don’t care if it’s a windmill, a solar panel or a car.”)

Morgan says imports must halt.

(“A billion dollars a day in importing and it doesn’t stop. You have to curtail that.)

Furry Zade owns Natural Gas Vehicles of Texas. He converts gas and diesel vehicles to natural gas.

(“We are a full service CNG conversion company we also do home fueling stations. We design stations. We convert from small ford focuses to big mac trucks.”)

Zade’s workforce has jumped from 2 to 12 in the past 6 months. He started his business when gas rose to 4 bucks a gallon in 2008.

(“It’s very funny or ironic. When fuel is at 3 bucks a gallon our phone doesn’t ring…when gas goes to $3.50 it starts ringing a lot. At $3.75 all my lines are red. At $4 bucks I have to add additional lines and add more people.”)

Zade says a good rule of thumb is that if you drive more than 200 miles a day you’re a good candidate for a natural gas powered car, but it’s gonna cost you.

(“The least expensive EPA approved conversion we have is in a ford focus with a 7.1 gallon tank and a bi-fuel conversion we can do it for about $8,000.”)

Texas Christian University energy students have picked up the torch. …
Senior, Patrick Mchaffery:

(“We are starting an initiative to convert TCU’s current campus fleet of service vehicles to an alternative fuel other than gas. For the environmental reasons for the fact that this gas is domestic, this is right under our feet. Why aren’t we powering our vehicles with it.”)

TCU student Ben Holiday says he’s happy to take the lead.

(“We want TCU to set the example of leading America into it’s energy future. We are a small group of TCU individuals but I think we’ll really be able to get the campus and the general community of the fort worth and Dallas area behind us cause we really do believe this is the future and we cant wait to be a part of it.”)

Professor Morgan says Ohio isn’t far behind.

(“You’re on the cusp. Its not 24 hours I wish it was…its probably 3-5 years and your buying a natural gas vehicle.”)

This has been a special oil and gas report for the News Outlet. Karl Henkel contributed to this report. I’m Caitlin Fitch.

Oil and gas drilling prompts air pollution concerns by The News Outlet

Download “Oil and gas drilling prompts air pollution concerns” (MP3)

The pressure builds in an Ohio gas well then erupts.

Nat Sot (Hissing gas well…)

The noise is all too familiar to Calvin Tillman. He’s the former mayor of Dish, a Texas town with 200 people, more than 30 gas wells, five natural gas compressor plants and the first air quality test that examined the effects of oil and gas drilling in the Barnett Shale.

He now travels the country, advocating for strict drilling regulations. In the fall, he visited Plain Township in north Canton, where a retired Perry school district teacher was told her to call if she needed anything.

About six months later, she did.

“Hi Mayor Tillman. My name is Renee Bogue, and I live in Stark County, Ohio. I have a question for you. After the drilling is done, who’s responsible for monitoring the air.”

Tillman pushes the phone aside and looks up from his kitchen table in Aubrey, Texas.

“I’ve already called her back told her nobody is gonna be monitoring that. Nobody’s just gonna go out there and do it. The industry’s certainly not. The city’s probably not. And your state’s probably not unless there’s a complaint.”

As mayor, Tillman commissioned the Dish air quality test in 2009. The test found multiple organic compounds known to have both carcinogenic and neurotoxin capabilities.

In 2010 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality conducted a study that found hazardous levels of benzene at 21 of the 94 tested well sites.

And last year, the city of Fort Worth conducted a million dollar air quality test. The study found no “significant health risks” beyond the city’s 600-foot setbacks.

Each test lists heightened levels of formaldehyde and benzene. But those levels, as Tillman says, are open to interpretation.

“They can be looking at the exact same data. And one say, ‘No. You shouldn’t be exposed to that.’ And another one says, ‘Nah. It’s not gonna hurt you.’ So, who do you believe?”

Tillman is proud of the 16 air sensors scattered across the Barnett Shale region.

But Tillman didn’t stick around to see the air sensors installed. Like many other outspoken critics of natural gas extraction, he moved off the Barnett Shale when his family began to suffer.

“Starting in probably 2008. My kids began getting nosebleeds. And they would get these nosebleed what I would consider to be more frequent.”

Tillman moved off the Barnett Shale in April last year.

“Since we’ve moved, my kids haven’t had any nosebleeds in the middle of the night.”

He holds up a map of north Texas with little dots that represent gas wells. The dots around Dish are so concentrated that they blend together in a patchwork that covers the town.

“You need to know that this is what’s going to happen when you open up your arms and welcome in the industry. You need to know that you can live with this.”

This has been a special oil and gas report for the News Outlet. I’m Doug Livingston.

Mother Nature surprises North Eastern Ohio by The News Outlet

Download “Mother Nature surprises North Eastern Ohio” (MP3)

With more than 200 records broken in Ohio alone, we’ve experienced the warmest March on record. That is according to the National Climate Data Center.

Homeowner’s, Denise and Tim Dickey, from Columbiana, saved more than 200 dollars on heating during these past few months.

Yea it’s usually 72 degrees in here anyways but we haven’t had to run the electric in the garage for Tim to have his garage warm he can just open the doors since it’s been warmer outside. 

Tim Dickey uses his garage for mechanical and wood work, as well as his own man cave. Denise Dickey says they also haven’t purchased salt this year. Most homeowners don’t see the problem with not buying salt. John Batzli Owner of Batzli Excavating sees otherwise.

 First of all a couple years ago it was scarce. You couldn’t get it. So if you didn’t, wasn’t one of the people to have it ordered a head of time you didn’t get it. 

Batzli says every year they pre-order nearly 5,000 dollars worth of salt.

That money needs to go to something else because the economy has been so ruff. 

Batzli seems optimistic about using the salt next year however a lack of snow coupled with warmer temperatures put his business in a hard spot. Most of Batzli’s winter clients are snow plow related. He says his clients pay per push. If there’s no snow there’s no money to be made.

We’ve been down in gross sales approximately 90% from previous years.

With these high temperatures John Batzli says they’re doing more excavating and construction work which they normally would have done in later.

Unlike Batzli Excavating, Emily Ellsworth, owner of Pure Pet, says the high temperatures allowed for wiggle room in her budget.

We’re right on the side walk, we get a lot more walk in’s from down town. Since there is not much parking people sometimes have to walk from public parking. So they do not want to walk when the weather is really bad. 

Emily Ellsworth says this year’s winter temperatures allowed her to spend 30 percent less on heating.

To prevent high heating bills, Columbiana Local, Debbie Reed, says she and her husband play a game they call the heat hold out.

We just see how long we go without turning the heat on. One year we made it to December 13th and it was really cold and people thought we were crazy but we just put on layers of clothes and looked ridiculous.

This year’s warm temperatures kept the Reed’s from looking ridiculous.

It seems Mother Nature has a few tricks of her own to help our economy put a few extra coins in our pockets but the surprises surely are not over. It’s snowed the first week in April.  For the News Outlet this is Karen Bell.

Texans offer gas and oil drilling advice to Ohioans by The News Outlet

Download “Texans offer gas and oil drilling advice to Ohioans” (MP3)
Renee Bogue SOT

(“Hey Mayor Tillman, my name is Renee Bogue, and I live in Stark County Ohio, fracking occupy Canton..after the drilling is done, who is responsible for monitoring the air?”)

That’s Renee Bogue, just one of many Ohioans looking for advice from Texans.

Ohio is on the cusp of a major economic build up, thanks to the Utica and Marcelllus shale fields, similar to the Barnett shale of Texas.

Gas and Oil well drilling companies such as Chesapeake Energy Corporation, BP and Devon say drilling activity could begin in Trumbull County this year.

Oilrigs that occupy many urban and rural areas in Texas and all that go with them are headed to Ohio…

Nat sot highway

And that may spell trouble or at least some complications for the local infrastructure:

Calvin Tillman who spent several years as the mayor of Dish, Texas now travels around the country sharing advice.  Tillman’s concerned with air quality and testing.  He told Renee Bogue the same thing he tells everybody; you’re on your own:

(“Nobody’s just gonna go out there and do it. The industry’s certainly not. The city’s probably not. And your state’s probably not unless there’s a complaint.”)

Texan, Sharon Wilson says all property owners need to conduct some basic analysis:

25:00 Sharon Wilson (“At their own expense they need to get baseline testing done of their air water and soil. Everybody who thinks they have drilling around them needs to get baseline testing.”)

She advises Ohioans to understand there’s more at work here than oil drilling:

25:26 (“They need to fight really hard for strong regulations strong municipalities there’s going to be a tremendous amount of influence pumped into their gov’t political leaders. Just a staggering amount of influence.”)

Gary Hogan says Texas made some mistakes

(“We should have not allowed gas and heavy industrial activity in every zoning class that’s why you have zoning rules.”)

Hogan represents his district on the city’s drilling task force. They’re in favor of prohibiting wells within 600 feet of schools, houses, parks and other protected lands.

Gas well administrator, Darren Groth (GROWTH) advises Ohioans to go with the flow.

Growth  SOT

(“I think having the foresight to say this is something that’s likely going to happen how can we minimize the impacts of it as opposed to say how can we stop it.”)

One Texas farmer whose family has made millions by leasing gas and oil rights offers some simple wisdom for Ohioans now negotiating similar deals:

(DON”T TAKE THEIR FIRST OFFER.)

Max Lindsey lives in Wise County Texas, right in the heart of the state’s Barnett Shale.

This has been a special oil and gas report for the New Outlet.

Doug Livingston contributed to this report. I’m Caitlin Fitch

By Daniel Moore
TheNewsOutlet.org

GREENE COUNTY, Pa.

An 18-wheeler barrels down state Route 21, carrying pipe that will become a pipeline connecting gas wells in the rolling countryside of Greene County — a rural region about 30 minutes south of Pittsburgh that has known the benefits of fueling the world.

And its consequences.

The ground beneath Greene County’s 575 square miles is hollowed by still-expanding coal mines — the nation’s largest — owned by Consol Energy Inc., the largest U.S. producer of coal from underground mines.

Beneath those coal mines lies the Marcellus Shale, a reservoir of natural gas that has local residents reliving the coal boom. Greene County’s first Marcellus Shale well was permitted in 2005, the only one that year. In 2011, 217 Marcellus permits were issued.

The roads and rural towns bustle with activity and business from the natural gas industry. Residents sell their mineral rights. Workers lay pipeline. Retired coal miners are employed on drilling rigs. Local bars and general stores cash in on drillers.

But like the coal industry, residents know that the times are not all good.

Though the county — home to about 38,000 people — has the third-lowest unemployment rate in the state at 6.4 percent, it conversely has the eighth-highest poverty level at 18 percent.

Many locals remain unemployed — either not having the credentials or the desire to work in the industry, which still brings in many workers from out of state.

Though many make the most of it, others fear for their environment, still marred by decades of coal mining.

Retired coal miner Al Penska stands in the quiet parking lot of Ryerson State Park overlooking a grassy field that used to be a 62-acre Duke Lake. The dam that once held the water cracked in 2005.

Local officials drained the lake later that year because of safety concerns, blaming the nation’s longest underground coal mine for the structural problems.

Lynn Seay, director of media relations for Consol, said the company maintains communication with the local community about fixing it.

“Consol Energy remains committed to maintaining a constructive dialogue with the DCNR [Department of Conservation and Natural Resources] to restore this important recreational amenity in southwestern Pennsylvania as quickly as possible,” she wrote in a statement.

Consol has been a familiar force in the region since 1864, digging coal and, more recently, drilling natural gas. As of 2010, it employs nearly 9,000 nationally, more than a quarter of whom live in Pennsylvania.

When the company released its capital budget in January, it announced the expansion of coal operations in the county. When the expansion reaches full production in 2014, the mine will produce 5 million tons of coal a year and employ 375 more workers.

“They’re hurting for (coal) miners. You want a job in a mine? They’ll hire you tomorrow,” said Penska.

Though coal mines are commonplace, Penska said natural gas is the new county fixation.

Along with job offers, Penska and his neighbors started receiving letters from Consol about buying mineral rights. It was news to Penska — who thought they wanted the coal under his land. He was surprised when he learned it was gas.

Penska worries about how the land will be left. He’s not satisfied with cracked dams and busted foundations left from underground coal mines. He suspects that gas drilling will be just as rough on the land.

Pipeliners John Hendrickson and Shane Guerney, good friends from Wisconsin who are the “new locals,” recognize the environmental hazards of their line of work. They defend the regulations in place to address those hazards.

“(The land) has to be left the way we found it,” Guerney says.

The Army Corps of Engineers inspects “every stick and stone of the land” they touch, he says, and will enforce fines if it’s not restored to its original state.

“For us,” Hendrickson adds, “I’ve been in places where they’ve yelled if all the rocks were not in the right spots in a creek. They want everything back the way it was.”

Before they’re done, Guerney says, there’s going to be a well every square mile throughout the county. The revenue generated will flow through the companies and trickle down to the communities.

“The only bad thing is,” Hendrickson says, “like everything, there’s always the chance of a bad piece of pipe, or there could be a fracture.”

Ray Rutan will be there if the pipes leak or the water is tainted.

The laminated card inside his wallet certifies the retired construction worker as a Citizen Watershed Protector, making him one of 40 volunteers who test creek water for contamination from natural gas exploration.

The water-monitoring program is part of the local Greene County chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, an advocacy group formed in 1922. Since Rutan joined the chapter three years ago, its membership has grown from about 20 to 140, a measure of the local environmental interest as drilling takes hold.

“We have the technology to do this right,” he says. “Surely, if we can send man to the moon, … we surely can go down south three or four thousand feet in God’s earth right and safe without the contamination of our water.”

Chapter President Ken Duffala insists his group is not against natural-gas development but for more accurate research.

And he has the evidence.

Duffala pulls charts and graphs from a thick binder and waves around the certified research Rutan helped collect. The data reports electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids and pH levels in local water supplies.

All the hot spots are documented, and he can show anyone exactly where they are.

“We do have the data. What we need is good response from the (state Department of Environmental Protection),” says Greene County Commissioner Archie Trader of the group’s findings. “I think we all have to be concerned about it.”

The county pays for water- testing equipment because it wants clear records of the contents of its streams.

Duffala recognizes there could be benefits for the area. But he’s thinking about the long term. He is worried about his land, his family’s house, his children.

“Look, this is gonna be a boom just like any other boom,” Duffala says. “When it’s over with, we still have to live here. Is it going to be environmentally safe for our kids to live here?”

Penska laughs at the idea of government regulatory agencies doing anything to slow the industry’s local development.

CRAZY MONEY

“People’s crazy over the money,” he says, “If you own a nice chunk of property, you’re not worried about what they’re gonna do to that creek or lake. You know what I mean? You’re gonna make a ton of money off it.”

Greene County’s 2010 sales tax revenue climbed 27 percent from 2006 to 2010. Personal income rose more than 20 percent with the average taxable income jumping from about $36,500 to $44,000 during that same period, according to tax filings with the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

The money is being spent just about anywhere with a parking lot.

Linda McGowan, the owner of Creekside Diner in Graysville, says she can see both sides. “As a businessperson, I care about my wallet. We’ve seen a significant increase in business, and they’re all nice people, the pipeliners. They’re guys just making a living, that’s all.”

Two years ago, a 64-room Microtel Inn and Suites was carved into a hillside just off I-79 in Waynesburg. It’s now packed with men in company-issued coats and work boots.

For Lisa Burns, owner of the Exxon gas station in Wind Ridge, the prospects of the natural-gas industry couldn’t look finer for her area.

“If you want a job, you can have a job here,” Burns says. “Pipelining, anything. You can have a job here.” Burns says she’s making minor changes to her store for the new workers in the area.

“They’ve made it known, that they would like to have fresh sandwiches because they pack their lunches and stuff,” she says, pointing to the area the chips used to be. “It’s single guys or even married guys, but their wives aren’t here with them.”

A couple miles down the road from the Exxon, the pipeline construction intersects Route 21. By summer, Dominion Transmission hopes to have a full supply of workers on the 110-mile Appalachian Gateway Project pipeline, which runs from northern West Virginia to Oakford, Pa. By September, it hopes to have gas flowing through the pipes to be put on the market in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states.

McGowan lives right across from the pipeline. She had to travel a 16-mile detour to work to Graysville every day when they closed Route 21 for a year to run the pipeline across it, and it hasn’t gotten much better since.

“Everywhere you go, they’ve got somebody stopping you because they need to move a rig, so you’re perpetually stuck behind a rig, waiting to get somewhere,” she says.

To find the pipeline, she says, follow the mud.

The mud trail is thin on the road by her diner, but thickens as Route 21 winds west up the hill to Wind Ridge.

There, Ian Snyder works his shift at Stokes General Merchandise — a hybrid gas station, grocery store, computer repair and tie-dye T-shirt shop owned by his brother-in-law.

“The truck drivers, they like to eat,” Snyder says. “They buy a lot of lunches, so that’s good. They love a little store like this because you look around — we have a lot of stuff. We do all kinds of stuff.”

Truckers, pipeliners, drillers — they’re the “new locals.”

“Every (company is) coming with their own people,” Penska said. “Go up there in them trailer parks (in the hills). Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, Louisiana — that’s all your license plates. Where’s your Pennsylvania people?”

Cold, windy dusk falls on the Burns RV Campground, which consumes the area around Jacktown Fairgrounds. Rush Henri is outside her fianc ’s trailer grilling potatoes for him. As the assistant superintendent for a drilling crew, he’s been here since May.

Henri says her fianc leaves around 5 a.m. for a daily meeting before heading out in the field, where he oversees foremen and equipment. She tries to make the two-and-a-half hour drive every weekend from Elkins, W. Va., where she is a middle-school guidance counselor.

Hendrickson and Guerney, good friends from Wisconsin, live across the road from Henri. Guerney has been all over the country, he says, but his wife and kids don’t travel with him.

“People that run the pipelines go from state to state,” Hendrickson says, emerging from the trailer. “You go where the money is, that’s why we do it. It’s good money.”

The NewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media, including WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa.

The Williamsport Chamber of Commerce president said he never has seen an economic boom such as the one creating lines at local restaurants, no vacancies at area hotels and a general optimism among many capitalizing on the area’s expanding gas and oil industry.

Vincent Matteo has spent more than 30 years working on various economic-development initiatives. He knows the good times from the current gas and oil-well success need to be well-managed to help the community sustain itself long after the valuable minerals have stopped flowing.

Matteo, who has been with the chamber since 2001, said he has had weekly meetings with local elected officials. During one of those meetings about five years ago, a county commissioner mentioned that people had been flooding the county courthouses to look up property deeds.

“There were these long lines at the computers, and people are looking up deeds, and we don’t know why. Obviously, they were the land men looking up ownership of the land and stuff, and that’s how we found out,” Matteo said.

Land men are professionals engaged in land work for oil, gas and mineral exploration and production.

Officials from Lycoming County, where Williamsport is located, wanted the gas and oil-well drilling done in their community. About three months later, those officials traveled to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to meet with government, public-sector and private businesses and residents for and against gas exploration.

Matteo wanted to make sure the community took full advantage of the opportunities, but he was equally concerned that growth be managed properly.

“Lycoming County is relatively small, and there’s always growing pains and always people — no matter where you go — who may not be as welcoming as others are to change,” Matteo said. “But for the most part, it’s been done pretty well and people are just starting to fit in.”

Lycoming has seen growth in sales-tax revenue for the county by industry people coming into the community. Between 2006 and 2010, that revenue increased by 10.4 percent. During the same time period, Pennsylvania as a whole had a 2.8 percent decrease.

In 2010, the Williamsport metropolitan area was the seventh-fastest growing economy in the United States. Matteo said that within the past three years, about 115 new businesses began operating in Lycoming County and the areas surrounding the county.

These businesses include hotels, office buildings and restaurants. Matteo said that about 2,000 people have been hired for those businesses.

Restaurants that have been in the area for a long time have also noticed an increase in business.

The Bullfrog Brewery, a brew pub and restaurant, has been in Williamsport for 16 years. Jody Odell-Zimmerman, director of operations, has seen the variety of customers coming to the restaurant. It’s not just the drillers that she’s seen.

“It’s all of the facets of the different companies that work with the oil and gas industry,” she said.

“You’ve seen the growth not only from the companies moving into the area, but from our legacy companies, the ones that have been here that have expanded their employment as a direct result of the natural-gas exploration,” Matteo added.

Alice Crane & Rigging is one, and it has increased its work force from roughly 50 employees four years ago to more than 200 employees now. The company also doubled its number of cranes and trucks.

RS Albert’s, another family-owned company, manufactures several plastic products and has expanded with a product for the oil and gas industry. The company is most noted for producing roller-coaster safety harnesses but now uses that same plastic to contain spills on well sites.

TheNewsOutlet.org reporters Doug Livingston and Caitlin Cook contributed to this report. The NewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media.

To Pam Percival, the gas-and-oil-well industry is far more than men out in a field with some machinery and a teeter-totter piece of metal that pivots up and down.

Percival works in corporate communications for Texas-based FTS International, and that’s where the company found its niche over the past 10 years.

“You tend to think of [the industry] as someone working out in the oil field, but it’s all the support people who stand behind him,” Percival said.

Two brothers who saw the need for well-stimulation services in the oil and gas industry founded FTS, a company that has grown into a nationwide independent-services provider with vertical integration.

FTS manufactures the high-pressure pumps and mobile pumping units and replacement parts. It owns sand mines and resin-coating facilities and maintains an extensive supply chain to move materials and equipment to wherever a new well has been drilled.

“We try to supply the parts and resources and pieces that we need to accomplish our jobs,” Percival said.

FTS has a staff of about 1,000 at its Fort Worth headquarters and manufacturing plant. The company employs about 4,400 employees across its 12 district offices in areas of major shale formations, including the Marcellus Shale with Pennsylvania operations in Williamsport and Washington.

Percival said the company is hiring and employs, among others, equipment operators, engineers, information technologists, lawyers, safety-equipment managers and finance experts.

David Capps, operations manager at FTS, said his company is one of many that has been able to capitalize on the growing needs of the oil and gas industry. He said there are countless others who are benefiting from the gas and oil exploration and drilling.

“Everything that you can think of in our industry in the U.S. — there’s some place in the oil and gas industry that those people fit into it,” Capps said.

He said the oil and gas industry is driving innovations in other industries, including steel because there has been a need for steel with high-impact properties. Capp said steel companies have been challenged to redesign their products to be more competitive and effective in the marketplace.

That new steel isn’t just being sold to oil and gas companies — it’s being sold to the railroad and automotive industries, thereby improving the overall quality of steel.

“We have a need for steel and a need for the parts and all the things to do our business, so the fingers of the energy industry, as you will, are reaching out into all kinds of different areas to bring in the supplies and resources and workers that drive the industry as a whole,” Percival said.

“It affects everything,” Capps added. “The trickle-down effect is tremendous.”

The trickle continues to spread throughout FTS, which plans to expand its customer base globally while maintaining its American operations and manufacturing roots.

“We are continuing to grow and evolve as we see opportunities,” Percival said. “I think a lot of this growth will be technology and research and development, finding new and better ways to do things more efficiently and with more care for the environment.”

She acknowledges people might not necessarily think of manufacturing companies such as FTS when they see the oil and gas wells in their backyard or workers hauling equipment.

“There’s all these different companies that have different roles to play, and we’re just part of that,” Percival said.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media, including WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

FORT WORTH, Texas

There’s a good chance that the small flag or windsock flapping in the breeze near a gas or oil well was imprinted and sold by a company based in Fort Worth, Texas.

“We’ve just had a tremendous number of these that we’ve sold, probably because companies are pulling up and putting their operations up in a particular area,” said Steve Hebbler, owner of Trinity Safety Supply.

In 1982, Neva and Jerry Cotton founded Trinity Safety Supply in their kitchen — selling gloves, hard hats and other safety supplies for workers. The company has since expanded its products and now distributes to approximately 700 wholesale stores throughout the country, along with 11 warehouses in high-producing shale areas.

“We’ve seen a pickup in [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] requirements and people wanting to buy equipment to meet those specifications,” Hebbler said. “But more so than anything else, I think our niche is the oil patch, and that’s what we’ve been servicing over the years.”

Standing in the company’s small display area, Hebbler said oil and gas companies need everything including windsocks, gloves, hard hats, gas clips, flame retardant clothing, safety goggles, fire extinguishers and first-aid kits for employees’ trucks.

“The need for safety-supply clothing has ramped up in these areas of activity,” Hebbler said. “People are looking for just-in-time inventory, and that’s where we feel we have a niche.”

Hebbler walks down the stockroom aisles with mostly unopened boxes that will be shipped out in the coming days. The company receives inventory daily and can ship out as many as 40 shipments a day.

“It’s all about quick turnarounds,” he said.

Hebbler stops and points to the array of textures and colors for gloves that companies working in different states require. Workers in Louisiana prefer gloves with plastic dots, and workers in Colorado and Kansas prefer gloves with elastic knit covering the wrist. The differences are subtle and practical, though Hebbler admits he never imagined he would ever need to know them.

Trinity Saftey Supply imprints companies’ logos on many items such as the 60 dozen white and red gloves stacked next to a small machine that will transfer the logo. That’s just one order of gloves, Hebbler confirms with an employee, and oil workers can go through as many as five or six pairs a day.

Hebbler declined to disclose the number of employees at Trinity Safety Supply but said the company is a lean operation. Most of the employees have been with the company for years, and Hebbler credits them with the company’s success.

“We have a knowledgeable staff,” he said. “They know the market; it’s really about them.”

At the end of the day, it’s all about supplying the customer and keeping them stocked, Hebbler said.

“We only sell what we stock, though we do sell other products and have started stocking some based on what oil and gas companies need.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

ARLINGTON, Texas

A new aquarium in the lobby of the Lake Arlington Branch Library will be stocked with fish and vegetation that can be found in Texas lakes and streams.

It will serve to teach the public about the importance of the nearby lake community.

The Arlington Tomorrow Foundation assisted with this project with an initial $20,000 grant. The library project is one of many community initiatives the 7-year-old foundation has funded.

Arlington City Council members established Arlington Tomorrow with money the Texas city is earning by leasing land for natural-gas wells.

“We know that’s one-time money, and we know at some point — give it 25 or 30 years — it’s all going to be gone,” said Lana Wolff, a council member.

Each year, 10 percent of money earned from the city’s drilling is placed in the city manager’s budget while the other 90 percent goes to Arlington Tomorrow.

The endowment currently has more than $70 million and expects to have $200 million saved by the end of this year.

Wolff said Arlington Tomorrow helps fund neighborhood beautification initiatives and other projects that seek to make life better for the residents of Arlington.

Additionally, the foundation supports programs and projects designed to have a positive impact on youth and family services, safe and strong neighborhoods, historic preservation and beatification, cultural programming, library enhancements, environmental and energy conservation, parks and recreation and animal services.

Wolff said organizations submit simple grant proposals and staff and board members of Arlington Tomorrow make awards based on community need as well as the track record and overall ability of the organizations seeking funds.

In 2010, the Arlington Public Library system was granted $63,857 from Arlington Tomorrow to help fund four projects.

“We are grateful to have received funding from the Arlington Tomorrow Foundation,” said Andi Davis, a spokesman for the Arlington Library System. “It has allowed us to expand the library services being offered to our community.”

Carolyn Mentesana, Arlington Tomorrow Foundation executive director, said the foundation has now become a permanent community asset.

“Given the fact we’re operating with a permanently endowed fund, our proceeds promise to benefit the city and its residents for generations to come,” she said. “Because we address a broad range of needs in the community, our financial grants are helping groups — large and small — address the growing and challenging needs facing the people who call Arlington home.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Gary Hogan heard the trucks before he saw them. Standing in his backyard, he phoned his Fort Worth councilman, the late Chuck Silcox.

The sounds of clanking steel and screeching brakes rolled through the Texas sky, into Hogan’s backyard, through his cellphone and landed in Silcox’s ear.

The councilman showed up moments later.

The two ventured through a wooden fence in Hogan’s backyard and watched the first “frack job” in the neighborhood — about 300 feet from Hogan’s one-story stucco home.

“We watched gas drilling at its worst in the city of Fort Worth,” Hogan said.

The drilling lasted until 3 a.m.

“‘This can’t play,’” Hogan recalls Silcox saying.

Silcox told Hogan people could not live with the noise.

Conversations and complaints such as this have led to the adoption of city ordinances that limit drilling. As drilling encroached on the city limits of Fort Worth, public backlash set the stage for reform, which continues today.

Hogan still lives atop the Barnett Shale, a rock formation that has produced nine trillion cubic feet of natural gas over the past decade. The noise he heard that night was drilling and, some days later, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — a process of blasting water, sand and chemicals into rock to extract natural gas.

Hogan wasn’t the first to hear drilling permeate the densely populated areas of Fort Worth, but his is among the loudest voices talking about it.

“He’s the one that got everything started,” said Sarah Fullenwider, Fort Worth city attorney and author of the nation’s first city drilling ordinance to address fracking.

Fort Worth officials admit the first step was a knee-jerk reaction to the drilling.

A moratorium in 2001 put a stop to drilling after the first three city wells were permitted. Council and city officials scrambled to draft drilling regulations.

Through public concerns and industry input, a city drilling ordinance passed through council six months later and the moratorium was lifted.

In 2006, the ordinance was amended to address noise complaints and proximity issues as drilling moved closer to residential areas.

“I would say 90 percent of our revisions to the ordinance came from the gas company not taking a proactive step to minimize the impact to surrounding areas,” Fullenwider said. “If they had, we wouldn’t have to change the ordinance.”

Now representing his district on the city’s drilling task force, Hogan approved measures that prohibited wells within 600 feet of schools, homes, parks and other protected land.

The task force also designated certain routes trucks had to use that haul millions of gallons of water needed to frack wells. Landscaping and fencing were required for each well site.

In Denton City, some 40 miles north of Fort Worth, a 120-day drilling moratorium is providing time for the city’s drilling task force and council to update regulations.

“Rigs were pouring in from around the country,” Denton City Mayor Mark Burroughs said of a drilling surge in the late 2000s. “And we discovered, to our chagrin here in Denton, that we had lapsed behind the times.”

Denton passed its first ordinance in 2002. The first revision came with the passage of regulations in 2010, which addressed similar nuisance issues experienced in Fort Worth.

Denton officials amended the 8-year-old ordinance to keep drilling away from schools, churches, public parks, libraries, homes, hospitals and reservoirs. Originally set at 250 to 500 feet, the 2010 provision doubled the space between wells and protected use lands.

Mark Cunningham, director of planning and development for Denton, explained why the setback provision is important.

“The greater the setback, the less of the chance of someone being affected by the potential pollution,” he said.

Denton officials also reduced the life of a drilling permit from one year to six months, imposed time constraints on drilling operations, adopted limits on noise, and established a gas-wells division under the city’s planning and development department.

But city officials in Texas have little power to police pollution.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, much like the Ohio Environmental Protection agency, sets the limits for air and water pollutants.

Though cities can regulate nuisance issues, they have no control on what happens once the drill bit enters the ground and passes through water aquifers.

Setbacks, however, can place a burden on business and infringe on people’s rights to access their mineral resources.

“What I’ve learned along the way is that gas well drilling and production is a very polarizing issue,” Cunningham said. “The industry is always going to be in favor of less regulations, and then the communities are always going to be in favor of more regulations.”

Ed Ireland is president of the Barnett Shale Education Energy Council, which works closely with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on Denton’s drilling task force.

Ireland said if ordinances are too strict or moratoriums are implemented, then business will suffer. He cites New York’s current moratorium as a model example.

“If they can’t operate there, they won’t locate there,” Ireland said.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

ARLINGTON, Texas

Last April, residents of an Arlington neighborhood awoke to hissing sounds from a nearby gas well. As neighbors called 911 and wondered if they were safe, firefighters struggled to locate and gain access to the well site that was emitting the vapors.

It was that event that convinced some Arlington city officials that something had to change. Funded by a $2,400 tax on each of the city’s 300 operating gas wells, the city launched a special team to respond to any gas- or oil-well accident or emergency.

For Lana Wolff, a member of Arlington City Council, that was a turning point.

“That was our first wake-up call. Wow! Boy we’ve got a hole, and we were just in the middle of revising our gas and drilling ordinances,” she said.

Wolff said the incident, which ended with firefighters finally getting in to shut off the well before there was a fire or explosion, pointed out how poorly prepared the city was for the types of accidents that can happen with gas and oil wells.

From not knowing whom to contact about various wells to not having the expertise of how to shut off a well or even the ability to gain access to them, Arlington officials were ill-prepared, Wolff said.

“Now, we’re saying [to companies] you make sure we’ve identified that our 911 knows who the operator is. We want the real 24-hour phone number, and when we call, we expect your representative to be there,” she said.

To this day, residents of the neighborhood who had the hissing well still don’t feel safe, but the city has taken steps that they say should provide comfort to all residents.

In addition to its active wells, the city has issued permits for 1,500 others that could be drilled in the future.

The $2,400 yearly tax will help train and equip first responders to emergencies at oil- and gas-well sites. Arlington will form a separate response team trained for these specific emergencies under their fire code.

“I don’t have a problem if it’s an industrial site that is not in a neighborhood overlay, but man it’s a whole different ball game when you start encroaching into that neighborhood,” Wolff said.

Don Crowson, Arlington fire chief, said there is a significant time gap between his team receiving a 911 call and an industry response. He said it can take industry officials 30 to 60 minutes to respond. In that time, emergency responders are making real-time ground decisions.

“To put a gas-well fire down takes about seven days, and that can significantly disrupt a local neighborhood or community or business,” Crowson said.

The response team is not there to replace a company’s well site emergency crews, but to assist them in a faster cleanup.

Firefighters will work with industry well control companies and learn how they combat well site emergencies. Crowson said there is no such thing as a typical well site; operators go about business differently between engineering techniques and safety measures.

“A gas well in an urban environment is significantly different in impact to a community than a gas well in a rural environment,” Crowson said. “We’re going to be dealing with the outfall of the citizens immediately around that well. The more efficiently and effectively we can deal with these emergencies, the better off the citizens are going to be.”

Embracing energy development, especially in urban settings, is a balancing act, said Wolff, especially with what she calls lax state oversight.

“We said we need to take advantage of that — here is a resource underground, jobs, a new fuel source, there’s nothing wrong with that,” Wolff said. “But guys, there is no regulation in the state of Texas for urban drilling. So guess what? We’re going to take it on for safety of this community.”

The NewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

Along the wide, winding Interstate 35 in North Central Texas is richly colored green grass, billboards touting local businesses and restaurants and the cityscape of the greater Fort Worth area.

The landscape is much like other major metropolitan areas.

But there are a few landmarks that stand out: gas wells.

Thousands pepper the Metroplex — a triangular region with vertices of Dallas, Denton and Fort Worth, a slightly compacted version of Youngstown-Akron-Canton — the heart and center of the Barnett Shale, a large natural-gas resource.

The well sites are literally everywhere.

Rigs appear along freeways about as often as speed-limit signs. Wells are tucked away in subdivisions. There is even a new well location about a mile from Cowboys Stadium in downtown Arlington.

The decade-old drilling delirium has consumed much of the Metroplex, from the

rural farmland of nearby Krum, a city of about 3,000 that looks as if it could be used as a 1970s-style movie set, to Fort Worth, a city that grew by nearly 200,000 — a 39 percent gain — during the past decade.

The thousands of wells brought tens of thousands of jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to landowners and municipalities and billions of dollars in economic impact.

It also brought out a bevy of new local regulations, warranted environmental concerns and studies and some of the most outspoken voices both for and against oil and gas exploration.

The Barnett Shale exploration has hit a lull, thanks to record-low natural-gas prices, an unfamiliar caveat to the liquids-rich Utica Shale, deemed the savior to Ohio’s economy.

Though there are many differences in comparing Barnett to the potential of Utica, in many ways those in Ohio can use Texas as a blueprint of the next decade of drilling.

FORT WORTH

Throughout history, Fort Worth generally has drawn the short stick when compared to its easterly neighbor city, Dallas.

Whether it’s the NFL cheerleaders or J.R. Ewing, Dallas nearly always has overshadowed Fort Worth.

But finally, Forth Worth is getting its due: the city’s 39 percent population growth during the past decade trumped Dallas’ 1 percent tick.

The population boon has resulted in myriad new jobs, many in the oil and gas industry. One recent study estimated more than 100,000 jobs related to the Barnett Shale. But growth has spawned off to almost every other field.

“If I wanted to go back to work, I could have a job in two weeks,” said Susan DeVault, a 59-year-old retired employee of Mercedes Benz Financial Services,

enjoying dinner among friends at Cattlemen’s Steakhouse in Fort Worth’s Historic Stockyards District. “And it’d be a good job.”

DeVault, at a weekly gathering of a group that sometimes tops 30, discussed the changes in the city during the past 10 years with her husband, Jack Edmondson.

If there’s anyone who would know about North Central Texas, it’s Edmonson, a local historian and chairman, dressed in a brown cowboy hat and a jean button-down that featured the logo of his employer, the Tarrant County Historical Commission.

“We’re growing faster than we can build our highways,” said the 62-year-old in between bites of “Eat ’Em Up Shrimp,” a local seafood favorite that comes with a tangy orange sauce. “We can grow more, and we are. We’re growing too damn fast.”

NOT EASY

In Ohio, the energy exploration is simple: a driller, if it owns or leases mineral rights, applies for a permit, receives a permit and starts the exploration process.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is the sole governor of oil and gas operations.

In Texas, individual municipalities can create their own regulation, at least more so than in Ohio.

Fort Worth is one of those cities that had the option to limit drilling.

Instead, local control led to a drilling bonanza.

Nearly everywhere — downtown, the outskirts — wells began popping up.

No Fort Worth suburb knows this better than Westworth Village.

The small, 3,100-resident Westworth has a nickname: Chesapeake Country.

Just look at the village’s welcome sign; it includes the logo for Chesapeake Energy Corp., the second-largest natural-gas producer in the country.

When resident Deborah Rogers, a 49-year-old goat farmer who lives on a 20-acre property buried off a busy state boulevard, first saw the refurbished sign, it irked her, to say the least.

“Why not call it Chesapeakeville?” Rogers said, somewhat facetiously, while sitting in her earthy-pink Mediterranean-style home. “Municipalities in North Texas have sold out.”

Rogers, who has nearly 100 goats — she has made artisan goat cheese since 2003 — has gained great notoriety since 2009 for speaking out against the oil and gas industry. It was after a series of Chesapeake wells popped up in her neighborhood.

Rogers is well known for talking about the economic impact of shale booms across America and the economic “bubble” that seems to be forming.

It was no surprise that after a recent Rolling Stone article, which labeled Chesapeake as running a “Ponzi scheme,” reporters and colleagues inundated Rogers with phone calls.

Rogers, a former investment banker, discounted that notion but said oil and gas companies are on a troubling track.

That track, as she calls it, is like a treadmill.

In this case, the treadmill keeps going faster and faster; eventually, Rogers believes, oil and gas companies will fall off.

That’s because these companies, in their quest for natural-resource dominance, leverage massive amounts of money through sky-high lease bonus payments and bank on years of peak resource production.

They keep afloat by selling those assets or interests in those assets, and by finding the next big oil or gas resource, such as the Utica Shale.

“Don’t just focus on the fracking,” Rogers said, warning those in Northeast Ohio. “There are other issues to this that are equally problematic.”

DRILLING BACKLASH

Rogers is one of many in North Central Texas who have gained notoriety by speaking out against the natural-gas exploration boom.

The area is home to a couple of stars of the Academy-Award nominated documentary “Gasland,” a movie that attempts to show the dark side of fracking, narrowing in on environmental disasters.

One of the biggest voices has been that of Don Young.

Young lives across the street from Tandy Hills Natural Area, a 160-acre publicly owned nature preserve on the city’s east side.

On his green but unkempt front yard is a red-and-white sign bearing the phrase, “Say No to Urban Gas Drilling.”

Young, who admits he was gung-ho on the anti-fracking front a half-dozen years ago, admits he has changed his philosophy a bit.

“I used to be against all fracking,” he said, sitting on his concrete, one-step front porch on a blistering hot March afternoon. “But realistically, I’m now against urban drilling.”

The wells are simply too close for comfort, he said.

The reason?

Potential negative health impacts, though that feat was somewhat quashed after a recent Fort Worth health study conducted by Eastern Research Group Inc. in 2010-11.

ERG looked at 375 well pads, eight compressor stations, one gas-processing plant, a saltwater treatment facility, a drilling operation, a fracking operation, and a completion operation, according to the report released last summer.

Pollutants with relatively low toxicities such as methane, ethane, propane, and butane “accounted for the overwhelming majority — approximately 98 percent — of the citywide emissions, which totaled an estimated 20,818 annual tons.”

The report says “several pollutants with relatively high toxicities” such as benzene were also emitted from these sites, though in “considerably lower quantities.”

AFTER THE BOOM

Chesapeake is one distinct similarity between the Barnett and Utica shales.

Chesapeake has about 2,670 wells in the Barnett Shale, on land owned by such entities as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, General Motors, Texas Christian University and the city of Fort Worth.

Royalty payments have topped $1 billion in the shale play, including

$29 million alone in bonuses and royalties to Fort Worth from Chesapeake alone.

The Barnett in November reached new heights in natural-gas production last November, according to Powell Shale Digest, a local publication dedicated to the industry.

But with natural-gas prices simmering around $2.25 per 1,000 cubic feet, local entities such as Fort Worth are slashing projections for future monetary gains.

Projected revenue is likely to fall by one-third during the next quarter-century.

Chesapeake itself has dropped the number of rigs in the Barnett from 43 in 2008 to just six this year.

It has also curtailed previous drilling plans in North Central Texas because of low natural-gas prices.

From the city’s perspective, Chesapeake plays a large role in income-tax revenue; the company ranks fifth among all companies in Fort Worth.

“There’s just no way that you can prepare,” said Bill Thornton, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. “Texas knows the boom-bust aspect of it better than anybody.”

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Morgan, director of the Energy Institute at TCU, a sprouting program with about 400 students working toward a minor in energy technology and management, gets about 400 miles a tank, just like any other Honda Civic owner.

He pays just half the cost for fuel.

Prices for natural gas currently hover around $2 per gallon equivalent to regular-grade gasoline, which in North Central Texas is about $3.90 per gallon.

Morgan is one of the biggest champions of CNG.

On fall Saturdays — before taking in TCU football games — Morgan hosts Frog Alley, where fans can test out CNG vehicles.

Each month, he hosts a natural-gas vehicle consortium, which boasts more than 100 members.

Representatives from major energy players such as Chesapeake Energy Corp. attend the meetings. Smaller, local businesses, such as Natural Gas Vehicles Texas Inc., which retrofits vehicles with CNG tanks, also attend. NGV Texas recently retrofitted the first Environmental Protection Agency-approved CNG Dodge Caravan.

Those vehicles, however, remain rare finds.

“If there are 3,000 different kinds of cars, vans and trucks with 300 to 400 kinds of engines, maybe less than 10 percent of them are approved by EPA at this time,” said Fury Zaidi, president of NGV Texas.

The cheapest CNG vehicle, Zaidi said, is a Ford Focus, which comes at a cost of about $8,000 more than its standard gasoline version. At this point, the tanks, which cost about $5,000 for a 24-gallon capacity, are the most-expensive part of the CNG equation.

But in Texas, the government has taken steps to promote and advance CNG.

Gov. Rick Perry last June signed the Texas Clean Transportation Triangle bill, which directs $8 million a year to convert trucks to natural gas and $2 million annually — of revenue generated from the state’s gasoline tax — for building natural-gas stations on Texas interstates.

That has sparked business opportunities for those such as Zaidi, who now has 12 employees and can retrofit three vehicles for CNG consumption daily, demand withstanding.

“When the fuel is at $3.25 a gallon, our phone doesn’t ring,” he said. “At $3.50 a gallon, it starts ringing a lot. At $3.75, all of my [phone] lines are red. At $4, I have to add additional lines.”

Morgan says today natural gas would cost about one-fifth the price of an equivalent barrel of oil, which Wednesday was about $105.

“We’re nuts,” Morgan said. “If I were in charge of transportation in America or was the freaking energy czar … we’re going in the natural-gas direction.”

Morgan said there are a dozen or so CNG stations in the Fort Worth area, and the number should double in the next year.

That dozen, however, represents three times the public CNG stations available in Ohio, though Chesapeake says it plans to build about 20 in the Northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania area.

Texas needs about 400 stations throughout the state to drive demand for CNG vehicles, Morgan predicts.

By Nicole Stempak
TheNewsOutlet.org

KRUM, Texas

In a farming neighborhood with dirt roads, cattle and dozens of gas wells stands an 80-foot wind turbine.

It’s the next chapter in Texas’ history of being an energy leader, said Joe Marrs, owner of gleanPower, a solar electric and wind power supplier.

Marrs installed his first turbine on his parents’ Krum ranch, just a few hundred feet from three of his family’s operating gas wells.

Glancing up at the turbine that rotated furiously in a swift March wind, Marrs explained why he – the son of people who have had producing gas wells for more than 10 years – was inspired to launch his company.

Marrs started gleanPower in 2008 after quitting his job as an engineer at a truck company and going on a yearlong family trip in an RV. He began researching and reading books such as “The Solar Revolution” before opening his consulting and product development company.

“It’s not alternative ener-gy,” Marrs said. “I refer to solar and wind as an exhaustible energy source, this being the original kind.”

The wind turbine on Fred and Jane Marrs’ property started spinning in January and has so far reduced the power that they have to buy to 800 kilowatts per month from about 2,000 kilowatts.

“It didn’t make us rich, but it helped us with our budget,” Fred Marrs said.

That’s the appealing part for the couple. Jane Marrs said she is far more interested in saving money than being green.

“Being green happened inadvertently,” Fred Marrs said, adding he’s not a fan of the energy debate with science, activists, politics and government regulation. “Don’t get me wrong. I like clean air and water like everyone else. But my son’s in the windmill business, he needed a demo unit in the area, and I had an ideal space.”

Kilowatts produced vary on wind speed, and savings depend on how much electricity the house is using. Ultimately, the wind turbine reduces how much electricity the house uses from the electric company. If the turbine generates more electricity than the house is using, those extra kilowatts are sold to the power company and put on the power grid to provide power to someone else.

The 10-kilowatt wind turbine is expected to generate 18,000-22,000 kilowatts per year with an average wind speed of 12 miles per hour, though Marrs noted wind is a less predictable energy source than the sun. If energy was sold at a price of $.12 per kilowatt, Marrs estimated that could save his parents around $2,000 to $2,500 a year.

Fred Marrs said he’s already saved that much money and recently had to turn the wind turbine off for a day because it was max-ing out with winds of 40 to 60 miles per hour. Fred Marrs said they expect the turbine will pay for itself in seven years, but that estimate could change if electricity prices increase.

Fred and Jane Marrs receive monthly royalty checks from their gas wells. They have two vertical wells on their site and the majority ownership in a third. Fred Marrs said he doesn’t know offhand how much the wells are producing, just that production has tapered compared to the first few years.

For Joe Marrs, energy from wind and sun should not be considered “alternative” energy.

“Sun and wind is the earliest form of energy,” he said. “You had to have sun to have life to die and make fossil fuel, so fossil fuel is stored solar energy. That we refer to solar and wind as alternative energy seems funny because we’ve used it for thousands of years.”

BOARDMAN

Nick Harris sat at a table in the social hall of St. John Greek Orthodox Church reminiscing about his childhood trips to Greece and wondering how that country’s economic turmoil will change his ancestral home.

Harris and dozens of other area residents of Greek descent gathered in late February at St. John’s in Boardman for its annual Lenten-season fish fry, but the financial crisis plaguing Greece dominated many discussions.

“I have friends who own second homes in Greece, and I have cousins who live in Greece still,” Harris said. “From them, I hear that there is a lot of graft in Greece, that people find ways not to pay their taxes in Greece.”

Harris and other Mahoning Valley residents with ties to Greece said they are working hard to stay connected to relatives and friends still living there and facing the turmoil.

Long-standing Greek debt brought about an economic crisis that has wrecked the economy and brought down a government and threatened both Europe’s recovery and the future of the euro. Austerity measures demanded by France and Germany in return for two massive bailout packages have brought about a depression.

All but one of Harris’ grandparents are from Greece, and he said he visited regularly as a child, with his most recent trip six years ago.

Mary Hazimihalis of Youngstown said she still owns property on the Greek island of Kalymnos. She said her former hometown, once home to more than 15,000 people, now has a population of about 9,000.

She said people are unable to find work or sustain themselves in the economy, which is cutting jobs and lowering minimum-wage rates.

Hazimihalis, who lived in Greece until she was 8, said she purchased ground chuck at her favorite supermarket last summer during a visit.

“The thing that I was shocked with was that a kilo of ground chuck is 25 American dollars, and that was this summer. Now, forget it,” Hazimihalis said. “Now, two large pizzas are 30 euros, which in dollars according to what it is now, it’s $39 or $40 for two large pizzas.”

Youngstown native Anna Eleftheriou owns property in Rhodes, Greece, and said the middle class of Greece is struggling.

“Dozens and dozens of businesses have shut down, and restaurants are gone, too,” Eleftheriou said. “Even when tourists come in, they have a package that they pretty much stick to because everyone is trying to save money now for the most part.

“They don’t have jobs anymore; people are out on the street; they’re starving; they have set up all kinds of groups. People are trying to raise money for them, but they’re also trying to help them by giving them food and stuff like that,” she said.

Hazimihalis said it is very difficult for residents to afford food, especially agricultural workers such as her mother-in-law, who works at vineyards and grows olives for olive oil. Those workers receive about 200 euros a month.

She said Greek citizens who have visas are fleeing to other countries and she said she has even encountered some in the Mahoning Valley.

She is concerned about how long the people of her island can survive.

“If you’re cutting their pensions, if you’re increasing their tax revenues that they have to bring in, how are these people going to eat?” Hazimihalis said. “Do they expect these people, the 9,000 that are left, to hold up the economy? How are they going to repay the bailouts?”

Eleftheriou said her main concern is the students in Greece who are just graduating from college. She said poorer families counted on their children to help them after getting a college degree.

“The austerity measures are making a different minimum wage for younger people, which is way less than what they’re giving older people,” Eleftheriou said. “So students have no hope; they think they have to get out of the country.”

George Vassilaros, of Canfield, said his parents own an apartment in Ampelokipoi, Athens, and his grandparents own a home in Evia near the town of Kimi. He said the new financial bailout is an effective short-term plan, but he does not see it being a long-term solution.

“I feel like the bailout is sort of supporting a system that is more convenient to have in place than it is to actually fix,” Vassilaros said. “The austerity measures are definitely something good that needs to happen.”

Eleftheriou said the Greek government has had problems for a long time and citizens always get the sense that they are being cheated.

She said that the country’s taxation system doesn’t make sense most of the time, and converting to the euro was one of the worst decisions the government could have made.

Vassilaros said his family roots are deep enough in the country that he will return, but the fiscal problem is negatively affecting tourism.

Since the family owns its house in Greece, Vassilaros said the rise in cost actually helps their property value.

Hazimihalis, however, still makes house payments and is unhappy with the financial changes the government has made.

“According to my relatives down there, they put it on your electric bill,” Hazimihalis said. “It’s in two installments; if you do not pay it within that time period, they give you a 40-day grace period. If you do not pay it at all then you go to jail.”

Harris said he thinks some of Greece’s problems were imported from the West with the introduction of multinational banks. He said he doesn’t think Greeks ever had mortgages, and now people are losing their homes because they can’t pay their mortgages.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

By Doug Livingston
TheNewsOutlet.org

AUBREY, TEXAS

Calvin Tillman plays a message on his cellphone from Stark County resident Renee Bogue. She’s concerned about possible drilling under the Legends Golf Course in Massillon, where the mayor and council in that Ohio city are proposing legislation to lease city-owned mineral rights for gas drilling.

“Who will monitor the air quality?” Bogue asks.

After the message, Tillman looks up from his kitchen table in Aubrey, Texas, and answers. No one. “Nobody’s just gonna go out there and do it. The industry’s certainly not. The city’s probably not. And your state’s probably not, unless there’s a complaint,” Tillman says.

A former Texas mayor, he’s received similar phone calls from concerned citizens across the nation.

He is no geologist, petroleum engineer or environmentalist. But he travels the world advocating oil and gas accountability. Last fall, the former mayor was in the Canton area and met Bogue, a teacher who retired after 35 years with Perry Local Schools.

The story he tells is that of Dish, where he was mayor. It’s a town of 200 people, more than 30 gas and oil wells, extensive natural-gas pipelines, five natural-gas compressor stations, seven gas-and-oil operators, and the first air-quality study in response to natural-gas production in the Barnett Shale.

The air-quality test indicated hazardous levels of chemicals such as benzene, which the report states have been “known to have both carcinogenic and neurotoxin capabilities.”

A map of the Barnett Shale region from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which regulates the state’s air quality, shows little orange dots representing gas wells. The dots around Dish resemble a dumped paint bucket.

Tillman drops a stack of collated documents onto his kitchen table in Aubrey and pulls three air-quality tests from the pile.

“It’s gonna be in Ohio,” Tillman cautions. “How much benzene do you want your kids exposed to?”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency links leukemia and blood disorders to benzene exposure, which was discovered in varying amounts in each air-quality-test conducted on the Barnett Shale region.

But TCEQ officials stress that benzene occurs naturally and would be found in nearly any air test. They caution that increased traffic in metropolitan areas such as Fort Worth, the fourth largest in the U.S., produce more benzene and ozone gases than natural-gas drilling.

“There are a lot of wells in Wise and Denton counties that are emitting chemicals like benzene,” said David Brymer, director of TCEQ’s air-quality division, said. “But in other counties, like Tarrant County, you have a lot of cars that also emit benzene. … So, you actually see higher concentrations of benzene in Tarrant County.”

Air monitors placed between concentrated gas drilling near rural Dish and densely populated Fort Worth pick up more benzene and other emissions when the wind pushes those chemicals from the city, Brymer said.

Last year, TCEQ again did an air-quality survey across the Barnett Shale.

“We haven’t seen any shocking results from that yet, but we also haven’t got all the results back,” Brymer said.

An air-quality test also was conducted last year by Fort Worth. The study “did not reveal any significant health risks beyond [city] setback distances” of 600 feet, which can be reduced to 300 feet after landowner waivers.

The $1 million study did find benzene in low levels and recommended “precautions to reduce emissions from the well pads and compressor stations should be made. This is particularly important for tanks and line-compressor engines.”

Dish has five compressor sites that push natural gas through pipelines. The line of stations, operated by Crosstex, Chesapeake, Atmos, Energy Transfer and Enbridge are located off a dead-end street of two-story homes built in the last 10 to 15 years.

The residents there are as confounded as the conflicting reports.

“You don’t know what to believe because you hear both sides,” said Kim Harris, whose brick home sits on the cul-de-sac at the end of the street.

She said no one in her family has experienced any adverse effects from living so close to the well sites.

A compressor site sits directly behind Johnny Reames’ small horse pasture. He said it’s an eyesore, and he worries the site, which was installed three or four months after Reames moved in, will affect his property value.

Though Reames has “never experienced any health problems,” he said “there were problems with smells every now and then, but in the last five or six months they’ve cleaned it up.”

Tillman didn’t wait until companies cleaned up in Dish. Like other critics, he left in 2011 after his children began suffering nosebleeds.

He lives in Aubrey now, about 25 miles northwest of Dish, just off the Barnett Shale. He said his children have been healthy since he moved.

The commission’s 27 air monitors measure volatile organic compounds and ozone concentrations. In the past two years, five automated air monitors have been added to the Barnett Shale region with an additional five expected in the next year.

But Tillman said the studies and accepted benzene levels are open to interpretation.

“One [report] says ‘no, you shouldn’t be exposed to that.’ And another one says, ‘nah, it’s not gonna hurt you,” Tillman said. “So, who do you believe?”

The NewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media, including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

By Nicole Stempak
TheNewsOutlet.org

FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Jeannie Looney stood in line on a recent Thursday to take her three grandchildren to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

Looney, of Tyler, Texas, said she wants her grandchildren to understand how important oil and energy is to the history of Texas and how it has helped bring money and industries to the state.

“There’s hardly anything in Texas that isn’t impacted by oil and energy,” she said.

A seven-minute museum show, called Energy Blast, spans the history of oil in north Texas — from the big bang to current-day horizontal drilling in the state’s Barnett Shale.

A steady stream of visitors filtered through the exhibit that, among other pieces, features parts of the Barnett Shale, a 30-foot model of a drilling apparatus and a 50,000-pound thumper truck used for sending sound waves to spot shale deposits thousands of feet below ground.

Energy Blast is a permanent museum offering and includes several pieces donated or sponsored by energy companies such as Encana, Chesapeake and Burnett Oil.

Michele Becker, of Southlake, decided to take her children to the museum over spring break and spotted the large white truck with tractor-sized wheels and a hydraulic lift in the middle.

“I saw this with my son on the way home from the grocery store yesterday,” she said gesturing to the thumper truck. “Our town voted down fracking, but there’s a well in the next town over. Fracking’s controversial, but I think it’s important for kids to understand the different types of energy and what it means.”

Fracking is the process in which water, chemicals and sand are blasted into rocks thousands of feet below the ground to unlock natural gas and oil.

Energy Blast opened when the privately funded museum moved to its new location in 2009. Several oil companies contributed millions of dollars to the museum’s capital campaign.

“Oil companies weren’t the only contributors, but given that several companies have offices in Fort Worth, it’s not unusual that they would donate — just like any other company,” said Carol Murray, museum marketing director. The museum is considering other kinds of energy to add next to the exhibit.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media, including WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

ARLINGTON, TEXAS

The process of horizontal fracking is new to Ohio, but on Division Street in Arlington, Texas, it’s divided a community for years.

A doughnut shop, a number of car dealerships and a retirement home make the street look like any other found in the average American city. But squeezed between businesses are seven natural-gas wells that have drawn mixed reactions from residents.

Sound-barrier fencing that rises more than 30 feet into the air surrounds the wells. The soundproof batting on the fences is a dingy tan color, and, at some sites, pipes jut into shallow ponds filled with blue-green water that smells like an over-chlorinated swimming pool.

“They’re ugly. They just look horrible,” Ranjana Bhandari said.

She and her husband, Kaushik De, have lived in their neighborhood off Division Street for 19 years. They now spend much of their free time researching and organizing against fracking.

Right next door and across the street from them in their manicured, upper-middle-class neighborhood, their neighbors have accepted the wells and hope to profit from them.

The couple’s biggest concern is for the health of their 12-year-old son. They believe the claims that wells have contaminated water and polluted air.

“I deal with radioactive materials,” said De, a particle physicist with the University of Texas at Arlington. “I’m dumbfounded when people treat radioactivity so casually.”

The family is one of the remaining holdouts in a battle to rid the area of these wells. Dozens of their neighbors already have signed lease agreements with Chesapeake Energy LLC., the nation’s second-largest energy-exploration company, and the company currently dominating gas exploration in Northeast Ohio.

In the summer of 2008, representatives from Chesapeake hosted a Texas-style barbecue at the local high school. They cooked ribs and handed out checks for those willing to lease minerals beneath their houses.

Sharon and Richard Langlotz signed up immediately at the first offer of $7,000 an acre plus royalties. They received $1,750 for their one-quarter-acre parcel and have received only one royalty check for $200 in the two years the well has been operating.

Richard said he wishes he would have held out for more money, but he and his wife are glad for the economic boost the drilling has brought.

“It’s inevitable,” Sharon said. “You have to have production, and you have to have U.S. production.”

Sharon, who works as an accountant in the gas industry, said companies are mostly responsible and committed to safety.

Still, they’ve heard stories of backyards sinking and water being set on fire from natural gas in the water supply. They both care about their land, which sits on the bank of a tree-lined canal they sometimes canoe.

Steve Dixon attended that same barbecue.

“People were just rushing to sign. Just to sign a paper, get the check and go home. All they could see was dollar signs,” he said.

He was worried about the noise of the drilling rigs and the aesthetic impact on the community but could hold out only for so long.

“At a point, it became apparent that either we sign and got something, or we didn’t sign and they were going to do it anyway,” Dixon said.

The well that Bhandari and De fought to prevent now sits at the edge of their property. She wipes a tear thinking about the possibility of moving out of the only house her son has ever known.

“We don’t want to move, but we can’t risk what it could do to our son,” she said.

She and her husband have convinced themselves that they’ll never get rid of the well, but they will exhaust every avenue.

They’re outnumbered in the fight. Bhandari and De had more support in the beginning, but De said the gas companies prefer to “pick off” residents individually to prevent organization.

Bhandari and De don’t fault their neighbors for leasing their minerals, but they said the circumstances have made it feel less like the warm, quiet community they fell in love with almost two decades ago.

The NewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media including WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

DECATUR, Texas

When Raymond and Kay Polone moved to Decatur 20 years ago, they never thought so many wells would move in, too.

The green yards and rolling hills of Cliff Street are ringed by condensate tanks and oil-well rigs that operate round the clock. Four gas wells surround what used to be a quiet neighborhood.

The Polone family, like many others, do not own mineral rights for wells near their homes but are subject to all that goes on with drilling — the trucks hauling water, thuds from machines that are poking the earth looking for gas, and the constant worry that something could go wrong with the drilling operation.

Kay Polone said she and her husband feel somewhat trapped. They say they can’t move because they know they can’t sell their home for what it’s worth and they know they can’t fight the wells, either.

“Maybe if we were younger and got on the city zoning board or whatever, we might have a little more say,” said Kay, 73.

She worries about the wells’ close proximity to local schools. She fears grass fires and wonders what would happen if lightning struck the rigs.

And she also has more general fears about earthquakes or other natural disasters.

“I mean, if you pull [gas] out, something has to happen,” she said.

Just three houses away live J.E. and Betty Carson, who attend church at Decatur First United Methodist Church with the Polones.

They welcome the drilling and think the tanks are actually protecting their privacy.

The Carsons have lived on Cliff Street for 30 years. They don’t mind the tanks behind their backyard because they think it will deter anyone from building on the vacant land that runs behind all of the houses on the north side of the street.

For them, the tanks represent prosperity that they have enjoyed personally — and that has also impacted the entire state.

“There are a lot of people, farmers in particular, that it’s helped,” Betty said. “It’s kind of nice to see them able to buy new cars and do things they haven’t been able to.”

Although the couple does not collect any royalties from the oil operations closest to their home, they do earn royalties from rights they own from a family farm they sold across town.

Those rights bring them regular monthly checks that have allowed them to take trips to England and enjoy financial freedom that they wouldn’t have on their pensions as retired public school employees — he was a middle school principal, she was a schoolteacher.

They and their daughter, Caroline, are all equal partners in the royalty payments. In 2011, they collected about $39,000 each. They worry that they won’t get as much this year because the price of natural gas has fallen.

“So it’s not been that good this year; it varies,” Betty said.

The NewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media including WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

Taste the history of chocolate in the Mahoning Valley by The News Outlet

Download “Taste the history of chocolate in the Mahoning Valley” as an MP3

(Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, the chocolate room.)

Just like Gene Wilder, these real life Willy Wonka’s share a passion for candy making.

In 1910, Gust Giannios opened the Original Sugar Bowl in downtown Youngstown. When the Great Depression hit, he built a small candy store behind his house. His two grandson’s John and Greg have owned Giannios Candy Company in Struthers since 1968.

Here’s John:

(My grandfather came over from Greece in the early 1900’s. He came over with a lot of relatives. And when they came to the United States, they all went to different cities and pretty much all went into the candy business.) 

The business continued modestly, while John made fifty to sixty pounds of chocolate a week and sold it on weekends. Although, partially written in Greek, Giannios Candy continues to follow the original recipe book. This time, just in larger quantities:

(But it’s the same recipe … made the same way too.)

Today, the business produces fourteen to twenty thousand pounds of candy in just eight hours.

Daffin’s in Sharon also uses an original recipe from 1903. Retail manager Connie Leon has been with the company for forty-six years:

(They continued on to this day with the same … cooking in copper kettles, crème centers and caramels.)

Founded in 1949, Sam and Charles Gorant, also of Greek heritage dreamed of a specialty candy shop. The first candies made by the brothers were dinner mints in various flavors and pastel colors:

(We’ve maintained the original Gorant recipe throughout the years and want to pay tribute to the remarkable heritage that was left here by the legacy of the Gorant Brothers.)

That’s Joe Miller, sole owner of Gorant Chocolatier. Miller purchased the company from American Greetings in October 2009.

Spyros Macris, owner of Philadelphia Candies in Hermitage has owned the company for forty years. In 1919, his uncles Steve and Jim Macris started Philadelphia in the Shenango Valley. Two other brothers joined them twenty years later:

 (‘Philos’ means love ‘adelphia’ means brothers. They were brothers who loved each other and built the business. So that’s how you get Philadelphia. So, it’s really not so much about the city of Philadelphia but it’s the Greek word.)

According to John Giannios, the rivalry among the four local candy makers is a healthy one.

(They could walk into my plant and I could walk into their plant. There is never a problem. They’re all very good.)

Mhm. They sure are. I’m digging into one of my favorites right now.

Reporting for the News Outlet, I’m Kacy Standohar.

JUSTIN, Texas

Omas Lewayne Peterson’s home is pyramid-shaped.

The top level of the three-story, 6,200-square-foot home is all glass, even the floor.

There’s a reason.

The glass brings in light, and when he takes his glass elevator to the top floor, he can push out one of the large windows and get a sweeping view of his land — land that has enabled him to get some of what he calls “toys.” His latest toy will be a Tesla sedan, an electric car, which he’ll add to his stable of two Mercedes Benzes, a two-seat Tesla and a 1966 Dodge Charger.

The car is on order. When it comes, Peterson said it should be able to drive for about 300 miles on only electricity. He’s studied it.

He’s studied a lot.

He knows, for instance, the science behind how the 300 gas wells on his property operate. He can tell you the history, the science and the manufacturing behind the microchip and processor technologies that nearby Texas Instruments and Intel make their business.

He designed his pyramid house to include sand pockets in the spaces between concrete domes and a level floor, which helps control heat and cooling in the cavernous home.

He also understands the economics of gas-well drilling, land sale and leasing. And he is a student of the art of negotiation.

Peterson learned that from his uncle Calvin.

“My uncle didn’t miss anything,” he said, remembering the deal when Peterson’s dad, Howard, and Calvin sold 1,275 acres to Ross Perot, the former presidential candidate who built an airport on the family’s former farmland.

He says that real-estate agents began buzzing around his house, and he knew Perot was looking in the area, so he arranged through a friend to just talk to the fellow Texan himself. He likes Perot and says he is a man of his word.

Howard and Calvin spent much of their adult lives farming and ranching a few thousand acres just outside of Justin, a town that houses a grain depot, a boot store, two diners and a specialty women’s clothing shop.

Howard and Calvin Peterson grew crops and raised cattle, but both of them suspected their land was worth more than what they had the ability to pull out of it.

“My daddy always thought that there was gas on our land,” Peterson said, explaining that his father died in 2005 but lived long enough to realize that his hunch about the gas was right.

“I remember him sitting there looking at the checks come in and seeing the residual income. He was pretty happy,” Peterson said, explaining that the family kept half of the mineral rights of the acreage they sold to Perot.

The 69-year-old doesn’t like to brag about the fact that the gas on his land has made him a millionaire, but the signs are everywhere: the special 96-key piano in his second-floor living room made in Vienna, Austria; the entertaining kitchen on his second floor; the fact he built his mansion with cash; and the freedom that marks his days.

Peterson, who retired from the Navy as a captain in 1990, spent many years earning his living farming his family’s land.

Nowadays, his farming is pretty limited, and the only crops on his spread are the pots of peppers his wife, Rosemarie, has planted. He has 25 head of cattle that can move freely through his large, rolling pastures.

Peterson acknowledges that none of it would have happened without careful foresight and planning and, most of all, good science. Stacks of journals, and magazines such as Popular Mechanics and Scientific American line the home.

That’s what seems to intrigue him the most: the science of extracting gas.

As he led a three-hour driving tour of some of the gas wells on his property, Peterson explained the process from gas identification all the way through refinement.

His years of reading and studying have given him what he thinks is expertise about how to identify a good well operator from a bad.

He said Devon Energy, the largest oil company in Texas, now maintains most of the wells on his property and he likes how the company operates. He commends them for coming every day to check every well and how they make areas surrounding wells neat and clean.

He believes that bigger companies with more resources are usually better operators.

Peterson’s knowledge of how to manage gas and mineral rights has earned him a reputation in the Fort Worth and Denton area. Steven Ray, a United States Department of Agriculture district conservationist, said Peterson’s knowledge of farming and gas issues is vast.

Ray said Peterson’s experiences with gas leases are an example of how selling mineral rights has been a boon for farmers. “It’s really helped them from an economic standpoint.”

Both Ray and Peterson said it is possible to farm around gas wells, and they don’t worry about adverse environmental effects from gas wells sharing space with crops or animals.

Ray cautions farmers to be aware of issues of water usage, runoff and dust.

Peterson says he knows enough about energy to treat the concerns of a growing number of farmers against gas fracking in places such as New York and Pennsylvania as a matter of individual taste.

He acknowledges that there have been incidents, some serious, but to him it’s preventable by dealing with the right company at the outset, outlining clear rules for safety, maintenance and eventual site cleanup and understanding and trusting in the science.

The NewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media, including WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio in Akron.

RHOME, Texas

Max Lindsey was working on his mother’s taxes several years ago when he was caught off guard by something that didn’t quite make sense.

Lindsey looked at the well tax statements and started investigating. One call led to the next and soon, Lindsey, 68, had made a startling discovery: His mother was about to become a millionaire — several times over.

So was he. So were many of their relatives.

Like so many others in Texas, the Lindseys’ good fortune was buried in their land and has come in the form of liquid gas and mineral-rights leases signed many years earlier.

“They had the name of the production company on the tax statement. So, I got on the Internet and found out where they had a production office here and called them,” he said.

Lindsey learned his mother, Roberta Hudson Lindsey, 96, and Lindsey’s late father, Max Lindsey, had signed a deal in the mid-1900s to allow for gas drilling on their property.

Decades passed and nothing happened — no drilling, no money.

Only farming and raising cattle. That’s what the family did.

And times were often lean at the 170-acre property that has been in his family since 1850. His family settled in Texas after mining for gold in the California Gold Rush.

He said his parents often struggled to find money and, at one point, Lindsey’s father drove a school bus to make extra cash. His mother gardened and canned food for family meals.

“In one way you look at it, my mother inherited a lot of land and they were wealthy that way,” he said.

The cash didn’t start coming until about 10 years ago when his mother was in her 80s. He said her first check was for $600,000. He said it took him a while to uncover that there was drilling on their property because his mother was receiving checks in the mail and just ignoring them.

Today, he said his mother is worth about $6 million, and they have been working on an estate plan that takes care of her five children.

His mother now lives in an assisted-living home, and though her bills are paid, she can’t enjoy her new wealth. He said her long-term memory is great but that she has a great deal of trouble with knowing what happened yesterday.

Lindsey’s home is welcoming and modestly furnished with comfortable oversized brown leather couches and crosses and cowboys hanging on the walls. He wears a button-up shirt, blue jeans and work boots, a fairly unassuming millionaire.

He now buys a new pickup truck regularly, he and his wife, Beverly, have taken cruises to Italy and Alaska, and he makes the maximum tax-free annual monetary gifts to his children and grandchildren.

Yet, Lindsey said his family’s dealings with the drilling companies have not always been positive. He isn’t sure how many gas wells are on his 170 acres.

He wishes the family had more control of the land. Drillers come in when they want, drill where they want and produce how they want. He said the land simply can’t be farmed anymore, so he raises cattle for meat and doesn’t worry about raising too many crops.

“If we had known then what we know now, then we could have required them to have a mutual agreement as far as locations for the wells,” he said.

Lindsey and his extended family receive 12.5 percent of the production from most of the wells on their land. Some of the later leases Lindsey family members signed entitled them to 18.75 percent in royalties.

His largest monthly check has been $40,000 but he said he is careful not to rely on the checks. He retired from his machinist job at Lockheed-Martin 10 years ago and draws Social Security as well. His wife also works three days a week as a banker.

“I’ve never tried to live off of what I can’t live off of,” he said.

Plus, he said there is no guarantee about how much the companies will extract from their wells. He said the companies control the production. Now that natural-gas prices have slumped, he said oil-and-gas companies have slowed production, he collects less each month.

Nearly every week, the Lindseys receive an offer from someone who wants to buy their mineral rights. He has shredded checks for millions of dollars that come in the mail made out to him for those rights.

Lindsey has this advice for Ohioans contemplating leasing their land: “Don’t take their first offer, ask for a whole lot more than you think you’re going to get, then you can negotiate. If you sign what they come up and offer you, you messed up.”

The NewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media including WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

Many resources are renewable, but groundwater is not one of them.

If groundwater is tainted by pollution and an aquifer is ruined, it will recover — but not in our lifetimes, said John Stolz, a microbiologist and director for the Center for Environmental Research at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

Aquifers can take hundreds or thousands of years to recover, Stolz said. Even though aquifers are replenished with fresh rain, toxins bind to the rocks in the ground and stay there, he explained.

Along with the obvious danger to surface water from spills or leaks at Marcellus Shale gas-well sites, the specter of ruined aquifers has critics of hydraulic fracturing calling for a moratorium on the practice.

To reach the Marcellus Shale between 5,000 and 8,000 feet underground, gas companies drill through aquifers close to the surface and other layers of rock. Once a vertical well is drilled, horizontal drills bore through the shale.

Millions of gallons of fluid made up of water, sand and chemicals are then injected at high pressure to fracture the shale and release the natural gas there. Fluid that comes back to the surface is disposed of in deep injection wells in Ohio.

But much of it remains underground.

The aquifer is separated by thousands of feet of hard rock layers on top of the shale, so fracking fluid will not migrate upward to an aquifer, proponents of drilling say.

Dave Kern is area manager for Kroff Well Services, which makes fracking fluid, and a member of the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

“I’m a chemist and an environmental scientist from Pitt (University),” he told the audience at a panel discussion on fracking in New Wilmington on Feb. 15. “I have a big vested interest in making sure this is done right.”

Kern said wells also are cased in multiple layers of cement and steel to ensure protection of an aquifer.

But that all-important casing, fracking’s critics say, isn’t fail-proof. It can shrink and crack.

That can allow methane gas and toxic chemicals in frack fluid to migrate into aquifers, they say.

Range Resources, which developed wells in Washington County, Pa., had 15 instances of inadequate or improper casing noted among 189 violations on record with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection since 2006.

Rex Energy, which residents in a Butler County neighborhood suspect contaminated their well water, had a casing violation in 2010.

Rex has denied its gas wells have had an impact on groundwater in the neighborhood, and the state DEP has also said there is no evidence drilling has impacted the water there.

Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella said the well-casing violations haven’t impacted groundwater, and said that proves regulators are doing their jobs.

Critics of fracking also are alarmed that no one outside of the companies that make fracking fluid is allowed to know what chemicals are in the mix. The companies say their mixtures are proprietary. Companies can voluntarily disclose chemicals they use on a website called fracfocus.org.

Kern said 95 percent of the mixture is sand and water. It’s the other 5 percent, which could contain toxins, that worries critics.

Kern said there will be more disclosure now in the industry, and state law requires disclosure of fracking chemicals to the DEP, emergency responders and health professionals who need the information in an emergency. Under the law, the companies’ fracking fluid recipes are still protected.

Pitzarella said Range does not use toxins in fracking, and he believes that the use of them is an older practice that is going by the wayside in the industry.

Kern told The Vindicator his company’s fluid contains none of the toxins benzene, a carcinogen that used to be used in paint thinners and spot removers; toluene, a benzene-derivative used in solvents; or xylene and glycol ethers, also used in solvents.

All of those chemicals, however, are listed as possible ingredients of frack fluid, along with many other chemicals, on the DEP’s website.

Besides a failed well’s being a conduit for fracking fluid, that fluid could also migrate upward through fissures and faults, Stoltz said.

Even without the presence of fracking chemicals, drilling can ruin well water, he said. He has investigated problems at homeowners’ wells in Butler County near the Rex Energy developments.

He said it’s very possible that natural contaminants in water, such as arsenic, were made worse there.

Drilling can redirect an aquifer, he said, and that can result in a loss of water. Kim McEvoy, one of the Butler County homeowners, says she only gets a few gallons of water at a time from her well.

Stoltz said that it is possible to remediate tainted well water.

“People would have to spend $10,000 for a water treatment system, and at whose cost?” he said.

Stolz said homeowners should get their well water tested before drilling begins in their neighborhoods. He said tests cost from $400 to $1,200, and people should use one of 72 testing companies approved by the DEP.

Steve Beck is the third generation of his family to operate a small farm in Pulaski, Pa. He expresses his concerns about fracking.

New Wilmington, PA

When gas companies began developing Pennsylvania with wells that use horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in shale, the state Legislature found it had to play catch-up.

Oil and gas laws did not include regulations over the new technology and its by-product of wastewater that can include toxic chemicals, so legislators got to work.

On Feb. 14, Gov. Tom Corbett signed House Bill 1950, which became Act 13. It regulates “unconventional drilling” and establishes an impact fee, which counties affected by drilling can choose to impose.

Those dollars would go back into communities for infrastructure and other improvements.

What the bill doesn’t do, say its critics, is allow communities to decide whether they want the drilling at all. It allows gas companies to override local zoning laws to put a well in any, even a residential, zoning district. Drillers do have to follow state laws regarding setbacks: wells must be 500 feet from a building and 300 feet from a spring, stream or wetland one acre or larger.

The law also puts limits on any health-care professionals who would have to treat people affected by chemicals in fracking fluid. In exchange for information from fracking-fluid companies that want to keep their blend of chemicals a secret from competitors, those companies can ask doctors to sign nondisclosure agreements. In an emergency, a verbal agreement will do. A doctor could still be required to put it in writing later.

Doug Shields, a former Pittsburgh city councilman who was instrumental in getting Marcellus Shale well development banned in the city, said those sections of the law have the chilling effects of stripping a community of its right to define its character and a health-care professional of the right to expose a public-health threat.

New Wilmington’s large Amish community is concerned about how the drilling will affect its way of life, said Steve Beck, a member of a group called the Fracking Truth Alliance. Beck, an organic farmer, knows many in the Amish community.

Beck said the acreage used for one well pad, which is 5 to 7 acres, would have a big impact on Amish landowners. “An Amish farm is maybe 80 acres,” he said.

“Every 2 miles, they’re allowed to have a well pad,” he added. “It’s gonna tear up the landscape terribly.”

At Neal Miller’s Harness & Tack Shop on Pa. Route 18 one recent afternoon, Amish landowner David A. Byler said feelings in his community are mixed.

“You talk to some, they’re all for it. Some not at all,” he said.

Harvey Shetler, also at the shop, said he believes most Amish have turned down opportunities to lease.

Byler, who owns 55 acres near New Wilmington, said he turned down an offer of $3,000 an acre.

“If they put a well on my farm it’d take up half of it,” Byler said, adding that many Amish are afraid of what will happen to the community when the gas companies come.

“They’re talking the traffic, the trucks,” he said. “We have a lot of horses who are scared of trucks. We’re not looking forward to that traffic.”

The right of a community to define its character has been a cherished one in this country, Shields said. “Now Act 13 is saying, ‘you don’t count,’” he said. “Your local communities don’t count.”

Shields said he believes the Legislature allowed the override of local zoning in part because Pittsburgh banned drillers, then other Allegheny County communities followed that lead.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court also ruled in 2009 that Oakmont, Pa., did not have to allow a company to drill a shallow well in the yard of a local builder’s mansion. Those two events “shook everybody up,” he said.

Pa. State Sen. Elder Vogel Jr., R-47th, of New Sewickley, said legislators had to compromise because Corbett wanted total pre-emption of local rights.

“Now they have some rights,” he said. “The fact that we do have some regulations to a degree is a plus, and at the end of the day, you can only pass what the governor will sign,” said Vogel, who voted for the legislation.

But Vogel could not explain the rationale for the law’s language about nondisclosure requirements for doctors.

“I’m not sure why that was in the bill,” he said, adding that he can understand why it worries people.

“In a month and a half, the bill changed daily,” he added, as the Legislature got ready to bring it to the floor for a vote. He said the Legislature does have the option of amending the law.

Drew Crompton, chief of staff for Pa. Senate President Joe Scarnati, R-25th, of Brockway, said concern over that part of the law is blown out of proportion.

He said the language is exactly the same as in Colorado’s new law that requires disclosure of fracking fluid chemicals.

He said the language allows companies to have the right to proprietary information regarding their fracking chemical mix, much like Coca-Cola has the right to keep its recipe secret from competitors.

He said that late last year, environmental groups indicated they wanted to work on disclosure language in the legislation so that it was more like the Colorado law.

“This law was universally accepted as the gold standard,” said Crompton. “We tried to make a similar bill ,and this is verbatim taken from the Colorado law. It was universally accepted, and no one questioned this language. Now I raise skepticism about people causing this great alarm.”

The language in the Colorado rule stems from attempts to require companies to reveal what chemicals workers poisoned at drilling sites may have been exposed to, said Mike Freeman, a staff attorney for Earth Justice in Colorado. Freeman represented environmental groups as the new rule was being written.

He said that the language may make it a little more difficult for a doctor to make a broader public issue about a health threat, but said the doctor could talk generally about an exposure to fracking fluid without disclosing what blend of chemicals is in it.

After an hour-long interview with News Outlet reporter Caitlin Cook, Councilwoman Lana Wolff turned to us and asked, “Which side are you on?”

We explained to her that we weren’t on any side and that we were in Texas to gather facts and report stories about how the gas and oil industry has affected the state, and what people in Ohio can learn from Texans.

Wolff’s comment revealed the divide between Texans who see the gas-drilling bonanza as an economic blessing and others who see it as an environmental curse.

The News Outlet student reporters hit the highways and back roads of North Texas to find out about the exploration of the Barnett Shale “play” that runs through North Texas and we found plenty of people and entire communities that have made lots of money.

We also found plenty of people who think the money isn’t worth the environmental risks and the worsening of their quality of life.

One hour after leaving the Dallas Fort Worth airport and heading out in search of people who had gotten rich by leasing their land for oil and gas wells, one team spotted a large ranch with more gas wells than we could count.

We had found one of our first stops: Cows meandered through the fields and there was a large house with some idled John Deere equipment in the driveway.

Stay tuned over the coming days to learn about what the owner of this home and the many other Texans had to tell us about gas and oil well drilling.

The first story in this series comes from local reporter Jeanne Starmack, of our media partner The Vindicator, who takes a look at the pros and cons of the shale boom close to home.

Stories produced as part of this project, funded by TheNewsOutlet.org, will appear in The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal, on WYSU, WAKR and other media outlets throughout the state.

The stories will also be archived on TheNewsOutlet.org.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron). TheNewsOutlet.org receives support from The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Youngstown State University (CLASS), The Raymond John Wean Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and The Youngstown Foundation.

By Caitlin Fitch
and Ralph Lewis
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

The city’s charter – review commission is giving strong consideration to a controversial topic — redistricting Youngstown’s wards to address inequit- able populations in those seven sections of the city.

The current ward boundaries, untouched for more than 30 years, are unconstitutional and could spark legal action if left alone much longer, said William Binning, retired chairman of Youngstown State University’s political science department and a former Mahoning County Republican Party chairman.

For the first time in eight years, a commission is looking at recommending to city council changes to Youngstown’s charter.

The 11-member commission has until June 1 to provide those recommendations. It is up to council whether to place any or all of those recommendations on the November ballot for a public vote.

Redistricting the wards to make population in each more equitable is one issue discussed often by the commission. Also being considered is possibly reducing the number of wards — seven — and possibly having some council members run citywide for at-large seats.

The problem with the current ward system is as populations have declined and shifted, the wards do not reflect the “one-man, one-vote” rule used in the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause, said Binning and local activist Phil Kidd, a charter-review commission member.

For example, the city’s 6th Ward is losing population while the 4th Ward’s population remains constant.

The 6th Ward takes in a portion of the South Side, while the 4th Ward encompasses most of the West Side.

Residents of the 6th and 4th wards both have one council representative for their population despite the differences in their size.

Youngstown, at its peak in the 1950s, had more than 160,000 inhabitants with seven council members and seven wards. Sixty years later and with almost 100,000 fewer people, the city has the same number of wards and council members.

According to the 2010 census, the population for the 6th Ward was 7,227, 10.8 percent of the city’s population. In the 4th Ward, the figure was 12,130, which is 18.1 percent of the population.

Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th, believes redistricting is a top priority.

“Before anything happens, we have to do redistricting. At this point, it’s a must because we currently don’t have equal representation throughout the wards,” Ray said. “The numbers across the board need to be equal and proportionate in size.”

Binning says there are some definite problems with the current system.

“I think what’s really a problem is that you could file a federal lawsuit against them [council members] because they are out of compliance with the constitutional law,” Binning said. “They have to redraw those boundaries and make them equal in population.”

In 2004, the review commission decided not to change the number of wards or council members in compliance with Section 83 of the charter.

The charter says “all wards shall be composed of contiguous and compact territory, as nearly equal population as possible, and bounded by natural boundaries or street lines.” After each federal census, “council may re-district the city so as to maintain a reasonable equality of population among the seven wards.”

Binning said council members have been reluctant to redistrict.

“It’s a difficult issue for them to handle. If they’re thinking of running again, there going to be running in a different district with different people voting,” Binning said. “And it’s conceivable, in a few instances, that you could end up putting two incumbents in the same district — they wouldn’t like that at all.”

Binning said many Youngstown residents are unsure of which ward they live in and which council member represents them.

Mayor Charles Sammarone said redistricting is the top priority.

“Once we take care of that, we can move forward to other things,” Sammarone said.

The charter review could lead to fewer council members in city government, but the mayor said he recognizes how important council members are to the community.

“In most cases, the council member works as warden for different problems,” the mayor said. “He could be the litter inspector, housing-code inspector, he could even be the watchdog for crime blogs. An effective council member who is out working is an important person for that ward.”

Council President Jamael Tito Brown, a former 3rd-ward councilman, said decreasing the number of councilmen or wards could stretch council members too thin.

“If you take a member of council off of staff, someone has to cover their area, or ward, so if you added another 4,000 people to the area that I serve, its going to be a bigger challenge for me to serve a bigger demographic,” Brown said. “It may be less population but a bigger area can affect the accessibility and the staff.”

He also said the population doesn’t drive the number of council members. For him, the area is his issue.

Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st, thinks the number of council members should stay the same because of the workload.

“There are so many issues we go over at any given time that we need each member to help go through it,” Gillam said.

Her hope is that the population will increase and each council member will be necessary, despite a steady and significant decline in the number of residents in Youngstown during the past 60 years.

“Once we are able to control the crime problem, the population will jump back up, and new jobs will also bring the numbers up,” she said.

Some argue that the money the city spends on each council member’s salary could be used elsewhere.

Kidd, of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, an agency that focuses on issues such as vacant properties, health equity and other quality of life issues, still believes the number of council members should be re- examined.

“Youngstown’s government is a strong, mayoral form of government, meaning that the mayor and his administration have more of a direct say on city operations at large versus city council, which makes more or less legislative decisions,” Kidd said.

While council votes on city budgets, the administration has more power as it creates and proposes the budget for council approval, Kidd said.

Kidd thinks a couple of council positions can be eliminated.

“A city councilman makes approximately $27,000 plus benefits, so if you were to eliminate two of those positions, some people say that the money could go to hiring a city planner or two more police officers,” Kidd said.

Clerk of Council Valencia Marrow said each council member costs the city more than $50,000 — $27,817 in salary; $15,312 in health-care benefits; $403 in Medicare; and $6,676 in pension funds.

Brown said although his paycheck reflects a part-time employee, his work effort does not.

“It’s a full-time job — it’s well above a full-time job. A lot of our economics that we get we put back into the community,” Brown said.

Vindicator staff write David Skolnick contributed to this article. TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

JEWETT, OHIO: In Ohio’s Harrison County about 40 miles southeast of Canton, the picturesque landscape is that of post cards.

Unpaved roads roll over slopes and through woods of the Appalachian foothills where farmland gives way to hunting clubs and state forests.

Kenneth Buell bought 243 acres here in 1979. A 73-year-old farmer from suburban Columbus, he leases the land to a friend who grows hay for livestock.

Buell won’t say how much he makes on the lease, and that he doesn’t want to be a millionaire, but he thinks he could make more. Lots more.

A little over a year ago, an Oklahoma City company moved onto his land with a drilling rig, punched a hole about 8,000 feet deep and more than a mile horizontally and opened what so far is the biggest oil and gas find in Ohio’s new energy boom.

Some estimate that the volume of gas, oil and byproducts could be worth $41,000 in royalties each day.

In the industry it’s known as “The Buell well.”

But in spite of it bearing his name, Buell gets nothing.

Like many other landowners in Ohio, the Utica shale energy bonanza is passing him by. He doesn’t own the mineral rights.

So, when drillers with mineral rights show up on private property, they build a road, clear the land and pour a concrete pad. The owners have little recourse.

“They never notified me. They just went in and started drilling,” Buell said.

Former coal country

Buell’s thinning hair is white and usually covered by a ball cap that sops up the sweat from planting, tending and harvesting crops on additional land he owns in Delaware County.

After four back operations and three heart surgeries, he says he was in such bad shape, “We had the casket and the pallbearers chosen.”

He leased the Harrison County land to a friend who grew hay to feed livestock, but he says Chesapeake Energy LLC of Oklahoma City is holding his 243 acres, and won’t let him use it.

“I still got to pay real estate taxes on it. I still got to pay insurance on it. And I can’t even harvest any hay. And that part just doesn’t seem right,” Buell said.

It’s not a situation he ever imagined.

This area was once coal country.

Coal companies began buying the hills of Harrison County in the early 1940s to gain access to a vein known as Pittsburgh No. Eight. Over the next two decades, the North American Coal Corporation of Plano, Texas, acquired much of the surface land and the mineral rights, both through land deals and acquisition of other companies.

By the 1960s, coal mining was in decline. The company began to sell off the surface but retained the mineral rights. It kept more than 3,000 acres in Archer Township, where Buell has his farmland.

David Straley, spokesman for North American Coal, said its policy is not to comment on the business practices of the company, its clients or associates.

In 2009, the company leased the rights to the Mountaineer Natural Gas Co. of Washington, Pa., which later transferred the lease to Chesapeake.

Chesapeake is the nation’s second largest producer of natural gas and the largest player in Ohio’s Utica shale development. The company declined comment for this story.

It was a Chesapeake unit — Ohio Buckeye Energy LLC — that showed up with the drilling rig.

“It was coal country, and the coal had basically been stripped,” Buell said of his purchase more than 30 years ago. “You didn’t think about a hundred years down the road.”

Now, everyone is paying attention.

Landowners regularly walk into the Harrison County courthouse in Cadiz wanting to know who owns the dirt under their homes. The clerks point them to the timeworn stacks of deeds that line the walls.

They fight for table space with landsmen — employees of energy companies such as Chesapeake who research land ownership and tax liens. For the last two years, they’ve crowded the narrow halls of the courthouse. They can be found each business day sifting through the tomes of public records or clacking away on laptops.

What they’ve learned is that North American Coal owns much of the mineral rights and is leasing those rights to drillers that clear the land and build well pads, sometimes over the objections of the surface owners.

The Jewett fight

The Buell well made news last year after the company reported its peak production at 9.5 million cubic feet per day and 1,425 barrels of natural gas liquids and oil — the equivalent of 3,010 barrels of oil — per day.

For comparison, an average Ohio well produces only 50,000 cubic feet of gas and less than one barrel of oil daily.

Health problems and limited resources have kept Buell from mounting a fight.

“They knew I was just a little guy and couldn’t do anything to stop them,” he said.

But that’s not the case for everyone.

In November 2011, Chesapeake cleared about 15 acres of trees, alfalfa and other crops from another Harrison County property with the intention of drilling on land owned by the Jewett Sportsmen & Farmers Club.

The club filed suit Dec. 7 seeking an injunction against the drillers.

Gregory Brunton, the club’s lawyer, cited a 21-year provision in the deed that limited how long the mineral rights owner had to drill “through and under” the land. Buell has an identical provision in his deed.

The provision allows them to drill straight down, but Harrison County Judge Michael K. Nunner says the “through and under” clause prevents a horizontal bore to other properties.

That’s the key in the Utica shale boom — the ability to drill down and then horizontally for a mile in any direction, inject water and sand under high pressure, fracture the shale and break loose the gas, oil and byproducts.

“It was up to the judge to interpret language in the deed that on one hand gave Chesapeake certain surface rights, but on the other hand there was language in the deed that limited those surface rights,” Brunton said.

Nunner ruled that the 21-year provision did not restrict the company’s “right to use the surface of said premises to the extent necessary to remove the mineral assets.”

But he also said that the through-and-under provision was written during the coal-mining era to “prevent the subject premises from being used as the removal site for coal [and other minerals] mined outside the subject premises” — even if the mineral rights owner might be the same.

In this case, North American Coal owns rights across many of the boundaries.

Chesapeake can drill on the club’s land for the minerals underneath, but it cannot drill horizontally to other properties without the sportsmen’s club’s approval.

“It certainly lends support to people who might want to be compensated for the use of their surface, particularly if they have similar deed language,” Brunton said.

The coal company has asked Nunner to reconsider his order, saying it conflicts with state efforts to encourage development of shale gas.

State lands unprotected

Ohio taxpayers might not be as fortunate as the sportsmen’s club.

Bethany McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said the state would not allow drilling in its parks.

However, the deeds to a combined 3,428 acres of state forests in Harrison and Jefferson counties do not have the “through and under” clause, which would allow drillers to bore horizontally under state lands without permission.

In addition, North American Coal has easements on state land for such things as power and telephone lines, other utilities and for storage. The language gives the company “the right of ingress and egress [a way in and out] at all times for the purposes of drilling,” according to the deed.

No gas wells yet exist within the boundaries of the forests, but Hess Ohio Resources LLC operates a well just a quarter mile south of the Fernwood State Forest. The horizontal drilling process allows the company to take the natural gas from beneath the land without touching the surface.

Wells can reach about a mile horizontally. To get at all the natural gas from outside the state forest, drillers would have to build several well pads around the perimeter.

It would be much more cost effective to build one well pad in the center of the forest and drill horizontal wells in several directions.

State officials say they will not allow that.

“The state has no intentions of allowing surface activity or access in the park, so there would be no impact to the forest,” McCorkle said.

Time to negotiate

For now, the Jewett Sportsmen & Farmers Club is satisfied with the court’s decision. It brings Chesapeake back to the bargaining table, but club president John Harris believes it may be too late for the outdoorsmen.

“The existence of the club for its intended purpose has been threatened. The loss of acreage and wildlife has caused immediate and irreparable harm to the club and its members,” he said in an affidavit filed with the original complaint.

And Buell, too, has suffered losses.

He tries not to let the situation bother him. Having come so close to death, he wants to enjoy the rest of his life with his family.

As long as he is able, he’ll make the trip to Delaware County when the weather turns warm to work his fields.

“I ate breakfast this morning, and I think I’ll eat breakfast tomorrow morning,” Buell said. “I’m not here to be a multimillionaire. I’d rather see everybody have a little.”

The NewsOutlet.org is a collaborative of the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media, including WYSU-FM Radio and the Youngstown Vindicator, the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio of Akron.

By Chelsea Telega
TheNewsOutlet.org

GIRARD

The bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Girard said the fact he and Mitt Romney share religious views is not enough to persuade him to cast his ballot for the former Massachusetts governor.

Bishop Robert Palmer, who leads the church, said a person’s religion does not determine whether he or she would be a strong president.

“I want good, caring, trustworthy people to be leaders. It doesn’t matter what walk of life they come from, as long as they serve the people,” Palmer said. “I don’t care if they’re Muslim or Jewish or Mormon, as long as they understand that they have been called to serve.”

Palmer said he believes other Mormons share his beliefs; in Ohio there are an estimated 58,000 Mormons’ votes, and not all of them are guaranteed for Romney, the bishop said.

“Is he the right person for the job? Maybe. We need a change, that’s all I know. That’s my personal opinion,” Palmer said. “The people of the [Mormon] church vote for who they want in the White House.”

Raised as a Catholic, Palmer joined the Mormon faith 10 years ago, and he is happy that Romney’s faith is drawing attention to the religious denomination, which has roots in Ohio dating back to the 1830s. The church was founded by Joseph Smith Jr. in New York.

Palmer said the church has been getting streams of phone calls inquiring about the religion since Romney has shown interest in a presidential seat.

Palmer said the beauty of the church is that the members “take care of themselves through the Lord.” He said the main goal is not to convert people to the religion, but to “teach truthfulness.”

Another local minister, Randy Brunko of the Evangel Baptist Church in Boardman, said Romney’s religion may hurt his chances to become the country’s next president, however.

“The concern that I have on a personal level is that if Mitt is elected president, it continues to blur the issues to the American public about issues of Christianity. What if people will think that Mormonism and Christianity are one in the same?” the Rev. Mr. Brunko said.

Mr. Brunko said Christians have to believe in Jesus Christ as their savior and that the Mormons’ ardent following of The Book of Mormon contradicts the most basic tenets of Christianity.

Although Mr. Brunko worries about the attention that Romney is bringing to a religion that he does not support, he said he actually planned to vote for Romney.

“With all of my theological differences with Mitt, and they are great, I look at this from a standpoint of our country. No president is going to be perfect, and I think that Mitt would be a safe, friendly president. I do not think that [president] Obama is that way,” he said.

Morality is one of Mr. Brunko’s main requirements when voting for president. He thinks Romney will prove to be “Christian-friendly.”

“The decisions he makes as a president will not be negatively affected by his Mormon belief,” Mr. Brunko said. “I don‘t think you would see much difference between how Mitt Romney would run the country as a Mormon and how George Bush did as a Christian.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

When the call came into the Hubbard Township Police Department in May 1996, Detective Michael Begeot was skeptical.

Dogs dragged home deer carcasses all the time, and Begeot was unsure if the weathered bone that a Labrador found in the woods near Fox North Road would be human.

In his 19 years as a police officer, Begeot has learned to never overlook tips – even the most absurd.

The responding officer drove over to the home and then radioed back for Begeot to join him.

He drove over to the home and within seconds, he saw telltale evidence – blue jean material was crusted around the brittle and broken femur bone.

With assistance from other officers, a cadaver dog found more skeletal remains. A Pennsylvania state identification card found inside of a decomposed wallet near the body identified the man as Shawn Hughes.

Hughes case represents one of the hundreds of unsolved murder cases in the Mahoning Valley.

Dental records confirmed the victim’s identity, and forensic evidence determined the rest: He had been shot to death about a year before and dumped in the woods.

When Begeot learned the man’s name, he went to Pittsburgh, where Hughes had lived, to search for people who might have clues about who murdered the man.

Hughes’ family never reported him missing because he had a history of disappearing for long periods of time.

Begeot, who became a detective in 1992, didn’t have much to work with because the body sat exposed to the elements for so long, and there were no accurate accounts from witnesses of the victim’s last whereabouts. The murder didn’t take long to be considered a cold case.

Begeot said the Hughes murder and others that remain unsolved never stray far from his mind.

The detective said that not having the victim’s family in the area hurt police efforts to solve the case.

“A lot of times families keep their ears open and talk and keep the waters muddy,” Begeot said.

He said the families are usually forthcoming with information because they want to see murderers brought to justice.

The detective shares his pursuit for justice with many families in the tri-county area, who keep hoping for answers about who killed their loved ones.

Cindy Michael continues to wonder who killed her two grandchildren, Christian Pizzulo, 22 months, Mason Cross, 5, and the boys’ mother, Lena Cross. They were murdered Sept. 13, 2005, in Girard. Cross, 25, died from multiple stab wounds, and the house was set on fire, killing the two boys.

“That one [case] haunts me,” said Begeot, who is also a member of the Trumbull County Homicide Task Force.

Belinda Puchajda hopes that one day the person who killed her cousin, Michael Williams, Aug. 30, 2005, in Rogers will be found. Williams was found beaten to death in his car, which the killer had pushed over a small ravine.

And Nancy Stanford wants closure after the death of her son, Keith Stanford, 39, on Glenwood Avenue in Youngstown Sept. 15, 2009. Stanford and his friend, David Hammond, were found shot in the back of the head with the car still running and in drive.

These three women along with dozens of families in the tri-county area seek justice for their murdered loved ones. Many endure years of pain and live without closure—a fact that Judie Bucholz knows from experience.

Her husband, Dan Bucholz, was murdered outside of her sister’s home in Youngstown Dec. 24, 1995. Police never found his killer, and they considered her a suspect. Dan, 39, and Judie Bucholz had been married just over a year before he was shot three times.

Judie Bucholz, an Air Force veteran, said the military forced her into counseling and prescription medication after the murder. She said she was treated like a criminal and her treatment was not effective.

The experience prompted her to write a book, “Homicide Survivors: Misunderstood Grief”, to help people understand homicide survivors’ grief. Bucholz never remarried, and she said she will never get remarried.

“After I retired, I continued my PhD program and wrote the book so other people could understand what people like me were going through and not assume we were crazy or needed drugs to manage,” said Bucholz, who holds a doctorate in Human and Organizational Systems.

She said the book demonstrates the difference between grief from homicide and grief from an anticipated loss or accident. Her study reveals that people handle grief from a homicide in different ways.

“Some people can eventually move on, but many people cannot,” she said. “They become stuck in remembering and memories, which blocks development in other parts of their lives.”

Dr. Albert Pondillo, a psychologist at Oakwood Counseling Center Inc. in Warren and an adjunct psychology professor at Youngstown State University, said the grief process takes place in three stages: avoidance, confrontation and restoration.

Avoidance is more pronounced in the case of a murder because of the extreme sense of shock and disbelief. He said that unexpected deaths threaten basic assumptions about a just, benevolent and controllable world.

“They hold on to their anger. Consequently they never complete the grief process,” Pondillo said.

In murder cases, forgiveness is an important part of the process he said. People eventually come to the conclusion that the hatred and anger harm their psyche.

“In unsolved cases, there is never a sense of closure. These individuals experience unresolved grief issues because they do not have answers to the questions: Why? And who? When grief is unresolved, it may last decades,” he said.

And Bucholz agrees that unsolved murder cases prolong the grief process for survivors.

“Knowing the murderer helps to bring a sense of closure, whereas not knowing does not bring closure, and you never really know if the murderer is coming back for you or your family,” she said.

Many families deal with this fear every day, not only in the Mahoning Valley, but across the nation.

No official tallies exist for how many unsolved murder cases remain in the Mahoning Valley.But an investigation in 2010 by the Scripps Howard News Service of the FBI’s statistics revealed that more murder cases in the United States go unsolved than solved. They provide a searchable database broken down by state, county and police department. The investigation includes homicides from 1980 until 2008.

Trumbull County has the highest solve rate at 60 percent with 186 homicides and 112 solved cases.

Mahoning County has had 1,018 homicides with only 406 cases solved-a solve rate of 39 percent.

Columbiana County solved 40 percent of the 25 homicides in its county.

Franklin County has a 56 percent solve rate. Hamilton County has a 66 percent solve rate. Cuyahoga County has a 67 percent solve rate. Ohio has more than 5,500 unsolved murders.

The study said there are 540,274 homicides nationwide from 1980 to 2008 with 341,975 cases solved. The nationwide solve rate dropped from 68 percent during the years of 1980 to 1989 to 56 percent from 2000 to 2008.

Trumbull is the only county in the tri-county area with a homicide task force.

Puchajda wants Columbiana County to form a homicide task force. Ten departments agreed to participate, including Salem, East Palestine, Columbiana, Wellsville, St. Clair Township, Leetonia, The Ohio Highway Patrol, the sheriff’s department, Lisbon and Liverpool Twp. A meeting will be held in December to finalize the plans and make it official.

“They don’t get up-to-date training in Columbiana County because we don’t have the detectives to send to training. Because if we send them to training, who’s going to transport prisoners?” Puchajda said.

She said a homicide task force would help small police departments obtain the staffing needed for a murder investigation.

Begeot said the Trumbull County Homicide Task Force provides a wealth of good investigative skills to murder cases.

“Especially when you are a small department, you don’t have the resources to do and be everywhere when you need to be,” Begeot said.

The task force investigators attend classes to maintain and build skills. Recently they went to a violent crimes behavioral analysis seminar held by the FBI. The task force composed of detectives from departments throughout Trumbull County comes together after a murder is reported.

Begeot said the first 48 hours after a murder are the most important. He once spent close to four days working on a case with no sleep.

Though most people forget about unsolved murder cases with time, Begeot does not.

The Hughes case remains open. A family member of the victim gave Begeot a phone number and the first name of a female in Sharon. But the woman claimed not to know the victim. And the case went cold.

Begeot believes the man was killed because of a dispute over a woman.

He doesn’t miss an opportunity to work on the case when his busy schedule allows it, and he stays in contact with the victim’s father.

“I was born and raised in Hubbard Township. I have lived here all my life. I’d never believed in a million years if you would have told as a young man that these types of things would happen here,” he said.

Ashley Sinkovich has been having sex since she was 15 and has been on birth control ever since.

“I see some chicks with babies and it’s crazy. I don’t want to be one of them, but I guess it could happen to anybody,” said Sinkovich, a senior at Chaney High School.

Sinkovich is part of a growing trend in Mahoning County, where fewer girls are getting pregnant and having babies.

Between 2006 and 2009, Mahoning County has seen a 47 percent decline in the teenage pregnancy rate. In 2006, for instance, 613 teens between the ages of 10 and 19 were pregnant, according to statistics from the Ohio Department of Health. In 2009, the latest year for which numbers are available, 327 girls in the same age group were pregnant.

Mahoning County is one of few Ohio counties to experience such a decline.

In fact, Ohio has the 23rd highest teen pregnancy rate in the country.

Some experts attribute Mahoning County’s decline to community outreach programs and better education in schools.

For Sinkovich, however, it is her mom.

“She knows I’m having sex. She’s the one who put me on birth control,” Sinkovich said. “She just wants me to be safe.”

Phillecia Wallace from the Youngstown City Health Department said that programs in the community contribute to the county’s declining teen pregnancy rate.

“The Mahoning Valley Family and Children’s First Council and Resource Mothers have been hitting the ground, working with mothers going into the schools and going into the community where these young girls are at,” Wallace said.

Mahoning County Right to Life President Sally Terunko said her organization aims to educate girls on the risks of having sex before marriage.

“We advocate for chastity, and tell the girls we come in contact with who have or haven’t been introduced to sex, to wait.”

Another Chaney senior, Dwaylon Johnson, said he thinks the education goes in one ear and out the other. For him, the best prevention is seeing what being a parent has done to his friends.

Johnson said he has four friends who are parents and sees the struggles these girls experience.

“Teens get pregnant a lot in high school…because they enjoy having sex, and I don’t think they really care about what everybody tries to teach them.

Johnson is happy to not be one of the statistics.

“I’m a virgin. If I had a kid, my life would be a lot different, and I don’t want to be like everybody else.”

Margo Kondella, a guidance counselor at Chaney, is not so sure that education programs make a big difference.

“One of my students is pregnant, and one of them is already a mother,” said Kondella.

Kondella said that despite efforts of the community and schools, students will probably do what they want when it comes to sex and not think of the consequences.

“When you live in poverty, your priorities are different,” she said. “We try to make students see that they can be anything they want to be, but sometimes they don’t always get it. They know they face different challenges. A lot of these teens aren’t making long-term plans.”

Kondella said Chaney doesn’t offer special programs for teens who are mothers, but they can opt to go to the Boardman Resource Center to finish high school with other pregnant teens.

Even though the pregnancy rate is on the decline, it is still not gone for good, and some local officials feel that demographics and media contribute to the number of teen pregnancies.

John Paulson, supervisor of Vital Statistics for the Ohio Department of Health, said more girls from urban areas will become pregnant than from suburban areas.

“Our research shows that there is a significant difference between African- American teen girls’ and Latino teen girls’ pregnancy rate, and the rate of a Caucasian teen girl, and the only thing that we can find that explains this is demographics, poverty and education.”

April Brewer, a social worker for the teen parenting program at the Green Leaf Planning Center-which offers resources to pregnant and parenting teens in Akron, said the number of African-American girls who are pregnant is drastically higher.

“If I had to guestimate, I would say it is 80-20. Eighty African-American girls compared to the 20 white girls. But the fact that we are talking about inner cities does play a role in that.”

Brewer said the higher pregnancy rate among African-American teens has nothing to do with sex education in school.

“The girls are getting significant sex education in the schools, but they’re not putting it to good use. Teenagers are impulsive and are generally not thinking very long term into their future,” Brewer said. “And some of them come from difficult family situations with varying levels of expectations. When the family circumstances are different, the expectations are different.”

Terunko said media may be a culprit.

“Media plays a big part in the high number of pregnancies. Just for an example, a television show gives these girls heroes, or idols, and who doesn’t want to be just like their idol,” Terunko said.

Bill Albert, with The National Campaign to Prevent Unplanned and Teen Pregnancy in Washington, D.C., disagrees.

“We do not believe that the media and shows like Teen Mom affect the pregnancy rate because we compiled a poll of young girls, and it seems like the show is shedding light on abstinence and safe sex,” said Albert.

“Teen pregnancy has always been with us, and is never going to be eradicated, or eliminated. The question is how to keep it down, and the answer to that question is at home,” Albert said.

He said that a community could try to decrease its teen pregnancy rate by convincing parents that they matter. “These parents have not lost their kids to the battle on these set of issues.”

Albert added that this is not his opinion, but what data has proved to be true.

“It’s parents, not peers, nor pop culture, not sex education. It’s the parents,” said Albert.

To ensure the teen pregnancy trend stay down, Wallace thinks the community needs to do more.

“I think we need more of an awareness campaign, and really I would like to see more policy put in place, or more of a system change where we can focus more on our teens,” Wallace said.

Combat Vets fight PTSD by The News Outlet

Download “Combat vets fight PTSD”(MP3)

For Dan Brown and Steve Wasniewski, friends are hard to come by. The two share a bond that few will ever understand.
Both men are veterans. Brown served in Germany in 1970 and Operation Desert Storm in the 90s, and Wasniewski in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1967.
But that’s not where their similarities end. Each man suffers from POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, an illness they developed during their time overseas and that they can’t get rid of.

QUOTE
“I HAD AHOLD OF MY SON BY THE THROAT. I DON’T REMEMBER HAVING HIM BY THE THROAT, MY WIFE DOES. I DON’T KNOW WHAT HE SAID TO ME. I DON’T EVEN REMEMBER.”

Brown’s experience is not uncommon for those suffering from PTSD. According to the National Center for PTSD, the disorder can occur after a traumatic event and in addition to outbursts of anger, can lead to flashbacks, reoccurring nightmares and avoidance.
The Center says around 30 percent of Vietnam veterans and 10 percent of Gulf War veterans have reported PTSD. Experts believe as many as one in five soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will return with it.

QUOTE
“YOU HAVE TO LEARN YOU’RE NEVER GONNA GET RID OF IT; YOU HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO LIVE WITH IT.”

Brown was a military policeman stationed in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. His duties included sifting through the remains of car accidents and bombings. Many of the corpses he saw were unrecognizable as human bodies.

QUOTE
“WE INVESTIGATED, OH, PROBABLY 400 OR 500 ACCIDENTS WHERE THE BODIES WERE JUST SMASHED. AND YOU DO THAT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, AND PRETTY SOON THAT JUST STICKS IN YOUR MIND AND YOU CAN’T GET RID OF IT AND YOU CAN SMELL IT AND YOU CAN FEEL IT.”

Wasniewski agrees.

QUOTE
“ESPECIALLY THE SMELL OF DEATH.. OH YEAH, IT’LL GET YA.”

Both men are married, but their disorder has created trouble in their relationships. They live on edge as many triggers can set off another outburst. For Brown, even snow is hard to deal with.

QUOTE
“THAT SNOWSTORM IS A SANDSTORM AND I’M STUCK IN IT AND I CAN’T GET OUT AND SOMEBODY’S GONNA KILL ME AND I’M LOOKING FOR THEM. AND THAT’S WHAT IT IS TO ME. TO YOU, IT’S A SNOWSTORM.”

Brown did not initially seek treatment for fear of being stigmatized. But when he lost his job in 1994 after throwing a computer, he realized he needed help. Both of these men have had difficulty finding and keeping a job. Wasniewski explained how PTSD affects their lives, even in where they sit at a restaurant.

QUOTE
“THERE’S A LOT OF THINGS THAT GO THROUGH OUR MINDS THAT YOU DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT. YOU GO INTO A RESTAURANT AND YOU JUST THINK, “OH LET’S JUST SIT HERE FOR NO CASUAL REASON, YOU JUST SAY “THIS IS A NICE PLACE TO SIT”, BUT FOR US, WE SIT WITH OUR BACKS AGAINST THE WALL, YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE DOOR, WE KNOW OUR EXITS WHERE WE’RE GONNA GO IN CASE SOMETHING HAPPENS.”

Brown sympathizes with the veteran’s of America’s current wars. He said today’s service members are deployed multiple times for prolonged periods, and overexposure to combat may lead to worse and more cases of PTSD.

QUOTE
“YOU CAN’T DEPLOY THEM AND THEN REDEPLOY THEM AGAIN CUZ THEN THEY CAN NEVER GET OUT OF IT.”

While medical professionals have come a long way in treating this disorder, for millions of American soldiers, life after war can never be the same.

QUOTE
“WE COMPLETELY SHUT OFF ALL EMOTIONS WE HAVE. WE’VE GOT, WHAT, ONE EMOTION: AND THAT’S TO BE ANGRY, TO BE MEAN AND EVIL. AT LEAST THAT’S WHAT PEOPLE THINK. TO US, THAT’S JUST A WAY TO SURVIVE ALL THIS.”

This is Chelsea Miller, reporting from The News Outlet.

By Chris Cotelesse
TheNewsOutlet.org

As Ohio prepares to usher in a multibillion-dollar gas drilling industry, it is relying on an honor system with well owners for the purpose of collecting taxes and fees, and the numbers don’t add up.

Well owners are required to report the amount of natural gas they “sever” from the Earth and file severance tax returns each quarter.

But an examination of production numbers by the NewsOutlet, a collaboration of journalism programs at Youngstown State, Kent State and the University of Akron, raises questions about their reliability, and no one has an explanation for the disparities.

The Numbers

Click on each graphic to learn more

Graphics by the Akron Beacon Journal

From 2000 through 2009, the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, which represents the industry, reported more natural gas production than did the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the agency responsible for regulating wells.

The variations were wide, with ODNR’s annual production numbers 3 percent to 15 percent below those of the association.

In 2010, it was the opposite: ODNR reported more production than did the association.

And an analysis of severance taxes collected by a third source — the Ohio Department of Taxation — suggests a third set of gas production numbers, which means that two government agencies have different gas production numbers.

Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the oil and gas association, said he estimates production by examining “first purchaser” figures, which represent the amount of natural gas bought at each well site.

“We try to zero in on what the best number is to report what the production is. I think we get it pretty close,” Stewart said.

State officials said they don’t have the authority to go to the wells and check the meters against the reports, and there is no explanation for the different numbers.

“We just process the tax returns and allocate the money to ODNR’s oil and gas program. … We can audit the returns, but we don’t have the authority to go to the well sites and check the meters,” said Gary Gudmundson, spokesman for the tax department.

No verification

ODNR said much the same.

“We don’t really evaluate them from the viewpoint of whether they’re true or false,” said Mike McCormac, oil and gas permitting manager for ODNR.

He said ODNR’s mandate is to collect the data and force well operators to comply, but the agency has only recently been given the authority to pursue action against delinquent production reports. Staffing and an overload of public information requests are proving difficult for the newly established oil and gas division.

At the moment, the dollar amount represented by the discrepancies — perhaps $1.5 million over 10 years — is relatively small in comparison to the state budget. In 2010, the last full year for which information is available, the state collected $2.07 million from the gas severance tax, compared with a state budget of more than $50 billion.

Twenty years ago, when gas production was about twice the recent rate, the state was receiving an inflation-adjusted $5.9 million a year.

But the oil and gas industry said it expects to drill nearly 4,000 wells in Ohio in the next four years.

Projections for 2013

Projections by the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program suggest that production in 2013 could be double that of 2010, and output will rise exponentially the following two years.

Using the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program estimates, the state could collect nearly $40 million in taxes and well fees in 2014, if gas production is accurately reported and tax rates remain the same.

Ohio Policy Matters, a research and advocacy group in Cleveland, concluded in a study published in December that Ohio could generate significant new revenue if it raised its tax rate to that of other gas-producing states.

The organization said that while Ohio ranks 19th in the nation for natural gas production, it is 25th among the 35 states that had severance taxes in 2010.

The organization said that if Ohio raises its rate to match some other neighboring states, it could generate as much as $538 million in additional dollars through 2015.

The organization encouraged the increase to improve oversight, to handle environmental issues that may occur and to support the state’s general fund.

Oil and gas well fund

Ninety percent of the severance tax goes into the oil and gas well fund for regulation of the mining and drilling industry, capping of abandoned wells and site cleanup if operators fail to do their job. Another 10 percent goes into the state geological mapping fund for mapping state resources.

Only when there is leftover money does it go to the state general fund for other purposes.

In 2010, the state added a 0.5 cent fee to the 2.5-cent tax on every thousand cubic feet produced — and similar fees to other types of extraction, including mining and oil production.

At that time, the Ohio Legislative Services Commission said the new fees would help with staffing. The Division of Mineral Resources Management said it had the equivalent of 35 full-time employees and planned to add about 33 for oversight.

ODNR admits that oversight already is a problem.

“Some days we can spend almost the whole day just on the phone or responding to emails. It’s a total balancing process to be responsive to the public and yet try to get statutory work done,” McCormac said.

The NewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, the University of Akron and professional media, including WYSU-FM Radio and the Vindicator (Youngstown), the Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

News Talk 570 WKBN – Interview with Chris Cotelesse by The News Outlet

Reporter Chris Cotelesse from The News Outlet talks with Mike Romigh from News Talk 570 WKBN about his story, “Tax on gas wells goes unchecked.”

Senior Michael Phillips is taking five Advanced Placement courses at Hudson High School. And he could earn up to 25 college credits from those AP courses, giving him a head start on a bachelor’s degree and an advantage over other college applicants.

Phillips, who has set his sights on competitive colleges like Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown and University of Virginia, said he wants the best education possible.

“That’s what Hudson’s been all about for me,” Phillips said.

He’s grateful for his high school’s expansive AP program and knows that there are school districts in Summit County that offer less.

“It makes it harder for kids to get in (to college), as opposed to kids who have had the benefit of taking all AP,” he said.

Phillips and thousands of other Summit County students take AP courses from their high school classrooms. A passing score on an AP test often translates into college credit, at a fraction of the college price.

“In some regards, I guess the college credit is a benefit,” Phillips said. “But I think I’m taking them more so because our school supports people who really want to learn more than just the average class.”

A study by ProPublica, a national reporting organization, found that Ohio school districts with more than 3,000 students offer seven AP classes on average. That lags behind the national average of 8.35.

But Summit County is outperforming the state and national averages.

Type the name of your school district in below to see how your high school’s AP offering sacks up against other districts and counties. Information for this database was taken from the Ohio Department of Education and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The county’s high schools are averaging 10 AP classes each. Neighboring Portage County averages four AP classes per high school. Mahoning and Trumbull Counties fall even further behind, each offering fewer than two AP classes per high school.

The Hudson school district offers the most with 19 AP courses; Revere offers 16 and Copley-Fairlawn has 15 AP classes each. Norton, Woodridge and Northwest offer six. Manchester and Coventry have the fewest with four.

Jennifer Horner, a guidance counselor at Coventry, said finances and low enrollments are the main reasons why her high school doesn’t offer more AP courses.

With Coventry having 2,000 fewer students than Hudson, adding an AP section there isn’t as feasible, Horner said.

“That means you’re putting more kids in another class, and we’re always real tight on staff because of budgets,” Horner said, explaining that only 25 students took AP courses in 2010.

The district moved the freshman class into the high school this year. Horner said that with more students and teachers in the building, the school hopes to offer more AP classes in the future.

Difficult decisions

College Board Vice President Trevor Packer said he understands the issue of not having enough teachers or funds to offer a diverse curriculum.

“If the school has a small number of students, (It) has to choose, ‘Are we going to allocate a teacher to teach an AP section or a non-AP section?’” Packer said.

Packer and the College Board administer the AP program nationally. Teachers and principals design an AP curriculum and then propose the program to the College Board, which passes the course curriculum onto college professors across the country for approval.

The organization of nearly 6,000 colleges, universities and high schools is funded almost entirely by AP exam fees.

High schools retain $8 from the $87 student exam fee to curb material and training expenses for teachers, which range from a $1,500 online workshop to thousands of dollars in college courses that prepare a high school teacher to instruct AP classes.

The federal government picks up AP exam fees for students in the free or reduced lunch program.

While some districts like Hudson, which benefits from the lowest poverty rate in Summit County, excel in offering AP, educators say funding and staffing are the biggest barriers in districts like Coventry, where more families hover just above the poverty line, according to U.S. Census data.

“All of these things make it incredibly difficult for these schools to build incremental rigor across grade levels so that students are ready for AP and teachers are eager to provide AP,” Packer said.

“The school is dealing with a set of challenges that keep teachers from believing that students are ready for the challenge of a college course offered in high school,” he added. “AP just seems too unattainable.”

Coventry won’t be expanding its AP program next year because the “AP testing scores have not been very good,” Horner said. “That will be two years now that we haven’t added.”

Although Coventry’s AP offerings are slim and AP test scores are not as high as Horner would like, the high school does offer a subsidized post-secondary program. The school district picks up tuition costs for students who travel to the University of Akron and Stark State College in Jackson Township to take college courses while still high school students. The students pay for parking, travel expenses and orientation.

“We really try to tell each of the families, ‘it really depends on the student,’ but I think for a lot of our kids that struggle financially, it is because (post-secondary) is guaranteed free,” Horner said. “With the AP, yeah they’re going to get the rigor. But at the end, if the student ultimately can’t produce the score, they’re not getting the college credit.”

At Kent State University, an AP exam score of three or better will transfer into college credit. Hiram College requires a score of four or five.

Role in admissions

AP completion also factors into college admission, but Sherman Dean, director of admissions at Hiram College, cautions against penalizing students who haven’t taken AP classes.

“Some schools don’t offer AP, so that wouldn’t be fair to them,” Dean said.

Along with gaining college credit, educators tout that rigorous AP classwork can separate the average student from one who may be accepted into a college’s honors program.

Dale Mugler, dean of the University of Akron’s Honors Program, said taking an AP class “really does make a difference.”

Mugler accepted 370 college freshmen into the university’s honors program this semester. More than half entered with college credit from high school AP classes.

Admissions officers at Kent State University use success in AP classes as a way to gage a student’s willingness to learn and not as a final determination for admission.

“I look at it as a student is really prepared or trying to prepare for the next level,” Dean said. “For some [high] schools it’s a positive if have that opportunity.”

Packer said districts that typically foster a college-going atmosphere excel in offering college level courses.

Firestone High School Principal Larry Petry said his Akron school is one of those college-going institutions.

Firestone offers 13 AP classes, as well as other post-secondary options. When Petry introduces an AP class into the curriculum, he expects 10 to 12 students to enroll. After time, the section fills with college-bound students, he said.

“The students at Firestone are typically students who are upper level academic: kids who are looking for a good college, rigorous experience in high school, the ability to test out and get some credit beyond high school,” Petry said.

“The kids have created an atmosphere where it’s OK to do the AP. In fact, I think they try and do too many.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Akron Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

Valley boasts bounty of celeb sound-alikes

By CAITLIN FITCH
TheNewsOutlet.org

People always ask Barbara Walters if she is going to interview them, but she’d rather work in her garden.

Pamela Anderson won’t pose for Playboy magazine, but she will make envelopes for churches.

When Steve Martin isn’t doing housework, he can be found on the golf course.

And Taylor Swift would rather work in a science lab than sing country-music songs.

These people have three things in common: They have the same name as celebrities, have a different lifestyle than their celebrity counterparts and all live in the Mahoning Valley.

They are not alone in the sharing of celebrity names.

A new reality show called “Same Name” debuted this year on CBS, and celebrities such as Reggie Bush, David Hasselhoff and Mike Tyson swapped places with strangers who share their same name.

And specifically to Martin, Walters, Swift and Anderson, according to howmanyofme.com, America has 958 Steve Martins, 1,837 Pamela Andersons and 592 Barbara Walters.

Taylor has just five other Taylor Swifts.

In the Mahoning Valley, there, too, are folks who can claim their own celebrity clones.

Pamela Anderson, the celebrity, is known for her role on “Baywatch,” her relationships with rockers Tommy Lee and Kid Rock, and her, um, curves.

The Valley’s Pamela Anderson lives in Hanoverton with her husband and two children.

“There is a big difference between me and the famous Pam Anderson: She has money. I don’t. She’s from Canada. I’m from America. She posed for Playboy. I definitely didn’t.

“The only thing that is similar between us is that we both have blond hair and two kids.”

Anderson is a lifetime resident of Hanoverton. She hasn’t done much traveling, but if she were to meet Anderson someday, she’d be ecstatic.

“I’d love to meet her. I just want to ask her how she got started, know about her life, her kids. I’d ask her what she does in her spare time and find out if we have any other similarities,” she said.

Sharing a name with a celebrity can come with disadvantages, besides general teasing.

“One time I was visiting someone in jail and wrote my name down on the visitors log,” Anderson said. “And they wouldn’t let me in. They thought I was joking and faking my name. It took a while to get them to believe me so I could go in.”

Swift, who attends Canfield High School, doesn’t even like country music. But he accepts the coincidence.

“Every time I meet someone new and tell them my name, they are always like, ‘Oh, my god! Just like the singer.’ It’s kind of funny,” he said.

Seventeen-year-old Swift spends his time on schoolwork, the public-forum debate team and focusing on his future. “My plans are to go to college for biomedical engineering, and possibly law to become a patent lawyer.”

In Brookfield, Barbara Walters, a divorcee with two sons and a green thumb, has been a gardener for 25 years. She gets teased about her name all the time.

“I get a lot of comments about my name; a lot of the time when someone sees my name, they joke about it and ask me if I’m going to interview them,” she said.

The jokes kept coming even at work.

“A few years ago, when I was working at the Radisson Hotel, the managers wanted to put a sign out in front of the hotel that said, ‘Come, stay at the Radisson, we’ve got Barbara Walters!’”

Walters, who occasionally watches “The View,” a daytime talk show featuring the celebrity Walters, would be honored to meet the famous Barbara.

“I would be very gracious, and consider it a privilege to meet her and could probably relate to her.”

There are virtually no similarities to be found with Steve Martin of Ellsworth — a retired Ohio Edison lineman, who claims to be a “house husband” and an avid golfer.

Celeb Martin could be considered a master of laughter. His career includes gigs as a stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is famous for being in such movies as “Father of the Bride,” “The Pink Panther” and “Bowfinger.”

“I liked Steve Martin – the writer. As a comedian, I don’t think he’s that funny, but I do like his movies.”

The two Martins differ in other ways.

“My wife still works, so I make sure the house is clean and do most of the cooking. I don’t think the famous Steve Martin does that,” said Martin. “I think Steve Martin is in his 60s [Note: He is 66]. I’m 56, and still have my youth.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including The Vindicator, WYSU-FM Radio, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

Golfers, pilots, others find geese nuisance by The News Outlet

Imagine you’re at your favorite park. It’s a nice warm sunny day. You walk around enjoying the sights and sounds. Children playing on the swing-set, dogs running with their owners and geese flying overhead. (HONK< HONK< HONK) It’s a picturesque scene. And then you step in goose droppings.

Geese and their feces are a real pain these days. Golfers run the risk of balls landing in goo. You can’t walk in the parks or near a lake without watching your step. Beachgoers dodge droppings and mothers worry about their toddlers falling face first into feces. And even the casual shopper needs to be wary of where they step in parking lots.

Not only is it unsightly, but it can also be responsible for the spread of disease such as E. coli, cholera and botulism. Stephen Vantassel, coordinator of wildlife damage management at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, says it’s difficult to connect feces with disease outside of common sense.

IN: Certainly I think
OUT: to do that.
TRT: 11 seconds

(Certainly I think that if you stuck your finger in a dropping and then shoved it in your mouth, probably there would be connection because that’s unusual for people to do that.)

Geese like manicured lawns. Which is why they make their homes in cemeteries, golf courses and parks. Kirsten Peetz, environmental land manager of the Mill Creek MetroParks, says the geese take advantage of nicely mown turf.

IN: The other big
OUT: advantage of that.
TRT: 21 seconds

(The other big problem we have to address is the fact the geese are attracted to the park. Because it provides the short mown right up to the open water that they need or they want. They don’t like areas were they feel that predators can hide. So all this open lawn area that we create for the enjoyment of people happens to be beneficial to the geese.)

The goose population in Ohio has more than quadrupled in the last 50 years. In 1979, the goose population stood at 18,000. Today, the geese number 84,000. And they live in all counties, as opposed to 49 in 79. And many geese are resident geese. That is, they don’t migrate any more they live here year round.
People can handle their goose problem by using some of the tactic Doug Lyons, northeast manager of Mosquito Lake, uses at his park.

IN: We’ve done several
OUT: to chase geese.
TRT: 21 seconds

(We’ve done several things. The most successful thing we’ve done is we have guns and they shoot blanks. We have routed out coyotes and painted and we put those in various areas and we try to move them weekly. And there’s a white and a black bag in their mouth, so it makes the appearance that the coyote has a goose in its mouth. We have a couple local owners that has collies that are trained to chase geese.)

However, not all of them work well. One of the most debated tactics is wolf silhouettes, some people swear by them. Like Mel Culp, supervisor of operations and facilities for Austintown Schools, says the wooden cut outs worked wonders after he installed them around various school properties.

IN: It’s pretty amazing
OUT: didn’t even land.
TRT: 11 Seconds

(It’s pretty amazing in all honesty. The next morning I was out in the yard when I heard the geese coming and you could hear them coming across the sky and they were honking. They didn’t even land. )

For others, the silhouettes just aren’t worth the hassle. Lyons says the geese get used to them far too quickly.

IN: They work well
OUT: they’re not Coyotes.
TRT: 12 seconds

(They work well when you first put them out and then the geese get used to them. You have to move them around. But eventually, the geese are smart that they know they’re not Coyotes.)

But the goose nuisance isn’t only felt on the ground. In the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Sean Connery’s character, Henry Jones, has an epiphany.

IN: I suddenly remembered
OUT: in the sky
TRT: 9 seconds

(I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne. Let my armies be the rocks, and the trees, and the birds in the sky.)

You may remember from that scene Connery’s character scares a flock of birds skyward to down a Nazi warplane. It’s the last part of the quote that affects us today. Geese constantly collide with airplanes. In the Mississippi Flyway, there have been 1,299 bird strikes between 1990 and 2010. Flight 1549, now known as the Miracle on the Hudson, was brought down by a collision with a flock of Canada geese.

IN: Now we know
OUT: your engine power
TRT: 5 seconds

(Now we know from the Miracle on the Hudson that’s what happens when you lose your engine power.)

That’s Tara Baranowski, district biologist for the US Department of Agriculture and the Animals and Plant Health Inspection Service, says the Ohio field station is trying to limit the number of strikes.

IN: What they’re trying
OUT: the two colliding.
TRT: 14 seconds

(What they’re looking at is different perceptions of different species of birds and how they can enhance detection of aircraft by birds so that the birds can avoid the aircraft altogether instead of the two colliding.)

The Migratory Bird Act of 1918 had a major impact on the goose population. This bill protects the birds and their eggs and nests from being harmed by any one without a permit first.

Special hunting seasons have been set up so that the over population can be controlled. Hunters can go after the pesky bird two different times a year. The early season in September, and the actual season, which runs from October to January.

So the next time you’re out for a leisurely stroll in the park, or out to visit a loved one’s grave, just remember a few things. A goose can defecate up to 92 times in a day, 50 geese can produce almost a ton and a half of feces in a year and a goose can become aggressive if you don’t have bread for them (Honk Honk Honk) …on second thought, perhaps you’d rather just stay home instead.

For the News Outlet I’m Joel Anderson

There are so many geese at Mill Creek Park that park officials are gathering up their eggs and destroying the embryos and the nests. At Calvary Cemetery on Youngstown’s west side, workers have installed wolf silhouettes in an attempt to protect the dead from the avian adversary. At Austintown Middle School, spring-loaded wolf silhouettes wobble in the wind to frighten off the geese. These are among the many tactics people are using to try to keep geese from invading and leaving their droppings.

For the last 50 years, Ohio and Mahoning County have seen a dramatic rise in the number of geese that live in the area. The problem, experts say, is that the geese – which once migrated to and from Canada—have decided that they like conditions in the state and they no longer make the trip. Instead, they make their homes here, on golf courses, manicured lawns and farmers’ ponds. And area officials are not quite sure how concerned they should be. There is debate about whether geese feces are harmful to humans.

Kirsten Peetz, environmental land manager for the MetroParks, said the geese aren’t held in high regard in society.

“They’re basically described and considered a nuisance just like a rat or groundhogs things like that,” Peetz said.

The first statewide survey conducted in 1979 found geese made nests in 49 of the 88 counties in Ohio with a population of 18,000. Today, geese nest in all counties and their population is 84,000. This is because of the protection granted to them under the Migratory Bird Act. It’s this rise in population that has people worried.

Jamey Graham, media liaison of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said although Ohio may not have any more of an issue with Canada geese than other states, conditions in the area are perfect for human-goose interaction.

“We have a whole lot of people living in Northeast Ohio or Northern Ohio compared to say southeast Ohio. So there’s going to be a lot more human and wildlife conflicts to begin with for that reason. Also we have a lot of water and a lot of golf courses and both types of habitats, so to speak, provide specific habitats for geese,” Graham said. “Often times on golf courses there are a lot of bodies of water. And we also have a bunch of inland lakes that aren’t even affiliated with golf courses whatsoever. When you look at those aspects we do have a bunch of geese and we do have a lot of people.”

Canada geese make their homes in well-kept areas. The manicured lawns in cemeteries and parks, and also the many suburban lawns, attract the birds because low grass eliminates predatory threats.

Because they live here year round, overpopulation in the area brings many concerns. Non-migratory Canada geese frequently attack humans, ruin property and their feces are suspected to carry many diseases.

Stephen Vantassel, coordinator of wildlife damage management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said science hasn’t specifically linked gees to these health issues.

“Well when you say linked, that’s part of the challenge. Are you referring to whether they carry these diseases or whether they’re transmitting these diseases to infect, like people? That’s where the research gets really thin,” Vantassel said. “This is why it’s probably unwise for people to say ‘You’ve got to get rid of those geese because defecation is a public health threat.’ That’s probably overstating what the evidence says. Even though common sense wise, there probably is a risk there. They just haven’t been able to prove it.”

Visitors at Calvary cemetery deal with geese all the time. One visitor, Diana Begala, said too many geese live here these days.

“I just don’t like to see the big group of geese up here all the time. They make a mess of the cemetery you have to watch where you’re walking,” she said.

Another visitor, Marybeth White, said she sees geese everywhere, not just the cemetery.

“They are messy, I know I go by Wal-Marts and there are a ton of them. I don’t know how they could get rid of them, but they probably should.”

Although Calvary uses the silhouettes, visitors said the silhouettes didn’t seem to be working. Calvary cemetery was contacted several times for a comment, but they chose not to discuss the subject.

Mill Creek MetroParks deals with Canada geese as well. Peetz said that human interaction with the geese has brought a lot of difficulties.

“A lot of people feed them, so that causes the problem with aggression, problems with so much goose fecal matter everywhere. That’s unsightly and unsanitary and we get a lot of complaints about that,” Peetz said.

The MetroParks has tried different tactics to deal with the geese. Along with the silhouettes, the park experimented with border collies, grass length around the waterline for the pond, and addling. Addling means to destroy the nests and terminating embryo development in the eggs. The park needs a permit from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in order to do this.

Peetz said they can only addle eggs within the first two weeks.

“It takes 35 days for an egg to hatch. So if you do it within the first two weeks, it’s still a yolk. It’s not like there’s a little gosling in there,” Peetz said.

At Mosquito Lake, geese run amuck there also. Doug Lyons, northeast manager of the park, said the best technique for his park is shooting blanks.

“The most successful thing we’ve done is that we have guns that basically shoot blanks and scare the geese,” Lyons said.

Both parks tried using silhouettes, but both said they weren’t worth the effort.

“They work well when you first put them out and then the geese get used to them. You have to move them around. But eventually, the geese are smart that they know they’re not coyotes,” Lyons said. “It’s really a combination of everything that works the best.”

“The problem with those is that when you first put them out there the birds will be wary. But if it’s out there in the exact same position for a few days, then it just becomes a part of the background and they’re no longer going to be disturbed by it,” Peetz said.

While these parks didn’t have much success with the silhouettes, Austintown Middle School did. Mel Culp, supervisor of operations and facilities for Austintown City Schools, said they had serious issues with geese.

“We had our intermediate school that we had a paved basketball court where the children would play in inclement weather. They would go out and play on the hard surface. And because it was a hard surface, it was warm and it attracted the geese too. And the geese would come and stand on that hard surface blacktop all day long,” Culp said. “And they would make a mess. The droppings and everything from the geese it was terrible. So every morning we would go out try and clean that so that the children could go out and play and we were not successful. So the children were never allowed to go out and play in inclement weather.”

In order to deal with the problem, Culp and several colleagues began looking for solutions.

“We ended up finding a website called watch goose patrol. And they sell a black outline that’s in the shape of a dog that’s on a spring mount. And it’s on a rotating mount. So it articulates as it sits out in the yard. I was stunned. The next day they didn’t come back. And we had hundreds of geese,” Culp said.

Dead goose decoys are yet another option to deal with the pests. But Geoff Westerfield, wildlife biologist at the Ohio Department of Wildlife, said these will draw, rather than scare geese.

“Putting out a dead goose decoy probably does more harm than it does good, in that it will actually draw geese to that area,” Westerfield said. “I tell people you can take a five gallon bucket and set it out there and you’ll get the same effectiveness out of putting that dead goose decoy that’s sitting out there because it’s something different that’s out there, and they generally stay away from that kind of stuff.”

Westerfield said there’s a simpler way to deal with a goose problem.

“Believe it or not the most effective method for controlling geese on a property is to just chase them off,” Westerfield said. “But I tell people, you may chase geese today, and tomorrow you’ll have them again. That doesn’t mean those are the same geese you had yesterday.”

If these methods become infrequent, then geese ignore the attempts.

“You gotta keep changing your ways and you gotta keep after them or they just become a problem,” Lyons said.

Parks, cemeteries and schools aren’t the only places that have to worry about dealing with Canada geese; their nuisance can be felt up in the sky as well. Tara Baranowski, district biologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Animals and Plant Health Inspection Service, said airports are feeling their presence as well.

“It starts with the principle question, ‘Why are they here?’” Baranowski said. “What is attracting these geese to this particular airport? It could be a number of things. It could be the turf itself, which is typically what geese like to feed upon. It could be a water body, either a retention pond or some temporary standing water left from rain. It could also be a refuge stop from an otherwise hostile environment.”

Like the parks, cemeteries and schools, airports need to use different tactics to scare off the waterfowl.

“We always like to tell people that there is no one method that’s going to be the silver bullet or the solution. You need to take an integrated approach and there needs to be several different methods in play at once to be effective, because wildlife is very adaptable,” Baranowski said. “This can be from anywhere from altering the vegetation that is there, removing the water or excluding it so the birds or other wildlife can’t access it.”

But these efforts only help for the problem on the ground. In the air is a different story.

“In the Mississippi flyway there have been 1,299 bird strikes from 1990-2010. There were also a reported 324 unidentified goose species that are thought to be Canada geese,” Baranowski said.

A bird strike is when damage is caused to a plane after a collision with a bird. For just Ohio alone, the number is 81, with August having the highest number of reported strikes at 20.

Baranowski said the Ohio field station of National Wildlife Research Center is developing a new lighting system to help decrease the number of bird strikes on airplanes.

“What they’re trying to do is develop some different lighting scenarios that can be applied to aircraft. Right now they’re doing ground base studies of different lighting techniques and scenarios and different arrays of lighting. What they’re trying to see is if they can enhance detectability and avoid ability of bird strikes. What they’re looking at is different perceptions of different species of birds and how they can enhance detection of aircraft by birds so that the birds can avoid the aircraft altogether instead of the two colliding,” Baranowski said.

In 2009, US Airways flight 1549, taking off from LaGuardia airport in New York, was forced to land on the Hudson River after losing power to its engines. The cause was found out to be Canada geese. The collision led to a loss of engine power, forcing the plane to go down.

But under the current regulations from the FAA, loss of engine power is perfectly acceptable as long as the damage is contained only in the cowling, the protective casing that houses the engine, and to the bird itself.

These regulations were first written in the late ‘70s and haven’t been updated much since. In the original specifications, engines only need to test for birds weighing as much as four pounds. Today, that number has increased to six pounds. But the average goose weights around 10 pounds.

“Now we know from the Miracle on the Hudson that’s what happens when you lose your engine power,” Baranowski said.

Geese can also be a problem for farmers as well. David Marrison, extension educator for Ashtabula and Trumbull counties for agriculture and natural resources at Ohio State University, said farm ponds can be a farmer’s biggest concern.

“The biggest things I see is when they’re in around the ponds and their fecal damage. Especially livestock people are watering out of those ponds. So that’s why it’s good to not let them become comfortable nesting on your farm pond,” Marrison Said.

Marrison said the 4H club in Windsor, Ohio has its trouble with Canada geese as well.

“They get some that try and stay around, so they have to scare them to try and get them to go somewhere else. Scaring with noise machines, and there’s enough people around that that become uncomfortable too. As the campers are walking around back and forth, and groups’ using the facility, and just that commotion is a deterrent as well,” Marrison said.

Hunting can help with overpopulation as well. Hunters can set their sights on Canada geese twice a year after they’ve received their permit. The early season targets the resident geese. The season goes for 15 days from Sept. 1 to the 15. The regular season runs from Oct. to Jan.

Peetz said Canada geese aren’t like other pesky critters around the area.

“You need a permit to hunt them. It’s not like a groundhog or something that you can just shoot and kill if it’s on your property,” Peetz said.

Lyons said hunting season helps for a short time. After the season ends, the geese come back.

“I think the solution is, up the limit on the geese you’re allowed to kill. It used to be two, but it’s currently up to four,” Lyons said.

Another tactic parks use to cull the number of resident geese is a “Don’t feed the animals” campaign. What people see as an innocent and natural act, Peetz said is actually very bad for the geese.

“People tend to feed them old bread, or popcorn. And neither of them are natural food for the geese. And they also don’t provide a bunch of nutrients.”

The MetroPark plans on putting in a type of vending machine that distributes feeding pellets rich in nutrients the geese need to live healthy lives. It would also allow people to keep the tradition of feeding geese and other birds at the park.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

Shadowed by a harrowing drug addiction, a 53-year-old Mahoning County man has only memories of what life used to be like to comfort his nights sleeping alone on a cot at a rescue mission.

A Wayne County divorcee supports her three kids on $1,280 a month from a thrift store salary and public assistance. After earning a master’s degree in education and struggling to find a steady teaching position, an 84-year-old Stark County woman who survived the Great Depression walks daily from her government-subsidized apartment to the local YWCA for a free meal that she otherwise couldn’t afford.

These are the stories of those living in poverty among Ohio’s northeastern counties. In a bleak economy, the News Outlet wondered if the stereotypical portrait of those struggling had been altered. The profiles presented provide a glimpse into the complicated personal, political and economic turns that contribute to the struggles of the impoverished.

They’ve lost homes to foreclosure.

Their families to drugs and alcohol.

Their dreams to poverty.

The 2005-2009 American Community Survey (PDF) , prepared by the Ohio Department of Development and released in April, has reaffirmed historically higher poverty rates in Ohio’s urban centers — Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. But, as a whole, the state is spackled with poverty.

The worst counties hug the Ohio River from Cincinnati to Columbiana County then turn north along the Pennsylvania state line.

In the past decade, Ohio’s poverty population has increased by 46 percent, according to U.S. Census data.

The most recent reports place 1.7 million Ohioans beneath the federal poverty line, scaled from a maximum individual income of $10,890 up to a family of four living on $22,350 or less annually. The Ohio Department of Development report suggested an additional 2 million people are “more or less close to being poor.”

Aside from Cuyahoga County, two Northeast Ohio poverty rates are among the state’s highest — Trumbull at 18.2 percent, Mahoning at 17.1 percent and Columbiana at 17.7 percent.

The poverty rate for Medina (7.6 percent) is among the lowest in the region. Eight Ohio counties, clustered in the southern Appalachian region, had poverty rates higher than 20 percent.

Unemployment has exacerbated poverty in Northeast Ohio, and residents such as Youngstown’s Jimmy Ceballos often forego paying bills and mortgages to pay for food and shelter.

In the 1990s, Ceballos could pick up a side job with little effort. Today, the former handyman wakes up and extinguishes the burn barrel that kept him warm the night before in one of Youngstown’s 4,500 vacant structures.

Ohio’s unemployment rate has grown from 5.6 percent in January 2008 to 9 percent in October 2011, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics.

Youngstown is among the worst (PDF). With 9.6 percent of the area’s work force unemployed in September, only three other metropolitan areas in Ohio — Steubenville, Toledo and Mansfield — posted higher unemployment rates, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

“It’s just been hard,” said Ceballos, who was born and raised on Youngstown’s East Side. “I look at my town, and it makes me sad that things around here used to be so different.”

It’s struck even those who were comfortable — people such as Heidi Hultgren.

She used to count on her teaching salary at Kent State University and her husband’s salary as a research metallurgist at Republic Steel in Cleveland to support her three children and maintain a comfortable middle-class life.

The retired teacher now struggles to live on $1,400 a month from the State Teacher Retirement Fund. Her paycheck goes fast: $600 for a mortgage, $400 for a car payment and $250 for utilities. What’s left is split between insulin to manage her Type One Diabetes and for food.

Director of Kent Social Services Christy Anderson said Hultgren is one of the many people she knows who’s doing the best she can.

“I’ve been working at Social Services since 1979, and these past two years have been the worst I’ve ever seen as far as poverty goes,” Anderson said. “Heidi is one of many who have had employment, but as a turn of the economy lost their job and are struggling to live.”

As the recession has deepened in the past three years, the region’s resources have struggled to keep up with the growing need.

This year, every other family the Salvation Army has helped at the Booth Manor shelter in Akron has been new.

In 2008, the shelter experienced a 43-percent increase in clients served. Families who seek help there consist of single mothers and impoverished couples with young children.

U.S. Census data released in November reported that 620,000 Ohioans under 18 years old live in poverty. Child poverty, which has increased 50 percent since 2003, accounts for more than a third of all Ohioans living in poverty.

Logan, 4, and Joshua, 2, are among those children living in poverty.

Their mother, Amanda Huddleston, rides the public transit with her boys every morning. She leaves them at day care or preschool and continues on to the Medina County Job and Family Services building, where she takes a bus for Wadsworth to work in a factory. She brings home $434 a month and receives public assistance, which puts food on the table but affords little else.

“This isn’t somewhere I want to be for very long,” Huddleston says.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

She clutched a cane in one hand, and except for a slight hop, her gait was lively as she walked through the room and took a seat. Her china-blue eyes stared boldly from behind thick glasses as she began her story.

“I’ve never really wanted a lot of material things, and I’ve never had a lot of material things,” said Mary, who didn’t want to use her last name for this story.

Born in 1927, the 84-year-old remembered growing up during the Great Depression and walking 2 miles with her father to buy milk. Now, decades later, she still has to walk to find what she needs.

Every Tuesday, she leaves her small apartment in Alliance Towers, a government subsidized apartment complex for the elderly, and crosses the street to the Alliance Neighborhood Center for the free evening meal offered there.

“She comes over and visits with us,” said Sandra Loy, director of the Alliance Neighborhood Center. “I talk with her on nice sunny days outside.”

Loy said Mary also stops by occasionally to pick up some free bread that they offer or to pick up something from the clothes closet.

Mary relies on this free food just as she relies on the lunches provided by the YWCA Monday through Thursday for the residents of Alliance Towers.

When she doesn’t have the free meals, Mary cooks what she can. She likes to buy sausage, seasoned tomatoes, plain yogurt, eggs and frozen veggies. She tends to make soups, such as zucchini or other vegetable soup, and then use the leftovers to make some type of chili.

“I thought I could live off of my Social Security. And then, I didn’t realize the last years that I worked, I only worked four to six hours a day … Then, when I found out how much money I was going to get on Social Security I was a bit shocked,” she said.

Each month, Mary gets $647 from Social Security, an income she earned from years working office jobs, brief teaching stints and organizing free meals for seniors and scheduling appointments for Well Child Center (WIC) through Community Action, a non-profit in Sebring.

Bills come in each month, too. Her medical insurance from Medicare costs $135 and her Medicare prescription plan costs another $32. From the $400 left, she pays $80 for her cable and $137 in rent, which is determined based on her income.

That leaves her with $263 for groceries, toiletries, clothes or anything else she might need throughout the month.

“If I want to splurge on something for myself, I buy shrimp.”

Her other little luxuries are the season tickets she buys each year to The Carnation Players, a theater group, and The Alliance Community Concert, each of which costs about $40. The $80 she spends for her expanded cable package with Time Warner Cable is another of her comforts.

At less than $8,000 a year, Mary is well below the 2011 poverty threshold of $10,890 for single-person households in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, she’s just one of the 17.8 percent of Alliance residents living in poverty.

Forty-some years ago, Mary had plenty of money saved from working for a trip she planned to take to Europe. Instead of venturing across the sea, she chose to explore higher education by going to college.

“I liked going to college,” she said. “I could have been a permanent college student.”

However, despite getting a bachelor’s and master’s degree in elementary education from Youngstown State University, Mary’s life was sometimes a struggle.

After she graduated at age 40 with her bachelor’s degree, she worked one year teaching first grade and two years teaching Head Start in Sebring. Then, she decided to obtain a master’s degree, but discovered that the extra education didn’t mean extra job opportunities.

“I priced myself out of teaching when I got the master’s,” Mary said. “The schools didn’t have the money, and they didn’t want somebody with a master’s.”

So, she did some volunteering with different organizations, including a resale shop that used the revenue to operate a food pantry. Her last 10 years of work were through the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which helps seniors find part-time, paid work.

In all those years, she never married. She never had children. But, she wanted them. Mary said her nieces and nephews helped fill up the space, but they still were never her own children.

For years, a neighbor’s son was like a grandson to Mary. She glowed as she spoke of him, now a senior in high school, emphasizing his natural artistic talents.

Although space is limited in her apartment, one of her walls is still a gallery of that boy’s artwork next to a chart marking his growth with school pictures. She keeps a folder of his drawings in her dresser’s bottom drawer. His number is the only one listed on her important numbers chart

But recently, she had a disagreement with the boy’s mother, and she hasn’t spoken to him since. She even missed his 18th birthday party. Every night, Mary thinks about calling him, but hasn’t yet.
Pennie Dowdy, 62, her neighbor and friend of 10 years, said Mary stops by every single day, sometimes even two or three times, for a cup of coffee and a visit.

The two met years ago when they went to a class about cleaning with green products at the Alliance Neighborhood Center where Dowdy’s daughter, Kim, taught.

Dowdy recently moved into Alliance Towers. Living right next door to each other makes it convenient for Mary to stop by and chat with Dowdy, who can’t get around as easily in her wheelchair.

“I think our friendship helped both of us,” Dowdy said.

Mary was the only person Dowdy knew in the building, and Dowdy is always willing to keep her friend company, chatting about their shared passion for crafting.

Dowdy went on to talk about how active Mary is, walking all over town with her little purple backpack and cane. Dowdy said Mary even started volunteering to help those at A Place for Mom, an Alzheimer’s care center in Alliance, by doing crafts.

Although she’s motivated, even Mary has her bad days when the weather and her lack of visitors weighs heavily on her and disrupts her mood.

“Sometimes I think she’s depressed. She doesn’t do well on days it’s not sunny,” Dowdy said.

It’s been about 12 years since Mary stopped working, and she’s starting to feel age creeping up on her in various ways from her cataracts to a damaged rotator cuff in her left shoulder.

“I’m tired, and I don’t feel good,” she said, brushing one of her thin hands against the other resting on her leg. Still, she counts herself as fortunate compared to other seniors.

“I’m lucky. I only have to take blood pressure medicine,” she said.

Mary’s thin, bird-like frame was outlined against the glass doors by the soft glow that filled her apartment’s lobby. Her straight, snow-white hair was like corn silk as it swept her narrow shoulders.

To a passer-by who has never heard the soft-spoken story of her life, the woman in the rose-patterned shirt might be anyone’s grandmother – instead of no one’s.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

By Julie Sickel
TheNewsOutlet.org

Five years. That’s how long Amanda Huddleston has given herself.

Five years to get out of Section 8 housing. Five years to be off government aid and Food Stamps. Five years to finish her college degree and begin a real career.

By then, Amanda will be 31 and her boys, Logan and Joshua will be 9 and 7. She’ll be able to afford to pay for things like jackets and boots for her sons without her parents’ help.

In the meantime, Amanda will wake up every weekday and board the public transit with Logan and Joshua, see them off to daycare and preschool and then arrive at the Medina County Job and Family Services building at 232 Northland Drive and take the 8:15 a.m. bus with 10 to 25 other workers to the Medina Assembly and Packaging factory in Wadsworth. At the factory, she’ll do everything from sorting recycling to making boat straps.

Amanda is 26. Her light brown hair is pulled up into in a neat bun on her head. She wears glasses and holds a box of contact solution in her small, pale hands. When she’s not speaking, she keeps her lips neatly rested together and the curves of her mouth in a tired smile.

She is a member of the Ohio Works First program. She works 86 hours a month –less than the normally required 129 hours because her sons are younger than 6. She earns $434 in cash. Cheryl Mason, eligibility specialist at MCJFS, said Amanda receives $526 in Food Stamps each month as a two-child parent and pays an $8 per month co-pay for her children’s daycare.

Amanda is what another MCJFS representative called “a shining star” because of her work ethic. However, the work she does every day until her return from the factory at 2:15 p.m. cannot be counted as “work experience” on a resume. It’s government aid.

Life wasn’t always like this for Amanda. She used to be independent. She had a car, a house and a job at a daycare that she loved. That was before she got pregnant with Logan and found out she had heart problems. Three months after he was born, she went in for heart surgery and came out with a load of medical bills.

“It just kind of threw me off. I was able to work but (Logan) was 3 months old when I had the surgery done and I couldn’t find anything,” she says.

Logan and Joshua have two different fathers. Logan’s father pays child support, but is otherwise removed from the family. Joshua’s father works just long enough before quitting so he doesn’t have to pay child support, said Amanda.

“I just got myself in a situation and now I’m trying to get myself out, and it’s hard. It’s very hard.”

Her situation doesn’t keep Amanda from enjoying her time with her boys. Dancing was her favorite thing to do before Logan was born. Now, she dances around the house with her two boys instead, laughing and feeling silly. The smile on her face when she talks about her sons is lively and very different from the smile she wears when she talks about the future.

Amanda eventually graduated from Cuyahoga Community College with a degree in medical assisting. Six months after graduation, she went back to school to study nursing, but eventually withdrew. It’s been too long since she’s worked in medical assisting for her to be hired. Now she’s in default for thousands of dollars in student loans.

Amanda interviewed for three jobs in the past month and is hoping to hear something soon.

Mead Wilkins, director of MCJFS, said Amanda’s story isn’t unique. Many of the workers in Ohio Works program are single mothers who aren’t getting child support.

“You have the young mom with two children and she can’t get out of poverty,” Wilkins said. “You’re just holding on by your fingertips.”

Wilkins said the goal of the program is to teach workers the life skills they can use to eventually gain employment, things like working hard and being to work on time.

“This isn’t somewhere I want to be for very long,” Amanda says, drumming her fingers on the contact solution box still in her hands. “I mean, I’m thankful for it and the cash I get helps me. But this is not something that I ever thought I’d be doing.

“It seems like when I try to get one step ahead, I fall 20 steps backwards,” she says shaking her head.

Then the weary single mother, who spent the day packaging holiday cookies in brightly colored Christmas tins, places her hands flat on the table in front of her, closes her eyes and sighs before concluding, “One day it will all come together.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

By JORDAN UHL
TheNewsOutlet.org

In early November, Donna Jarvis had $60 to her name and a faint hope that her finances were going to improve.

The 54-year-old Freedom Township resident said she always had decent jobs and managed to live more than paycheck-to-paycheck.

In 2007, however, Jarvis found lost her steady job at a customer service call center. Since then, she hasn’t been able to get a job that would last for more than a few weeks.

In November, after years of struggling to feed herself and keep her utilities on, she got a job as a medical assistant at a skilled-care facility in Portage County. She had hoped the job, which pays just above minimum wage, might help her end what had been a long period in extreme poverty.

Jarvis’ fall from the middle class began in 2002 when she and her husband of 27 years got divorced.

“Instead of getting money, I got a dilapidated house,” Jarvis said.

Endless repairs on her four-bedroom old house in Freedom Township transformed what was to serve as her only source of comfort into another worry. New hot water tanks, pumps for her well and water storage tanks have continually put dents in her minimal funds.

She does hold the deed to the home, however.

“[That was] important because I knew that no matter what happened at least I was going to have a place to live. Even if I’d have to be sitting in the dark with no water,” Jarvis said. “It’s pretty nice to know that you’re not going to be living in your car.

While homelessness has never been a real worry, Jarvis said watching pennies has been a constant obsession.

“I have a ton of debt that’s unpaid, “ Jarvis said, estimating that she now owes more than $25,000.

Credit card and cell phone bills are loom constantly. She is behind on her trash bill and faces defaulting on her car insurance facing default.

“I haven’t been able to make payments on them because I knew what little money I had left, had to go to put gas in my car.”

She participates in an income-based payment plan for her gas and electric bills. To keep those utilities on, she’s had to borrow money from her 35-year-old son, who lives Copley.

“There’s a lot of things that I don’t have anymore,” she said. “If I want to watch a movie, I go to the library.”

“I went through every bit of savings that I had, every bit of 401K,” Jarvis said. “All of that’s gone.”

She collects a couple hundred dollars worth of Food Stamps each month

The closest she comes to an evening out is a hot meal at the Christian Cupboard in Ravenna. The emergency food pantry provides a daily hot meal to area residents in need, but it’s more than that to Jarvis.

“It’s not just a hot meal, there’s a lot of camaraderie there,” Jarvis said. “It gets you out of your house, lifts your spirits. There’s the workforce center, the library. That’s been a blessing and a half right there.”

Sister Denise Stiles, manager of the Center of Hope, of which the Christian Cupboard is a part, has witnessed Jarvis’ increased reliance on the center.

Eventually, Stiles began to view Jarvis more as a friend than as a repeat client.

“Things took a bad turn for her recently,” Stiles said.

Jarvis often confided in Stiles, and while she didn’t expect her problems to be solved, the listening ear gave her a general sense of wellbeing.

Whe price of a gallon of gas costing more than two loaves of bread, Jarvis finds getting around to be a struggle as well.

Yet, Jarvis hasn’t given up and is investing in her future. Last year, she enrolled in a medical assistant program at Northcoast Medical Training Academy in Kent.

Jarvis took out two loans and a Pell grant pay for the program, which she estimates costs about $16,000.

Just as things started to appear to better, she got into a car accident on her way home from class.

“I nodded off and failed to stop at a stop sign. I ended up totaling my car.”

She also had broken bones, internal bruises and thousands of dollars in medical bills.

Again, she pressed on, completing her schooling, attaining her medical assistant’s diploma and beginning her search for employment.

At first, prospects were bleak, despite the numerous classified advertisements regarding openings in the field.

“I could go into the medical field or be a truck driver,” Jarvis said. “Those were the two (areas) where people were always hiring.”

In mid-November, Jarvis was hired as a medical assistant at New Leaf Residential where she will earn $9 per hour.

“I’m really, really excited. I’m looking forward to meet the people I’m going to be taking care of,” Jarvis said.

It’s not smooth sailing from here, though.

“It’s my first job in the medical field, and its entry level,” Jarvis said about her nerves and a lower-than-expected pay scale.

“The thing is, I need an income,” she said. “I’m happy to have it.”

Optimism radiates from Jarvis, who hasn’t allowed her woes to completely bring her down.

“Maybe it’s my calling. Maybe I’ll be able to take this somewhere else.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

Jordan D. Uhl of Canfield is majoring in senior political science major and pursuing minors in journalism and philosophy. Aside from being a News Outlet intern, he is the news editor at The Jambar, the student-run paper at Youngstown State University. His favorite piece featured the views of an Egyptian student at YSU during the revolution in Egypt. He was able to localize a national news story in a creative, yet relevant way. He gets his news from The Economist, The Atlantic and PopUrls, a news aggregator. He enjoys distance running and live music.

Last year, Anthony Larson returned to the Akron area to take care of his ill mother.

Now, she is in a nursing home. He got injured and lost his job. And the bills keep coming.

“I am a college graduate with two degrees,” said the 44-year-old Lawson. “I have a bachelor’s in administrative services and an associate’s in culinary arts.”

He moved to Akron from Dallas, where he was a restaurant manager, making $40,000 a year. He and his wife had a combined annual income of $80,000.

“We used to have three vehicles,” Lawson said, his knees bouncing nervously. “Now we are down to one and my wife drives that one.”

His wife works in Cincinnati because she couldn’t find a job in Akron.

Larson, however, did find work.

“I was working as a chef at a restaurant in Akron,” said Lawson. “But I tore my rotator cuff in April.”

Losing that job was hard, but losing the health benefits was even harder.

“I have diabetes and I needed medicine.”

He eventually found himself at Open M Ministries, a clinic in Akron, where he receives medical treatment.

“Open M helped me with my medical supplies and blood pressure medicine.”

Kristina Holwerda, the clinic manager, described Lawson as appreciative and friendly.

“He is not that talkative, but he is approachable. Everyone who works with him loves him.”

Lawson was surprised to learn there were others like him reaching out for help.

“When I first went to Job and Family Services for assistance, I thought that I would see more single moms. Now there are husbands and wives, who have bachelor’s and master’s degrees, whose companies have just let them go.”

He isn’t the only person to notice the change in clientele.

“There has been a big shift in terms of people who have never been in this situation before,” Holwerda said. “This is their first time trying to find insurance and they are naive about how to use the services.”

While Lawson gets help with medical supplies, he still has $1,800 worth of other bills every month. There are utility bills, two child support payments, his mother’s taxes and insurance, and his car loans.

One of his children is a junior in at Kent State University. The other two, an 18-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son, live with his wife in Cincinnati.

What he misses most about having a job, was being able to give things to his children.

“It’s more of a mental grind to not have what you used to have,” said Lawson. “No weekend getaways or going out to dinner – things like that don’t come around a lot.”

Holwerda explained that the “new poor” have trouble asking for help.

“I constantly have to tell the new patients that it is OK to ask for help,” said Holwerda. “To them it feels wrong, they feel like they are taking help (away) from people who should be getting it.”

Lawson agreed it is hard to ask for help, but he is confident he will be able to get back on his feet.

“I used to let the pride get to me, but I got over that really quickly,” said Lawson. “It’s tough, but I still have a roof over my head and I’m still eating.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

Loren Thomas is a senior at Kent State University, where she is a broadcast journalism major, with a minor in business. Also, she is a member of the university’s track and field team. She has been involved in student media for three years. She has worked as a co-anchor and assistant producer. She also had an internship with WTXL-ABC 27 in Tallahassee, Fla. She is most proud of her final project in Advanced Broadcast. The story was about work-from-home Internet scams and a victim who lost $20,000. Some of her work can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/LorenNThomas

In 2004, Sally Criss was living the American dream. She was a stay-at-home mom. There were cars in the garage, food on the table and lights on in the house. Although, her husband made enough money to support the family, she worked in her church’s nursery to make a little extra money.

Seven years later, Criss is 44, living in Orrville and divorced. Her children, ages 5, 16 and 19, are living with her. They survive on $1,280 a month.

The American dream turned ugly when Criss’ husband, Steve, began to drink again after being sober for 12 years. He was arrested and convicted of driving while intoxicated three times: November 2004, August 2005 and August 2009. Then he lost his job as a sales representative with her father’s dairy supply company, Independent Buyers Association of Ohio. Shortly after being demoted to warehouse custodian, he quit his job.

“The first time he was in jail for 30 days, I was 8-months pregnant,” Criss said. “There was no income and a mess of financial issues he had left behind for me to untangle.”

While her ex-husband was serving his sentences in the Wooster Community Jail, she was not getting child support and was forced to find a job.

“While Steve was in jail, it was very difficult,” Criss said. “There is now only one parent and you take on full responsibility for everything.”

The couple divorced in 2008.

“For many years divorce was not an option I considered,” Criss said.

She was able to get financial help from the Ohio Works First, a program where people in financial difficulty can receive cash assistance for 36 months. She also received $175 in Food Stamps. The program also helped her find a job at New Destinations, a thrift store in Wooster.

“When I went in for the first time, the manager said that I didn’t fit the typical ‘welfare mom’ stereotype.”

Just when things were going a bit more smoothly, Criss’ daughter turned 18 and was no longer considered a dependent. The $500 a month that Criss used to get was cut to $175 because the money her daughter earned at a part-time job was considered part of the family income.

“When the money was cut … honestly … I cried. It was such a drastic cut, winter was coming up, and I knew my gas bill would triple, Christmas was on its way, and all of my tight budget would be going to groceries.

“The tears were primarily frustration and anger for being in this situation and not knowing how to get out.”

After 10 months, Criss got out of the program and found her current job at an Orrville Goodwill thrift store.

“When she came to us for the job, she discussed going through her divorce, being a single mother, and stating that she really needed the extra help,” said Kelly Warren, the assistant manager of the Goodwill store. “She was the same as she as today. She is nice and humorous,” Warren said.

Criss has worked at the Goodwill store for a year and a half and has built good friendships with her co-workers.

“I think it’s a counseling for her. Most of the girls here are in the same boat,” Warren said.

She earns about $800 a month with no benefits and gets $480 a month in child support and the $175 a month in food stamps.

She spends about $700 a month on the phone, car insurance, and cable/ Internet bills. Her expects her gas bill to be around $300 a month this winter. She spends the $280 she has left on childcare, preschool and babysitters for her youngest child, and guitar lessons for her teenage son.

She is lucky enough to not have to pay a mortgage or car payment.

When Criss was going through her divorce, her parents, Perry and Karen Vance, paid off her house and car. “I feel guilty and ashamed that my parents spent that amount of money for us when I’m at an age that I should be paying the bills myself.”

“Those are just short-term solutions,” Karen, said. The car will still need maintenance and the bills still need to be paid. She and her husband just provided some stability in Criss’ life.

Karen can’t imagine what her daughter’s life would be like if she had to make a car and mortgage payment.

“The hard part is not doing too much to where someone loses all their self esteem and skills,” Karen said. “Of course I’m proud of her because she is so strong willed. Adversity brings out the best in people and that’s what I see happening in Sally.”

Criss doesn’t see it that way. She says she has no idea how to move herself out of poverty.

“We went from middle class to the B-rate rabble that people stereotype,” Criss said.

The poverty level for a family of four is $22,350 a year, according to a 2011 report by the U.S. Health and Human Services Administration. Criss makes about $15,360 a year.

“I just do without,” she said.

Criss is forced to think creatively when money is tight. She only drives when she has to and she waits until she can complete several errands at one time in order to save gas. Instead of buying multi snack packs of potato chips, she buys a large bag and divides that up for school lunches. She went from buying organic foods, and fresh fruits and vegetables to shopping at discount grocery stores and farmer’s markets. She buys a lot of off-brand products, too.

She does most of the cooking for her family. They only dine on special occasions.

During the summer, she walks her children to the park or to the pool instead of driving them there.

“I do my best to provide a normal life for my kids. I don’t want them to feel poor,” Criss said. “You have to figure out what is important. It’s a humbling experience. Then you find out you’re pretty strong.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, The Vindicator, WYSU-FM Radio, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

By KACY STANDOHAR
TheNewsOutlet.org

LISBON

Karen Tohm used to love baking pies and cakes for her family. Now that baking is her only means of survival, she can barely stand it.

“It used to be fun and enjoyable, but now it’s a pain that I have to do it,” she said. “It’s work now … and I don’t like it.”

Every Friday, the 46 year-old drives 17 miles from her home in Lisbon to the flea market at Rogers Community Auction where she sells pies, cakes and other baked goods.

“I tried selling junk, but junk don’t sell,” Tohm said.

She leaves home at 6 a.m. and arrives by 8 a.m. to set up her booth outside B Building. By 5 p.m., she will have sold everything she brought. Anything leftover, she will donate or sell at a community auction. She will have made $100.

She will stop for gas and fast food before heading for home, a basement apartment provided by her aunt and uncle, the Revs. Raymond and Phyllis Tohm, both of whom are pastors at Threshing Floor Ministries outside of Lisbon.

“I usually make about $400 to $500 dollars a month. It’s been less lately due to gas prices.”

Those high gas prices also mean that her regular customers from Pittsburgh won’t travel to Rogers for her pies and that she can’t visit her daughter in Niles.

She spends about $200 a month for baking supplies at Aldi’s or Marc’s, $60 for van insurance and $50 for rent.

“That usually leaves me with $190 dollars for my dog’s food, shampoo and my cell phone bill.”
She can’t afford health insurance and receives government assistance in order to purchase groceries. She doesn’t have cable, but gets movies from vendors at Rogers.

“The guy there sells movies two for $5,” Tohm said. “They’re old, but who cares? I haven’t seen them.”

Tohm used to be married and has three children: two sons, 29 and 22, and a daughter, 28.

After a battle with crack cocaine and a back injury, Tohm hit rock bottom. Her injury, due to a fall, worsened after incorrectly lifting while doing yard work.

“I had a MRI that shows three bulging discs – one in my neck, one between shoulder blades and one in the middle of my back. The doctor said they were not bad enough to operate on, but they were bad enough to give me injections to take down swelling and inflammation.”

The relief was temporary.

“I went into a depression and dabbled in drugs when my husband left me for another woma. My children disowned me after that. I wanted to kill myself, but didn’t have the guts to pull the trigger.”

Tohm previously worked at Astro Shapes in Struthers where she ran the saw, moved metal and performed other tasks. Later, she worked as a paint line inspector at Black Hawk Automotive Plastics in Salem, but found the required productivity difficult after her injury.

“They needed me to stand for eight hours, and I can’t do that. Here (at the flea market) I can sit, stand and go in my car to get warm.”

Tohm’s situation used to be worse.

“If it wasn’t for my aunt and uncle, taking me under their wing and letting me live with them, I would be in worse shape,” Tohm said. “I lived in my car for six months and before that I lived in a tent at a campground for three months.”

Tohm’s uncle, 75, said she was appearing before a judge in Warren regarding her drug use when he and his wife arrived at the courthouse.

“Her father wasn’t able to care for her, and the judge allowed us to become her guardians,” he said. “We were able to keep her out of jail and give her a basement apartment in our home.”

Her aunt said Karen’s drug problem had escalated and she was in and out of shelters in Mahoning County.

“She looked like an 80-pound weakling,” she said. “ I almost didn’t recognize her when I saw her.”
Now, Tohm spends her Wednesdays and Thursdays baking and packaging her items. They are sealed with a label reading, “Karen’s Kitchen. She is careful to follow all the rules in the Cottage Food Law, even listing ingredients in descending order by weight.

Tohm bakes an assortment of items, including pound cakes, banana nut bread, cinnamon rolls, lemon bars, nut roll, blonde brownies, gingerbread, pumpkin and peanut butter cookies. Her pies include apple, strawberry raspberry, blackberry, pecan and peach.

“I taught myself (how to bake) and watched my mother cook all the time,” she said. “I can still picture her in the kitchen.”

Unlike most bakers, Tohm doesn’t use a stationary or hand mixer.

“I have no mixer. I do everything the old-fashioned way, the way my mother and grandmother taught me how to do in the beginning. I mix everything by hand.”
Her small pies cost $3 and her larger pies, $6.50.

“Some people take the labels off and say they made it themselves. I don’t care as long as the money’s in my pocket,” she said.

Frank Gutierez, a frequent shopper at Roger’s Flea Market said he enjoys her homemade approach.

“It tastes better,” Gutierez said. “It’s not commercial like at the grocery stores where everything is mass produced.”

Gutierez buys everything from snack foods to tools and tires at the flea market.

“Just about anything that strikes my fancy,” he said

Gutierez often teases Tohm, but knows she works hard.

“I like to torment her but most of the people here are using their sales as a second income … this is her life.”

Tohm usually sets up outside because vendor spots inside the building cost $35 to $40. After Christmas, she’ll move inside when the spots drop to $20.

Tohm’s struggle with money has left her unable to afford surgery or medical attention to repair her back.

“I’ve tried clinics but forget about it. There’s a long waiting list,” she said.

Although each day is a fight for Tohm, she carries a lighthearted attitude with a comical approach. She’ll be four years sober this February.

“I got off the drugs by the grace of God. I tried myself and couldn’t do it,” said Tohm. “He gets all the credit.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including WYSU-FM Radio, The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

By RALPH A. LEWIS III
TheNewsOutlet.org

Jimmy Ceballos usually starts his day by putting out a flaming barrel of newspaper and clothes. The same barrel that the night before kept him from freezing while he slept.

About a month ago, while sleeping on the first floor of an abandoned home in Campbell, the heating barrel burned through the bottom and eventually burned down the house. He barely made it out alive.

“I just remember waking up and thinking I must be dreaming, the flames were so bright,” said Ceballos. “The heat was unbearable, I wrapped myself in the only blanket I had and ran outta the house through the back door.”

It’s an odd form of luck.

“Some people play the lottery hoping to win millions, thinking how much their life would be better if they had hundreds and thousands of dollars. My life is a lottery too and I am pretty close to crapping out,” said Ceballos.

Ceballos, 55, was born and raised on the East side of Youngstown. Twenty years ago, he was a neighborhood handyman, specializing in helping others with car troubles which is the only kind of work he has ever known.

With no college degree and no high school diploma, finding a job was challenging.

“It’s just been hard man, real hard to find work around here. I look at my town and it makes me sad that things around here used to be so much different,” said Ceballos. “I can’t blame it all on the city, I’m no angel. I’ve played a part in my own misery.”

Ceballos said he lost his job as a handyman because he experimented with drugs and became an alcoholic. Since that time Ceballos’s life has felt the sting of those mistakes.

Since escaping the burning house, Ceballos has been relying on friends for places stay and a means to earn extra money.

“I do everything for him. I clean his clothes if he needs it. I feed him if he’s hungry. And, if I need help around the store I give him some money,” said Valerie Tucker, an cashier at the Speed Check on Wilson Avenue in Campbell. “He’s in here at least five days a week helping me out and he is always so positive no matter what his situation is.”

When asked why she helps Ceballos, Tucker said he is such a good person and she knows he needs the help.

Each month, Ceballos walks or catches a ride to Mahoning County Jobs and Family Services to get his Social Security check ($600) and Food Stamps ($150).

Ceballos keeps his money with him, but keeps his other belongings in whatever house he is squatting in at the time. This varies weekly.

Amy Shotts of Youngstown Auto Wrecking is also familiar with Ceballos who performs odd jobs for her.

“One thing I can say about him is that he always looks presentable given the situation he’s in,” said Shotts. “He’s been coming around here for at least two years, helping me out cleaning up, taking out trash and I never mind paying him because he’s helpful.”

Shotts hopes Ceballos will find more stable housing in the future. However, when it comes to his future Ceballos says he has no worries.

“I have a strong faith in God and it’s through his wisdom and power am I able to live on and be happy,” said Ceballos. “I just know that He is going to look out for me so I have no reason to be sad. I am alive and have great friends. I don’t need anything else.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

Bamuamba Kabeya is the best homeless chess player at Haven of Rest Ministries, a Market Street shelter in Akron.

He’s not the best because of his talent, two engineering degrees or the knowledge he wields as a graduate assistant of statistics.

He’s the best because he knows the rules.

For chess and life he said, “castle as fast as you can … They know that I beat them. I beat my fellow American,” Kabeya touts with a rhythmic African accent.

Kabeya arrived at the homeless shelter about a year ago. He carries his life – toothbrush, clothes, shoes, comb, books – in an ottoman-sized purple tote. The tote stays at the shelter each day as he walks across Market Street around 8 a.m. to the University of Akron, where he’s a graduate assistant and student.

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1960s, Kabeya is too proud to admit his age. His late father bought him a plane ticket for Belguim in 1978, where Kabeya said he earned an engineering degree from Les Facultes Universitaires Catholiques de Mons.

While in Belguim, one of his six siblings, Julie Kabeya, applied Bamuamba for a visa through the U.S. Department of State’s Diversity Visa program. She wanted her family near, so she sponsored his visa.

His application was accepted, and he arrived at his sister’s home in Columbus in 1997.

The visa lottery program supplied Kabeya with a job at Gate Gourmet, an airline catering company. The job, in turn, allowed Kabeya to leave his sister’s home.

“It was an easy job, packing. I am new in America, and there is no reason to refuse that first job,” Kabeya said.

His son, Moses, was born around the time Kabeya was laid off in 2003. He had one of the 135,000 aviation jobs that disappeared after 9/11.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering technology at DeVry University in 2004 and left Columbus in 2007 after troubled relations with his wife. Without a vehicle, he hasn’t seen his son since.

In 2007, a colleague from Devry suggested that he pursue a master’s degree at Youngstown State University. He failed to meet the GPA requirement and left Youngstown for Canton a year later with $30,000 in student loan debt.

In Canton, Kabeya unsuccessfully looked for employment between 2008-10. He had no money and no means to get it.

He survived through “charity and friends and God.”

“As you see, I’m alive. God. God’s intervention through people” made that possible, Kabeya said.

His strong faith in God clashes with his pragmatic view of life and a critical view of the American lifestyle.

He’s an immigrant who strongly opposes illegal immigration. He lives at the mercy of others, but wields opinionated conservative beliefs.

“You have in front of you an opinionated guy,” Kabeya admits. In the communal area of the homeless shelter, he doesn’t shy from provocative discussion.

His thought process is systematic and calculated. It’s fitting for an engineering graduate and a statistics instructor.

“He’s inquisitive. He’s intelligent. He’s outspoken in his beliefs … He’s biblical,” said Brian McGuinness, a Bible class leader at the church Kabeya attends every Sunday.

“He’s a genuine person. With Bam, what you see is what you get. There’s no pretense. No hidden agenda.”

McGuinness, who invited Kabeya to his home for Thanksgiving dinner, said he is “blessed” to have Kabeya in his life.

In at least one way, Kabeya is equally blessed to have McGuinness around.

Before Kabeya could apply to the University of Akron, he needed Calculus III, a prerequisite for the graduate program. With $30,000 in student loans, Kabeya enrolled in the class without knowing how he would afford tuition.

His Bible group at The Chapel on Fir Hill and McGuinness, who Kabeya calls his “brother in Christ,” gathered $800 to help finance the class and jumpstart Kabeya’s education. He passed the class and entered the graduate program.

At the University of Akron, he tutors statistics and grades papers for professors. He plans to tutor on the side to supplement the $500 he earns every two weeks from his graduate assistant position.

A portion of his earnings is stashed away for an apartment after he leaves the shelter in January. The long-term residential program at Haven of Rest Ministries provides room and board for nine to 12 months. He’s been there nearly a year.

He’s not sure where he’ll live, but he’s pragmatic in choosing the right place.

“There are plenty people who will want (my) money. It is the market that will decide,” Kabeya said, though he’s leaning toward an apartment in the $300 range.

At the shelter he grabs his head, throbbing from a neglected toothache.

The tooth has become unbearable. As the winter becomes less agreeable, the pain surges and ebbs.

He’ll visit the emergency room, not because he has no insurance, but because he knows the rules.

“I am homeless with not a lot of means. I am going to the hospital,” Kabeya said. “I will go because I am aware of how the system works … The Constitution is good for me. American liberties are good for me.”

He may not be able to afford a dentist, but Kabeya can take care of himself. He educates himself on student loans and library books.

He knows how to eat and sleep free of charge.

“If he’s doing something to get himself out of the shelter and have a better life, then I am proud of him,” said Julie Kabeya, who last spoke to her brother in the summer.

Bamuamba Kabeya has plans. His ticket out of poverty is tapping into the tutoring business.

“The latest figures I heard, $9 billion industry. My share is there,” Kabeya said, confidently. “I can do it. Why? Because I have the skill; I know how to explain things; I know how to motivate people … I know my mathematics, and now I am putting statistics on top.”

“In short, I am in high demand, and I know it.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

By CAITLIN FITCH
TheNewsOutlet.org

It’s 5 p.m. on a Sunday and there’s no one at the FJKluth Art Gallery in downtown Kent.

A gray-haired woman wearing a black-and-white sweater, a long black skirt and black stockings walks around the room and periodically glances at the door.

“There are a lot of people here. Don’t you see?” said Heidrun Hultgren, with a nervous laugh.

If no one attends her planned lecture at the gallery, the rest of her month is going to be rough financially.

The out-of-work, 70-year-old art history professor depends on donations from lectures to stretch her monthly stipend enough to pay bills, buy medicine and to eat more than one meal a day.

At a few minutes after 5 p.m., three people are seated on folding, brown metal chairs in the gallery. Hultgren appears more at ease.

“Eat some food, have something to drink, look around,” she said, trying to make her guests feel welcome.

German-born Hultgren came to the United States when she was 24 with her husband, Frank, hoping to live the American dream. Through the years, the dream has faded, the economy has faltered, and her efforts to get by have fallen short.

She and her husband divorced, she lost her part-time teaching job and she has little contact with her three children. That’s just part of her story.

There is more, like the fact she has diabetes and often can’t afford insulin, that makes her story compelling.

Hultgren met and married her husband in 1964 in Germany. They moved to Ohio where they had three children. He worked as a research metallurgist at Republic Steel in Cleveland and the family lived a middle-class life in Burton.

“When I came here, I didn’t have to work because my husband made enough money to support us. But after my youngest child was in kindergarten, I went back to work.”

In 1985, Hultgren began teaching art history at Kent State University. She worked there as a part-time instructor until 2007, when she retired.

She knew that her retirement income would not be enough to sustain her so she negotiated a deal with Kent that allowed her to continue teaching on a part-time basis.

That arrangement ended in January 2011, when school officials told her that graduate assistants would be taking over the courses she had been teaching.

Hultgren is not bitter about what happened at the university, but she definitely misses the money.

She collects $1,400 each month in State Teacher Retirement Funds from her 20 years of teaching. She does not collect Social Security or any other income from her late husband because of their 1996 divorce.

She spends $600 for the mortgage on the home she owns in Kent. Another $400 each month goes for the car payment on her 2004 Jeep, which she can no longer drive because she cannot afford the gas and because of her failing eyesight. About $250 or so goes to other bills: electric, gas, insurance and phone.

She is left with about $150 each month to pay for insulin, food and anything else she might need. She must pay $103 for her insulin, with insurance making up the remaining $30.

Even before losing her teaching job, she faced financial problems.

“Since I was part time they only pay $3,000 per course. I taught usually four sometimes three courses each semester and one maybe in the summer.”

Her annual salary before January was $24,000. Now she earns about $16,800.

“I don’t have enough money to live on.”

Hultgren knows that there are people in worse shape.

She is grateful for Kent Social Services, where she eats lunch four days a week and dinner once a week.

“Only thing I have is that I do eat once a day. I eat one meal, and a can of soup. Social services really helps me out,” she said.

Christy Anderson, director of Kent Social Services, said Hultgren is one of the many people she knows going through economic difficulties, and doing the best she can.

“I’ve been working at Social Services since 1979, and these past two years have been the worst I’ve ever seen as far as poverty goes,” Anderson said. “Heidi is one of many who have had employment but as a turn of the economy lost their job and are struggling to live.”

“We see people who have next to nothing. She does her best and any way social services can help her or anyone else we can.”

Hultgren owns a home in Burton, where she and her family lived until 1996, when she moved to Kent. She is trying to sell the house, but her efforts are complicated by the fact that it has a faulty furnace and other problems.

“My house in Burton has many problems I have to fix, but cannot afford. I have tried to sell it, but in this market no one is buying,” said Hultgren. “I bought my Jeep in December and lost my job in January. After I went back to (return) it, they said they cannot buy a 2004 Jeep back, so I try to sell what I have but it is not working.”

In addition to neglecting the home in Burton, Hultgren’s meager finances also force her to neglect her health.

Her last stint in the hospital, in November, was due to a lack of insulin.

“I was in the hospital because my sugar was so high because I couldn’t afford insulin anymore,” said Hultgren. “In five years, I will probably be dead. I cannot afford my insulin and it is a necessity for my health. I will continue to try and sell what I have, but if I cannot, I don’t know what will happen,” said Hultgren.

“I just want to live.”

Hultgren said her children have not been helpful.

“They want nothing from you. It’s insulting because you put in all this work and they can’t be bothered.”

Her son Erik Hultgren of Brimfield could not be reached after multiple attempts.

Although life is bleak, there are times when there is some sunshine. When that happens she wants to extend the kindness by “paying it forward.”

“My friend once gave me two bags of groceries when I couldn’t get to the social services on time for lunch. Can you believe that? The next day, I go to the social services and a man there was upset that someone stole his sleeping bag. I went the next day to get a sleeping bag from the rescue mission for him, because it was terrible that someone stole from him the only thing he has.”

She thinks if everyone made such efforts, fewer people would struggle.

“There are so many people sleeping in the park or on benches … I could not believe. But if we do not help each other we will not progress.”

During her lecture at the art gallery, Hultgren pauses to catch her breath and find her place in the slide show. Her specialty is paleolithic to the end of the Medieval period, but she admits that her skills are diminishing.

“It takes me longer now to do things. My left eye has cataracts, so I can barely see. What took me two hours now takes me two days, this Power Point (presentation), I did in about five.”

The presentation is 111 slides long.

Near the end of the hour-long discussion, the crowd begins to get restless. A man gets up, goes to the the back of the room where the gallery manager stands a donation box, which contains the money Hultgren will get for her lecture.

The man puts some money into the box, gets a cup of cranberry juice and goes back to his seat.

Hultgren got $11 for the lecture.

German-born retired professor ‘struggling to live’ by The News Outlet

Click here to download “German-born retired professor ‘struggling to live’” (MP3)

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator (Youngstown), The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

By CAITLIN COOK
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

Alexander Zetts wasn’t sure if he would ever see his children again. Or, if they even wanted to see him again.

He had left his family in 1993 because he and his wife weren’t getting along. He fell into a relentless cycle of alcohol and drug abuse.

Then, in 2003, he learned that his eldest daughter lived near his friend’s home in Campbell. One day, he visited that friend. He walked toward a group of children who were playing and sat across the street. And waited.

When he saw his daughter, he didn’t know what to expect. But he knew what he wanted – his life back.

He saw his daughter point him out to a friend, who then walked through the crowd and asked if his name was Al Zetts. He responded loud enough for his daughter to hear, “Yes. Ask her if her name is Shortcake?”

That is how he started to build a future from the pieces of his broken past.

Now, he spends most of his days and nearly all of his nights on one of the many cots with matching green blankets at the Mahoning Valley Rescue Mission. Zetts, who has battled an addiction to alcohol and crack for 20 years of his life, has an image of what he believes normal life is and that’s what he wants.

The 53 year-old, haggard man recalls the 10-year stint when he had a wife, a job, a family and purpose. The mission on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard has been home to him for nearly 30 years.

“It’s the rock I stand on. It’s a good place,” Zetts said.

Before drugs captivated his days, Zetts worked in the auto industry. He never made a lot of money, but he was able to find enough work to support his family.

He worked at Michigan Hanger Co. of Niles in 1987 as a metal handler for a year and a half. Later, he performed bodywork as needed at various shops for more than 10 years. Zetts also worked at Bart Farms in 1988 for a few months preparing turkeys for Thanksgiving.

“Looking out for my family was my reward. It was fun going to work every day and breaking your back and coming home.”

After leaving his family, he found his need to work decreasing and his need for alcohol and drugs increasing. The last job he had was at a gas station in 2005.

“I just started picking up the alcohol again and smoking crack and taking any drug that I could possibly get to drown the pain and the anger from me leaving my family.”

For two years, he received General Relief checks of $100 a month. He now receives $200 a month in Food Stamps, which he says is enough. At the mission, he finds himself in a giving atmosphere where everyone is looking out for everyone else. To him, the process of coming in broken and working toward a better person is beautiful.

His children are now 29, 28, 23 and 21. Zetts spoke with his wife for the first time in 20 years at their daughter’s house in 2010. It was a simple conversation about the children and that was it, Zetts said.

He visits his daughter every month. His eldest son, who lives in Cleveland, travels to Youngstown to visit his father about every five to six months. Neither visit him at the mission. He still hopes to connect with his two youngest children.

His daughter, who asked that her name not be revealed, didn’t want to talk publicly about her father.

Tony Sylvester, supervisor of men’s services, at the mission believes Zetts’ developing relationships with his children are aiding his recovery. Zetts said the last time he smoked crack was a brief relapse in 2007 and before that 2003.

“She (his oldest daughter) said she didn’t want to lose me again,” Zetts recalled. “Be (a) dad. We’re around, we’re OK, we all want to see you.”

Because of this and the mission, Zetts doesn’t see himself as being poor.

The mission tailors a plan according to clients’ needs. Zetts is in transition and on the waiting list for housing. Sylvester said Zetts has had his ups and downs over the years, but is a pretty good guy.

“He has gone through different phases that I’ve seen personally. At first, he was very secretive on some of his thoughts and actions. This time around it seems like he has come around to realize he has to straighten out his life.”

For the first time, in April, Zetts started attending counseling at Turning Point. He said counseling provides him a chance to open up and express himself. The mission views this as an intrinsic part of Zetts’ recovery.

In the meantime, he helps with various chores, such as cooking or waxing floors, at the mission. He also tries to help others.
“I’m looking at their youth, I’m looking at where that could have been me and now it’s too late,” Zetts said. “I try and help out in the manner of where people are lost the same way I was, down and out on their luck – nothing to look forward to.”

For Zetts, that’s what the mission is about, coming in broken and having a support system to help move forward. He wouldn’t leave the mission if he had his way. He loves the building and believes in the overall goal.

“He wants to be seen as somebody who is a good person, which is difficult for him at times because of his past and history,” Sylvester said. “He has to get past a lot of stuff we’ve seen in him all these years.”

Zetts said the mission gave him a second chance at life and he is wary of leaving the mission for an apartment operated by Meridian Services.

Sylvester believes the move will be positive for Zetts, but there may be some setbacks along the way. However, he isn’t sure if Zetts will ever again be able to earn a living. His right arm has 35 breaks in it, caused from fighting. The injuries limit his ability to perform manual labor.

“That is difficult to say right now, his age is defiantly a factor,” he said.

He is cognitive of the high and numbness drugs gave him as he talks about living with residents in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.

“I’m balancing the scales. It’s too easy to fall backwards,” Zetts said.

“Once you start drinking and getting high you forget the concept of what you’re actually trying to accomplish for your future. You wind up hurt.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

German-born retired professor ‘struggling to live’ by The News Outlet

Click here to download “German-born retired professor ‘struggling to live’” (MP3)

German born Hultgren immigrated to the states when she was 24. She and her husband decided to live the American dream.

“I came direct to Ohio. I met my husband at the university in Germany and so when he came back to America he wanted me to come over”

Hultgren was married for 20-years and raised three children. And she worked as a part-time instructor at Kent State University, retired five years ago and went back to work to make ends meet. But then last January the unexpected happened.

“The director came up to me and said “Heidy we don’t have any money for you anymore, TA’s have to teach the courses, it’s as simple as that.”

The Art department at Kent State said part time faculty is hired as needed, and that Hultgren wasn’t fired, she just wasn’t renewed.

Since then Hultgren struggles to get by.

She tries to make extra money by giving art lectures but she doesn’t always do so well. She only made eleven dollars for One lecture at the FLJKluth Art Galley.

NAT SOUND HER LECTURE

Christy Anderson, is the Director of Kent Social Services. She’s been working there since 1979 and says these past two years are the worst she’s seen and Hultgrens case is not unusual.

“Certainly there are others like her who were employed and never imagined they’d be in a situation where they’d be getting free meals by no means is she an exception in that regard.”

Anderson says frustration turns to hopelessness

“I know that there are people like Heidy who feel like they’re doing everything right and everything they possibly can and the economic situation is just so difficult right now and they’re almost developing a sense of despair not knowing where they can turn because they’re doing everything they can to help themselves.”

Hultgren receives 14-hundred dollars per month from a retired teachers fund. Her monthly expenses include a $600 mortgage payment, $400 car payment, and $150 in utilities. At the end of the month Hultgren is left with only 100 dollars.

“It doesn’t work so well because I have to pay everything, especially gas I have a gas furnace and I’m already horrified about how much that will cost me because the house is from the 1920s.”

Hultgren lives close to Kent Social Services and relies on the agency for food.

“Only thing I have is that I do eat once a day, I eat one meal.”

Health problems like diabetes have also contributed to Hulgrens financial problems.

“Well right now my retena is damaged so I actually can’t see or read only from my left eye. All the traffic signs half of them are gone. I just got a bill for $159 from that..l The one from the blood sugar I don’t know yet, I was already five times in debt.”

The 70 year-old Hultgren visits the hospital frequently.

“I don’t like to be one of those lab rats yes”

Hultgren predicts she’ll die within five years.

“Most likely I’ll be dead I will be cremated and my ashes will be spread.”

For the News Outlet…I’m Caitlin Fitch

ACTION TO CLEAN UP MAHONING SLOWS TO A TRICKLE

By CAITLIN COOK
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

External Link: Details of the Environmental Dredging Reconnaissance Study (click here)

Luis Velazquez tosses his fishing line in the Mahoning River in waters that maintain an easy flow downstream before falling over a small dam just beyond his cast.

Download as PDF: Mahoning River Project

The Mahoning River Environmental Dredging Reconnaissance Study addresses problems and opportunities for ecosystem restoration related to contaminated sediments in the lower Mahoning River, located in northeastern Ohio.

On the river’s banks, oil residue creates a thin silhouette where the water meets land.

It’s the Mahoning — what former Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams tags as the “most grossly underused” physical asset in the Mahoning Valley.

The river has been so contaminated that in 1988, the Ohio Department of Health warned against contact with sediments and fish consumption along the lower 28 miles of the river, which includes the area flowing through Youngstown. It’s most often waist-high but can get up to 12 feet deep, and it’s seldom wider than a good stone’s throw.

Velazquez, 30, a native West Sider, has heard stories all his life of pollutants lurking below the waters he has fished for 10 years and camped along as a child.

He said he is not deterred and will continue fishing the waters.

But he never eats the fish.

Watch video of YSU team testing river water

Many at YSU study waterway in depth

By Caitlin Cook
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

Without hesitating, Lauren Schroeder trudges into the Mahoning River with this warning: What was seeping into his weathered, once-white tennis shoes is “nasty stuff.”

Knee high in water, with a fishermen’s hat atop his head, Schroeder, a retired professor of evolution and ecology at Youngstown State University, said he has been monitoring the river’s water for decades.

“In the 1960s, there was an environmental movement that was just awakening and a big press for environmental organizations, environmental studies and cleaning up the environment. I got caught up in that,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder and several of his YSU colleagues have spent decades studying the polluted river and trying to develop solutions for it.

More than 30 years after Schroeder’s work with the river began, however, the Mahoning remains highly polluted despite collaborative efforts from river cleanup enthusiasts.

In studies performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, significant levels of toxic chemicals were found in the sediment, including heavy metals such as lead, zinc, copper, iron, cadmium, chromium and organic toxins.

“The heavy metals generally are not toxic to humans by contact. But they enter the food chain, thereby adversely affecting the biotic life of the river,” Schroeder said. “Bottom-feeding fish like carp and bullheads take up and concentrate the metals in their tissues. Eating these contaminated fish could cause adverse effects in humans.”

In a study designed by Schroeder, YSU researchers want to identify unique algae organisms called diatoms — thinking that they could help identify the river’s most-polluted areas.

Diatoms reflect the quality of the environment in which they live. The sea shell-like diatoms naturally secrete a cell wall that is like glass, which acts as a barrier and allows diatoms to preserve themselves, Schroeder said. There are more than 300 types of diatoms found throughout the Mahoning.

“Each one has a particular set of environmental conditions where it grows the best in, and these conditions are different for each of these diatoms. So, if we go look at the diatoms that are present and we know what conditions they prefer, we can judge the quality of the river based on the computation of these diatom communities,” Schroeder said.

Scott Martin, chairman of YSU’s civil engineering department, said many at the university have been attracted to studying the river.

Martin first became involved with the river watershed basin more than 27 years ago. He and a graduate student work with Schroeder’s research to prioritize dams for removal in an effort to restore the river’s natural flow.

“That decision will ultimately be made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, who would need to provide permits for any dam removal,” Martin said.

In the YSU biology department, Carl Johnston is working on sediment remediation. The study looks to identify the indigenous bacteria that live within the contaminated sediment and apply what they learn to a cleanup.

“Once we work with the organisms, we may be able to add either oxygen or some other nutrient or amendments that will stimulate the native bacteria,” he said.

Johnston said much testing will be needed to find the best way of treating different parts of the river because of the differences in pollution levels and types.

A river that was choked by pollutants for decades remains even further strangled by multigovernment finger-pointing. Millions of dollars have been spent on suggestions. Little has been spent on action, however.

Despite years of conversation and study and promises of funding and support, the Mahoning is no closer to clean today than it was 30 years ago when companies stopped dumping pollutants into the tributary.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a $500,000 study in 1999 and determined that regardless of how much the water quality improves over the years, the Mahoning cannot be deemed restored until the miles of contaminated sediments are addressed.

Bill DeCicco spent much of his 20-year public career as the leader of CASTLO, the economic development agency for Poland Township and the cities of Campbell, Struthers, Lowellville and Coitsville. He always thought the river would be cleansed in his lifetime.

“If you were here in 2005 and said, ‘Bill, well what do you think about cleaning up the Mahoning River?’ I’d say, ‘Well 2005, we finish up this study and by 2017, 2020 at the latest, we’ll have a clean river.’”

STEEL’S LEGACY

The nine major steel mills along the Mahoning were Republic Steel Corp. Warren plant; Republic Steel Niles plant; U.S. Steel Corp. McDonald Works; Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co’s Brier Hill Works; U.S. Steel Corp. Ohio Works; Republic Steel Corp., Youngstown; Youngstown Sheet & Tube Campbell Works; and Sharon Steel Corp., Lowellville.

The U.S. EPA reported that the average net discharge from those nine steel plants exceeded 400,000 pounds per day of suspended solids, 70,000 pounds per day of oil and grease, 9,000 pounds per day of ammonia-nitrogen, 500 pounds per day of cyanide, 600 pounds per day of phenolics and 800 pounds per day of zinc.

For perspective, the million-gallon Monongahela River Ashland oil spill of 1988 was characterized as one of the most severe inland oil spills in the nation’s history, that same report said.

By comparison, however, the much smaller Mahoning River chronically received the equivalent of more than four Ashland oil spills every year for decades.

The contamination stems from years of long-idled steel and other industrial companies dumping waste into the river and using the water from the river to cool products they manufactured.

Although steel companies have long since shuttered their operations in the Valley, the toxic remnants they left have survived.

A $3.5 million Corps feasibility report explored methods to extract contaminated sediments. The report called for dredging 750,000 cubic yards of in-river and riverbank contamination, and for the removal of seven small dams.

Some experts believe the dams hold the river hostage to years of industry. The suggested dredging, along with the removal of dams, will restore the river to its natural free-flowing course, according to the Corps report.

Mike Settles of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said the Mahoning was most recently studied from 2006 to 2007 along the upper region upstream from the Leavittsburg dam in Trumbull County. The lower Mahoning was studied in the 1980s and 1990s. A new study will be conducted next year.

WHO PAYS?

Cleanup has been stalled in Phase 2 of a feasibility study by the Corps.

Eastgate Regional Council of Governments became involved as the community sponsor in the Corps’ study. Rachel McCartney of Eastgate says the river falls under the jurisdiction of the Corps, and that is where the cleanup funds initially were going to originate.

“Involving a federal agency, such as the Corps, has its positive and negative sides. Of course, we are now experiencing the negative side — a stalled project,” McCartney said.

Officials offer varying explanations for the delay:

Disagreements about the proper approach to development.

Weak environmental laws.

Timid political leadership.

People unwilling to demand action.

The major stumbling block, however, is determining who should pay for the project with an estimated cost of $150 million.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, said the factories that polluted the river, including many now-defunct steel companies, are legally responsible to pay. He said it is unlikely to be able to collect from them or from the companies that took over their former locations.

U.S. Steel, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, is the only company still in existence that once operated along the river.

“I would think it’d be highly improbable, if not impossible, for the local communities to go after these polluters. This is a federal issue,” Williams said.

In an interview while he was still mayor, Williams listed the cleanup of the river among the top 10 priorities for the city, but realized that little or nothing is happening to advance the effort.

Williams, who is now director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, isn’t sure if the river will ever be clean enough for recreation.

“I’m always hopeful,” he said. “But it is a difficult and tedious process.”

WHO SHOULD DO IT?

Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone, who has been involved in city government for 28 years, said he is no longer optimistic about chances for a cleanup.

“It’s been talked about for almost 40 years,” Sammarone said. “Everyone is in favor of doing it. It’s just how do you fund it?”

Williams said the problem is that no one appears to be leading the cleanup effort despite the fact that several organizations are chartered for such a purpose and people draw paychecks for the work.

Daniel Mamula, who was hired in 2009 as the manager of the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative, said he believes the Corps is supposed to be coordinating and leading the effort to find funding.

Carmen Rozzi, the initial project manager for the Corps, says that’s not his agency’s job.

Instead, he says it is up to Congress to decide if it wants to allocate funding for the project.

“For federal involvement, a federal agency needs two acts of Congress in order to accomplish anything,” Rozzi said. “Any federal agency needs authority to accomplish the mission then must seek the appropriations.”

Rozzi recently helped craft new legislation for Congress that he hopes will help give their efforts a stronger bite.

Mamula said his agency is working to lure companies to locate businesses along the river. Since the initiation of the corridor initiative, using grants from the Clean Ohio Fund and the Federal Brownfields Program, 450 acres of brownfield sites are either remediated or under the process of being cleaned. Of that, 125 acres of brownfields meet commercial or industrial standards in the various communities along the Mahoning River.

“We want to do this as business development as well as recreational and environmental. Trying to keep that balance is really tough because the pressure is on for jobs and business,” Mamula said.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Lori Jordan, 43, of Austintown doesn’t fish the Mahoning but enjoys the tranquility she finds along its banks.

“If they were to clean up the river, it would at least give people some positivity and hope,” Jordan said.

The last studies, performed in 1996 by the Ohio EPA, found high levels of toxic chemicals such as lead, zinc, copper, iron, cadmium, chromium and organic toxins.

Mamula is skeptical the river ever will be fully clean but believes sections will be addressed.

Mamula acknowledged Trumbull County is naturally ahead of recreational development with Packard and Perkins parks, in addition to bike trails and easy river access. He would like recreation development near the Covelli Center, such as a bike path.

Despite the contact ban, Mamula said he does not understand why the river cannot be used for casual recreation now. “People are using the river more and more,” Mamula said.

Williams, however, said he would hate to see too much time or money spent on developing recreational areas until the water is deemed safe.

“The concern would be, we’d locate businesses right there on the banks, and the business says, ‘Hey, it’s fine; it’s great.’ Then three years later, we get this project rolling. All of the sudden, that land needs to be a staging area for the equipment or for the material that’s dredged, and now we’ve got a business in an area that doesn’t make sense for cleaning the river.”

Sammarone, however, said he welcomes business along the banks of the Mahoning.

“You come in here with a business, we’ll bend over backwards to get you here,” he said.

OPINIONS RUN DEEP

Such disparity in opinions is common in this debate.

One person or organization wants to move one direction; another has a different vision. N othing happens.

Several groups and projects continue to push the cleanup and are receiving local and federal funding as well as private donations to sustain work related to the Mahoning River.

For instance, the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative received an $80,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development to study establishing “a regional urban economical development and brownfield revitalization plan.”

Other organizations that spend time or money working on development or cleanup of the river are the Mahoning River Consortium, Mahoning River of Opportunity, Mahoning River Corridor Mayors’ Association, Eastgate, CASTLO, and Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.

Rozzi said it’s doubtful the river will be cleaned if the funds cannot be allocated for the proposed $150 million cleanup project.

The Department of Justice, however, was successful in providing the Ohio EPA with about $8.4 million — $2.9 million from LTV and $5.5 million from Copperweld — from their settlements with those steel companies. The funds can be used for cleanup projects along the Mahoning.

“There’s been no indication that this money must be used by a certain date or it disappears or will be dedicated to something else,” said Settles of the Ohio EPA.

Rozzi said there is nothing the Corps can do right now, however.

“We don’t have the authorization to do anything on the Mahoning River,” he said. “This is a challenging period for us authorization- wise.

“The determination has to be made how do you dredge, where do you dredge, what do you do with the sediment and where is the money going to come from?”

Those are the questions no one can still answer.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including The Vindicator, WYSU-FM Radio, Akron Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio in Akron.

Houses of worship use innovation to battle losses in members, income

By JOEL ANDERSON
TheNewsOutlet.org

Nothing is safe during a recession. Not even the house of God.

Coupling a down economy with a falling population has been a struggle for many — but not all — Mahoning Valley churches.

“What we’ve noticed is that given the economic times we live in — and the place we live in — that our giving, at least our Sunday offertory, has been kind of flat,” said the Rev. John Jerek, vicar for clergy at the Diocese of Youngstown.

“It hasn’t really increased, certainly not the way it would have probably 10 years ago,” Father Jerek added.

From 2008 to 2010, St. Luke Roman Catholic Church in Boardman has seen a steep drop in offerings. In September 2008, the church brought in nearly $53,000. In 2010, the sum dropped to $40,000.

It’s a Valley problem, but it’s also a national issue, said Sharon Kent, the office manager for St. Luke’s.

“Our frustration with the changing times is also shared with many churches in the Diocese of Youngstown and across the United States,” she said.

There is one religion that doesn’t have to worry about tithing and offerings.

Those practicing the Jewish faith are required to pay dues in order to be part of a synagogue. The Congregation Rodef Sholom website lists a yearly family membership at $875 and a single membership at $504. These can be paid yearly or in installments. The synagogue is in Youngstown.

This isn’t a financial model that appeals to other churches, however.

“If I were to suggest this to the pastor, he would throw me out of the church,” Kent said.

A recent Faith Communities Today survey measured many aspects of church health. The study was the work of David A. Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford, Conn.

The results showed mainstream church populations are growing older, are not appealing to young people, their offerings are on the decline and are less healthy than minority churches.

According to FACT, 80 percent of American congregations were hurt by the recession. From 2008 to 2010, nearly 9 percent annually had some kind of financial troubles. That compares with the 2000 to 2005 results, which showed a decrease of 4 percent annually.

Kent sees this decline in her church, too. “This is “being discussed at practically every meeting,” she said.

Holy Family Parish in Poland said its offerings haven’t been affected by the recession, however. Susan Bradshaw, Holy Family Parish’s bookkeeper, said the church has been doing rather well.

“Our numbers have only gone down 1.16 percent between 2009 and 2010,” she said.

The survey also says the number of congregations trying innovative worship services increased, but the effort had little effect. To be more contemporary, praise bands were introduced to many congregations.

Black churches have seen similar patterns that are reflected in the survey. At Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church on Youngstown’s South Side, the Rev. C. Shawn Tyson said his giving at the church has been on an increase.

“Our church offerings have been within the 5 percent range of where they were before the recession hit,” he said. The Rev. Mr. Tyson said he was shocked to see such stability in the Valley when it was not the reality in his former city of Indianapolis. 

“I used to be a preacher in Indianapolis, and that church was on a downturn between 2008 and 2009. I was surprised to see things on an upswing in Youngstown,” he said.

The Rev. Kenneth Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church on the South Side, has seen similar patterns.

“Our offerings have stayed the same. There’s been a slight decrease with the economy, but our members are still able to give,” the Rev. Mr. Simon added.

While it may seem odd to see a rock band in a church, Jeff Crouse, musical director at Common Ground Community Church in North Lima, said that shouldn’t be the case.

“We play some contemporary music, but we also play the older hymns – but we give them a different feel. And we haven’t had much resistance from the older members,” he said.

Crouse said his church also uses programs, such as Goodness Grows, to help encourage more church involvement.

“Common Ground was built [on the site of the former] Mellinger’s Nursery and we kept the greenhouses. So now we teach urban kids how to grow food.”

Kent says another way to fill pews and plates is by listening.

“We’re really trying to bring in some of the high school- and college-age kids. We listen to their concerns and what they would like changed in the church,” she said. “It’s not all about the money. It’s the journey through life.”

Fewer people are on that journey, however.

The second-largest and fastest-growing affiliation is called the “nones.” This group, which responded as having no affiliation, is impacting all churches including the No. 1 affiliation, the Roman Catholic Church.

According to the study, the average membership in a congregation dropped from 130 to 108 during the decade. In 2000, average attendance was 42.2 percent. In 2010, that number rose to 48.9 percent.

Carolyn Funk, financial secretary at First Presbyterian Church of Youngstown, said her church reflects this trend, with about 80 people per Sunday, many of them older.

“When I started coming to this church 10 years ago, there were four little old women who sat in the fourth pew from the front. Now they’re all gone,” she said. “We only have one child in the church now.”

View the survey at www.faithcommunitiestoday.org.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including The Vindicator, WYSU-FM Radio, Akron Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio in Akron.

YOUNGSTOWN

Ken Stanislaw and fellow members of Lansingville Block Watch, the oldest such group in the city, call one another monthly on telephone land lines to organize meetings and stay informed.

Stanislaw, its president, just learned how to use a speakerphone and recently accomplished his first three-way call.

So don’t expect his group of 10 or so — mostly senior citizens — to use email, Facebook or Twitter anytime soon.

But Lansingville is an exception. Youngstown’s block watches and neighborhood groups are beginning to flourish — growing from 10 or so a couple years ago to more than 45 now. And social media is fueling much of the neighborly connections and activism, with eight using Facebook.

Debra Weaver, member of the Wick Park Neighborhood Association and creator of Youngstown’s Grey to Green Festival, says social networks are key tools for neighborhood action.

“We use Facebook and Twitter for basically any activities or meetings. It’s fabulous. I can’t even imagine trying to organize without it at this point,” Weaver said.

One message on the Wick Facebook page reads, “Okay. Who’s up for some late-evening walks in the newly brightened Wick Park this week or next week? I’m thinking about 8:30 or 9 p.m., just after dusk. Let’s get a group of at least five people together. Who’s in?”

By 12:25 p.m. that day, the post already had 14 comments underneath, all from interested participants.

Phil Kidd, a community organizer at Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, works with the Youngstown-area watch groups. He said about eight neighborhood groups actively use Facebook.

The MVOC Facebook page currently has 371 likes, and its page was created in September 2009. The Wick Park Neighborhood Association’s Facebook page started in March and has 111 likes.

The 7th Ward Citizens Coalition’s Facebook page was created this August and has 132 members.

Treez Please has 170 members on Facebook; it began in May 2009.

If there is a local king of social media organizing, it is Kidd. He created the civic-minded Defend Youngstown movement six years ago, which soon found a niche on a website and on Facebook.

His Defend Youngstown Facebook page, created this July, has 5,478 likes. But it had the instant benefit of his years of personal networking. He also uses his personal Facebook page and the MVOC web page.

Kidd also assists block- watch groups in producing video content and posting each video on YouTube. He recently posted a video for the Handel’s neighborhood group and the 7th Ward Citizens Coalition.

Kidd said blogs work well, too. They allow members to communicate with other groups and post meeting dates, meeting minutes and links.

“They serve the purpose of what a block watch actually needs. Groups are now able to network across the city,” he said.

Adam Earnheardt, associate professor of communication studies at Youngstown State University and author of “The Modern Communicator,” said social-networking sites are more “geographical and will have more success because they open up so many community channels.”

He added these sites provide users with a “virtue of interest in the same thing.”

One of Weaver’s big interests is the Grey to Green Festival. Weaver used Facebook to inform others of the festival’s new focus and goals for this year’s September event.

“This years’ festival emphasizes climate change and the devastating impact of global warming as we focus on making personal commitments to reduce our carbon footprint,” she posted.

Around the city, Facebook and Twitter are used to organize park cleanups, missing dog searches, house move-ins, raffle tickets and local fundraisers.

Kidd believes these ideas are in their infancy and will grow.

But some groups will hold onto their phone trees — as with Lansingville.

Stanislaw and members of the Lansingville block watch meet once a month at St. Matthias Church on Cornell Street. He does not expect to see Facebook in the near future.

“Most [group members] don’t have computers so that [idea] is out. I myself don’t use the computer as often or as much as I would like,” Stanislaw said.

Despite the tech gap, Lansingville meeting topics usually consist of crime concerns — just like their digital cousins.

“It’s usually about who did what, speeding on Cooper Street,” Stanislaw said. “And we have a resident prostitute. She is talked about a lot.”

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including The Vindicator, WYSU-FM Radio, Akron Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio in Akron.

By Adrienne Bish
TheNewsOutlet.org

Occupy Wall Street continues to draw a big crowd in New York and other cities. But here in Youngstown, it’s a different story.

The number of people involved in Occupy Youngstown varies from day to day. However, you can count them on one hand.

The message they want to get across is mixed.

One protestor, who didn’t want to be identified, says he just want to create awareness.

“We’re trying to get more people realizing what’s going on in the country. And from there we can start making changes, but if no one knows what’s going on, no one can make changes.)”

Jarrod Badgett, another member, says poverty is the real issue.

“ The main thing is just to get people to kind of focus on why the economy did what it did back in 2008 and what it’s been doing since then. And just to let people know that this financialized economy is the reason that we have these rising poverty numbers.

Rebecca Vulcan said she’s unhappy with the economic distribution.

“For me it’s about the injustice, the economic injustice in the world. And just the fact that so few of the citizens of America are holding so much of the wealth.”

The Oakland protest has erupted in chaos while peaceful demonstrations continue in many other cities.

The Occupy Wall Street protest began in mid September. A poll from the Opinion Research Corp. says 36 percent of Americans say they agree with the overall position of Occupy Wall Street, while 19 percent say they disagree.

The Youngstown protest is set to end Nov. 8.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration between the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, The Vindicator, WYSU-FM Radio, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

Few demonstrate in downtown Youngstown by The News Outlet

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News Outlet reporter Doug Livingston looks at the reasons for the disparity.

Mahoning Valley lags in offering AP college classes by The News Outlet

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By Loren Thomas
The NewsOutlet

Mary Lou Dodson’s interest in school issues started years ago when her daughter was a freshman in high school and taking a science course that had no permanent teacher for six weeks.

Dodson attended a school board meeting to raise concerns. And by the end of the meeting, she decided that she could make a difference as a member of the board.

That was 31 years ago and today, after years of politics and debates, Dodson is now president of the Springfield Local School Board.

Even after all this time, Dodson said, she still feels like she can affect change and points to the construction of a high school as an example.

Dodson is among those on the front line of a challenging time for school boards in the state. Much of their time is spent managing budget shortfalls, battling dwindling enrollment and fighting for students being lured by charter and private schools.

On paper, the Ohio School Board Association says a school board member helps set educational goals and establishes policy for a school system based upon state laws and community values.

Although their regular duties are simply to attend one or two meetings a month, typically for pay of about $100 a meeting, these board members find themselves doing a lot more.

“We roll with the changes,” Dodson said. “You have to.”

Dodson said her motivation to remain on the board long after her own children have moved on is a love of public education.

But far too often, she said, much of the time is spent on financial issues.

Lisa Mansfield, a member of the Akron Board of Education, also laments the amount of time she and other board members spend on financial issues.

“Finance is a huge issue,” Mansfield said. “I wish it was an issue we didn’t have, but it’s always been there.”

She said school finances are constantly changing and a big contributing factor in Akron has been the growth of charter schools.

“They [charter schools] have a marketing budget that they can put towards a name like ‘Hope’ and ‘Imagine,’ ” Mansfield said. “Those names can catch people’s attention.”

A bright sign, Mansfield said, is that many of the students who leave the district often return.

“What parents are then finding out is that after two or three years their child isn’t thriving in the charter school,” Mansfield said. “So then we get them back, but they are several years behind their peers and we have to catch them up.

“It’s a strange thing to compete with someone who is taking funding and children and then giving back a product that they are not keeping up with.”

At the same time the board is forced to make cuts, Mansfield said, there is pressure to meet or exceed state academic standards.

“Compared to the big eight [Cleveland, Canton, Cincinnati, Columbus, Youngstown, Dayton, Toledo and Akron] we are doing well,” Mansfield said. “We want to be compared to the rest of Summit County and the rest of Northeast Ohio, and we are making strides.”

Like Akron, one of Springfield’s big issues is declining enrollment.

“There are not a lot of jobs, so people begin to leave the district,” Dodson said.

Springfield plans to close Roosevelt Elementary as it works on the new high school.

“This [construction] is the highlight of my experience here as a school board member,” Dodson said. “It is definitely a wonderful thing that people put their trust in the school board to deliver them a good school.”

Cindy Collins, a Springfield board member since 2009, is proud that the district is bouncing back from a state-imposed “fiscal emergency.”

“We are managing to live within our means,” Collins said. “Having a bond issue on the ballot pass the first time and putting a levy on there and not having it pass five times shows what the parents and people want.’’

“People hold us responsible for what we spend,” Dodson said. “Sometimes they get a little ticked on what we don’t spend.”

A key to a successful board, Dodson and Collins agree, is being able to work together and with the superintendent.

“We all have our opinions,” Collins said. “But we listen to each other and end up making good decisions.”

Mansfield said she works to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.

“The most wonderful part about being a member is being a voice for the little people,” Mansfield said. “And those little people include the 6-foot-3 juniors and seniors all the way down to the little Head Start kids.”

For Mansfield, real success comes at graduation, whether it be in spring or fall, for those high school students who needed summer classes to graduate.

“To look out in the crowd and watch their parents cheer for them is worth every second.”

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, Kent State and the University of Akron, the Akron Beacon Journal, the Canton Repository, Rubber City Radio, WYSU radio and the Youngstown Vindicator.

By Bethany English 
and Julie Sickel
The NewsOutlet

Being a councilman can be a bit like a deer in the headlights. And sometimes the deer in the headlights can actually be the issue.

The question of whether to cull the herd was just one of the tough issues on the plate of Hudson Councilman-at-Large William Wooldredge, who was elected two years ago.

As area village and city residents go to the polls this week to elect representatives to council, incumbents were asked to talk about the kind of work they do — the routine and the unusual.

They balance budgets, fix highways, intervene in neighborhood disputes and deal with dogs and varmints.

Wooldredge, a longtime participant in Hudson affairs, looked at the records to make decisions about the growing deer problem.

According to police, 57 animal-related accidents were reported from Sept. 30, 2010, to the end of September this year.

The city has opted to allow bow hunting to cull the herd.

While the most recent number actually indicates a drop in crashes from a total of 60 in 2010 and 62 in 2009, Wooldredge said, residents seem to be in agreement about thinning out the population.

“My concern with [the deer] is that it’s a safety issue,” Wooldredge said.

Hank Novak, council member for the village of Richfield, said he has faced wildlife headaches of his own.

After a period of heavy rainfall in Richfield, part of a roadway eroded and the area became a driving hazard. Novak said the village could schedule roadwork only during certain times of the year because construction might disturb the sleep habits of a bat in the area.

“People are in danger, the road is falling away and we can’t fix it because we’re gonna wake up a bat,” he said. “It just sounds so ridiculous, but that’s the way government works.”

Novak, 66, said he joined the Village Council shortly after he retired as an engineering manager at a medical company.

“I thought it would be a good way to use my managing skills,” he said. “I find I don’t need my managing skills; I need patience.”

But while resident complaints and animal problems can take a front seat some of the time, most cities and villages are keeping busy with a struggle to make up for a reduction in state funds.

Less money

In Tallmadge, the city has already begun to consolidate services to save money on full-time employees and to prepare for future cuts.

The city combined its police dispatch center with the nearby city of Stow and merged its building department with Summit County. The city income tax has also been outsourced to the Regional Income Tax Agency for collection.

Robert Maguire, at-large council member, said Tallmadge council members are charged with balancing what’s best for the residents with what the city can afford.

The city recently approved an industrial rezoning on its border with Brimfield Township to accommodate a factory to be built in the township. The approval, Maguire said, came in spite of concerns from Tallmadge residents about flooding in their backyards.

The factory would bring 100 jobs to the area, he said, and City Council took steps to ensure runoff from the factory wouldn’t flood neighboring properties.

“Obviously, everybody is fighting to get jobs, jobs, jobs and, in Ohio, our primary funding source is income tax in the municipalities,” Maguire said. “The more jobs we can attract to Tallmadge, well, we share that revenue with Brimfield.”

Local officials in Hudson can afford to focus on deer because the statewide budget cuts putting other cities on edge aren’t affecting that community too much right now.

“I think we’re in a relatively good position to weather the storm we’re going through,” Wooldredge said.

In the village of Silver Lake, Jerry Budrevich, a district council member, said he thinks the village needs to be realistic in the budget battle by cutting into built-up reserve funds.

“We have this rainy day fund that we’ve built up over time when the village had a surplus,” Budrevich said. “Times are tough and now seems to be the time to use it.”

In Richfield, Novak said state cuts are coming at a time when the village owns an excess of property.

“We have hundreds of acres of land that the village owns with no money and no plans to develop it,” he said.

Novak added that any development projects the village does have planned are dependent on federal money.

“There’s strings attached and it’s just not the best plan,” he said.

Attracting businesses

Green, on the other hand, is developing its land by encouraging companies to set up shop in the city.

“Now we’re back to trying to keep businesses and bring businesses in,” Councilman Dave France said.

The city soon will add Summa and Akron General wellness centers. France said some of the residents in his ward are hesitant because the hospitals will add a lot more traffic.

“That whole corridor is going to change with those businesses coming in, but they’re bringing jobs and income tax to the city,” France said.

But the new development is also dredging up old concerns about storm water. France said he dealt with complaints about water problems when he first joined council in 1994. After completing a study about the issue, the city made some improvements and the complaints disappeared.

“And now the storm water’s back. Development has caused some issues that we didn’t notice before,” France said.

Green Councilman John “Skip” Summerville, like many other elected officials, takes the good with the bad because all their responsibilities boil down to helping others.

“I really like helping people when they have problems,” Summerville said. “When you can help your neighbors, why wouldn’t you? It feels really good.”

Budrevich of Silver Lake echoed those sentiments.

“I think everybody in the village truly cares about the village and I think it keeps everybody a little closer. It feels like a neighborhood rather than just another place to have your house,” he said.

But being a politician can bring a mixed bag of problems.

When Summerville joined council, he knew concerns about potholes and snow plowing would land at his doorstep. But he didn’t anticipate the neighborhood squabbles about boats in backyards and garbage can placement that have also found their way to him.

“I was surprised how many neighbor disputes I get called on. I get called on things like, ‘My neighbor keeps his garbage can on my side of the house and I don’t like it,’ ” Summerville said.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, Kent State University, the University of Akron, the Akron Beacon Journal, the Canton Repository, Rubber City Radio, WYSU radio and the Youngstown Vindicator.

Bethany English is a senior magazine journalism major at Kent State University. This past summer, she interned as a features reporter with The Columbus Dispatch. She has also written for The Daily Kent Stater, Kent State University’s newspaper and Artemis, a women’s issues magazine. Of the stories she’s written, she is most proud of her story about the inequity of male and female professors at Kent State and the research the university is conducting to lessen the gap. She gets her news from online news sites such as The Washington Post and The New York Times for national news or The Record Courier for local news.

Julie Sickel is a senior news major at Kent State University. In addition to interning with the News Outlet, she is currently the city editor for the Daily Kent Stater and the managing editor of Fusion Magazine. She came to Kent State from Plaistow, N.H. to be a scholarship member of the field hockey team, but left before her senior season to focus on journalism. She hopes to pursue a career in investigative or public affairs reporting. The story she is most proud of is her three-month investigation of the process by which the Kent State Board of Trustees awards the university president his annual performance bonus.

It was the middle of July and 7 inches of rain had fallen in Coventry Township within 24 hours.

As the waters rose, streets, cars and houses were quickly flooded.

So was Tom Seese’s phone.

As a Coventry Township trustee — a part-time job that pays $11,318 — Seese was deluged with angry calls as rushing water cracked an apartment foundation, forcing an evacuation, and homeowners watched in horror as garages and basements filled.

It was the “100 Year Rain,” and Seese was expected to do something about it.

Welcome to the job of township trustee.

Scores of people in the 
Akron-Canton area are on Tuesday’s ballot seeking the job, and voters will decide whom they want most to handle the affairs of one of Ohio’s most basic governmental units.

The challenges — and expectations — are often surprising.

In rural Hiram, Steve Pancost, who makes $11,318 each year, said his job as a trustee is to work for the good of the community and to keep it moving forward.

Trustees hire and fire workers and worry about life-and-death response times for EMS, firefighters and police. Meanwhile, they fight snow and field calls about potholes.

Pancost and Seese say they do it because they receive satisfaction from helping people directly. Other trustees said the same.

They said that trustees are the middlemen between the citizens and higher levels of government.

Seese said that after the flood, he was on the phone to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to get funding to move the water out of the affected areas.

But moving water from one area raised the risk of creating floods elsewhere, Seese said. At each turn, there was another challenge. Now, Seese is looking into grants and federal money to help compensate the residents for damage the flood has caused.

Pancost said one of his biggest issues this year is citizen concern over Hiram College wanting the village to annex about 80 acres for development. That was a reason he ran for office, and he believes it is his responsibility to keep citizens aware of the project.

“I wanted to be on the front of that opposition. The community wants a say in what is going to happen to that piece of property,” he said.

Pancost, a life resident of Hiram, said he feels like he is making a difference in securing the township’s rural lifestyle.

“You want to see things stay the way they were when you were a kid,” he said.

Pancost was recently successful in securing almost $50,000 in grants through the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council that he hopes will help save on township energy costs. With that money, the township purchased a $10,000 thermal imaging camera for the fire department and performed about $35,000 worth of improvements to two township buildings.

Nancy Vines, a Shalersville Township trustee, said she is proud of her Portage County community, and that’s why she ran for trustee.

Vines said much of her work pertains to maintaining the 24 miles of township roads and working with the schools.

The township purchased a vacant Crestwood school building and transformed it into two separate entities.

“We have a Portage County school at one end and a day care at the other end, so by sharing utility costs, we were able to keep the school in our community rather than it being sold and used for something else,” Vines said.

The possibility that horizontal deep-well gas drilling, known as hydraulic fracking, will come to Shalersville is another issue, she said. There are residents for and against it.

The township, meanwhile, needs to protect the roads the heavy equipment would use and might require drillers to post bonds to protect the roads, she said.

Always on call

For trustees, work often continues after business hours. Trustees still answer email and phone calls at home. Most of them have their cell phone or home phone number available to the public.

Becky Corbett, a trustee from Bath, said that even when she is on vacation, she participates in the town meetings via Skype (a live Internet video messaging website) or by telephone.

Seese said he gets at least one call every week and most of these calls are complaints. He said the calls can fluctuate with the weather, too. Residents want to know when the snowplow is coming past their house.

Pancost feels it’s important to remain in contact with the people he serves. He frequently seeks feedback from citizens about community projects.

“I like to believe my phone is always available for anyone to call me for anything,” Pancost said. “I like to stay in tune with the people and talk with them to make sure they’re happy.”

Trustees are allowed to have some fun, too. Their jobs can’t be serious all the time.

Vines recalls taking her grandmother to the township-sponsored senior days. About seven or eight years ago, she brought this tradition back, and every second Monday of the month is seniors day, with dinner and bingo to follow.

“That’s one of my joys because seniors really have fun. They want to do it every week,” she said.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, Kent State University, the University of Akron, the Akron Beacon Journal, the Canton Repository, Rubber City Radio, WYSU radio and the Youngstown Vindicator.

 
Fall Foliage by The News Outlet

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By Caitlin Cook
and Doug Livingston

The News Outlet

Tim Saxton enrolled in the only Advanced Placement course that Boardman High School offered when he attended in the early 1980s.

When he became principal of his alma mater in 2001, the district still offered only AP calculus. But since 2004, that has changed. Boardman’s current AP classes — seven — are on par with larger Ohio high schools.

As early as their sophomore year, Boardman students now have the opportunity to take AP courses that challenge and prepare them for college education.

Saxton is among many school officials who believe a strong AP program is essential for student success in college.

High school graduates who take advantage of AP classes can knock out college classes at a fraction of the price. Some enter college as sophomores, bypassing an entire year of school. For college admissions officers, success in AP classes indicates a student’s determination and academic achievement.

But offering AP courses isn’t an option for every school. The majority of Valley districts struggle to offer any AP option.

WHY SO FEW IN VALLEY?

Mahoning and Trumbull districts average fewer than two AP classes each. More than a third of the districts offer none. Schools that offer no AP sections are typically smaller, rural districts that lack qualified teachers and the number of students needed to fill AP classrooms.

Click here to find out what schools offer AP (Interactive Feature)

It’s an issue of staff and students, not dollars.

“Typically schools don’t see the cost of AP as being as much of a barrier as how do we find teachers that we can ensure are going to be qualified to teach college-level courses in our school,” said Trevor Packer, vice president of the College Board, the national group that oversees all AP offerings in America.

“Even though the costs of offering AP itself are not significant, if the school has a small number of students [they may have to choose], ‘Are we going to allocate a teacher to teach an AP section or a non-AP section?” Packer said.

Taxpayers ultimately fund the courses. School administrators must justify offering AP classes by filling the seats.

“When we offer an AP class, we need to have at least 15, 20, 25 kids in a class to be accountable to the community,” Saxton said. “I wish we had the luxury of having a faculty in which we could afford to teach a class and pay for someone to teach a class with 10 to 15 students. Times have changed.”

Though Boardman and other larger districts rely on numbers to fill AP sections, rural schools such as Bloomfield suffer from smaller class sizes, making it difficult to create and fill an AP class.

Bloomfield last offered AP calculus three year ago. With one student enrolled, the class was cut from the high school’s curriculum after the only certified teacher left.

The district, like others, relies on partnerships with Eastern Gateway Community College, Youngstown State University and Kent State University Trumbull Campus to build dual credit courses that outsource college credit coursework.

OHIO LACKS IN AP

Lacking AP sections isn’t just a local problem.

According to a national study conducted by ProPublica, a national reporting organization, the state overall has fallen behind.

Ohio school districts with more than 3,000 students offer seven AP classes on average. The national average for that size district is 8.35 classes.

Mahoning and Trumbull counties have six school districts with more than 3,000 students. But only two — Boardman and Warren — meet the statewide average of seven classes. Austintown offers three. Canfield, Howland and Youngstown high schools all offer two AP classes.

Canfield High School Principal John Tullio has applied for and received an advanced-placement network grant through the Ohio Department of Education. Starting next year, Tullio plans to double the school’s two AP courses with the grant funds.

“We want to stay competitive,” Tullio said. “We want to stay on top of the game and offer the best for our students. And that’s the reason for expansion.”

Of the 13 school districts with fewer than 1,000 students, only two offer AP classes.

Maplewood and Joseph Badger districts offer four and five AP classes respectively.

“One of the things we do is run very [efficiently],” said Joseph Badger Principal Edwin Baldwin.

With support from the board of education, Baldwin analyzes course offerings and class sizes, much as other districts do.

If half of the 120 high school juniors and seniors enroll in an upper-level course like psychology, then the district adds AP psychology to the curriculum and expects 15 to 20 students to register. That is the case for AP psychology this year.

“We decided we are going to give those kids every chance to get college credit and just implement the AP program,” Baldwin said.

The AP courses at Joseph Badger often replace similar honors classes. This avoids additional expenses of hiring another teacher or adding another class.

“It’s the only way that we can do it,” Baldwin said.

He also requires his AP teachers to instruct freshman courses. This lets the teachers become recruiters for prospective AP students who are encouraged to enroll in honors classes by their sophomore year. Honors classes pipeline students into AP courses.

“[Recruiting is] how we keep these courses viable and how we keep them alive,” Baldwin said.

Teachers undergo training at colleges and programs accredited by the College Board to become certified to teach AP courses. The cost of training teachers is often reimbursed by the district. Training costs, from $1,500 to $4,000, vary by institution. Some take college workshops or online training programs. Most use AP training to fulfill their obligation as educators to further their education.

COSTLY EXAMS

To gain college credit for successfully completing AP class, students must pass an $87 exam offered in May. The federal government subsidizes this fee for students who receive free or reduced lunch.

Officials are concerned some students in impoverished districts cannot afford the $87 AP final exam fee — even though it pales in comparison to hundreds of dollars in college tuition that would have been paid. Not all students who qualify for federal subsidy enroll in the free or reduced lunch program, and therefore do not receive aid for taking the AP exam.

The benefit of successfully completing an AP course depends on the college.

Tara Milliken, an admissions counselor at The Ohio State University, said accelerated courses in the AP program better prepare students for college, but they are not a primary consideration for admission.

“I think any time a student is able to take a more rigorous course. that better prepares them for the academic challenges they may face,” Milliken said. “It works in their favor.”

At YSU, an open- enrollment institution, AP classes have no bearing on admissions, according to Sue Davis, director of undergraduate admissions.

However, Davis also sees the benefit of offering college-level courses in high school.

“It gives students a little bit of an idea of what is going to be required in college,” she said, “because they will be required to do a lot more with this AP course than they would in a typical high school course.”

Boardman senior Evan Heintz embraces the options his school provides and hopes to skip a couple of courses heading into college so he’s “not so lost.”

“It’s a big advantage for Boardman students to have a lot of AP classes to choose from. It gives us a ton of options. So it gives us opportunities to succeed,” Heintz said.

Mahoning Valley lags in offering AP college classes (Audio)

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including The Vindicator, WYSU-FM Radio, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

Caitlin Cook, 22, is majoring in journalism and philosophy at Youngstown State University. She hails from Charleston, W.Va., where she graduated from Capital High School in 2007. At YSU, she is a member of the Women’s Swimming and Diving Team. Much like a swimmer in water, she feels natural and complete when writing and pursuing new journalistic endeavors.

Doug Livingston of Vienna brings an investigative and analytical element to the News Outlet team. His previous work, reporting on government issues, drug rehabilitation and other social issues, derives from his interest to explore the causes of poverty, crime and blight ravaging inner-city communities. He is a 2001 graduate of Mathews High School. He has studied English at Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College before returning to the Youngstown area to take up journalism at Youngstown State University.

By CHRIS COTELESSE
The NewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

Its doors are locked. Its patients have been relocated, and now a new chapter opens for the House of Hope on Illinois Avenue.

It’s being looted.

The former adult-care facility closed last month after multiple state health department inspection violations, and a court battle that came after the Nov. 11, 2010, homicide of a resident by strangulation.

Only days after the home was vacated by its owners, a series of burglaries and vandalisms began that so far has yielded seven calls to 911, three incident reports filed by police and the arrest of Michael Phillips, 47, of Youngstown, who was released the next day.

Two of the four parcels at 115 Illinois Ave. have liens held by American Tax Funding LLC. Atty. John Zamoida filed paperwork Sept. 27 to auction the property at a sheriff’s sale to recoup what Zamoida estimated as $15,000 owed to ATF. The property taxes also are delinquent at about $20,000.

Bill Sharkey has lived near the facility for seven years. He’s retired, and he brings along his dog, Huggles, when he’s scoping out the area.

“I’m just a resident … looking out for the community,” he said.

At 8:02 p.m. Oct. 4, Sharkey called police after walking past House of Hope and seeing a man walking around inside. According to police records, a unit was dispatched within a minute and the scene was cleared at 8:41 p.m.

Sharkey made a second call almost 10 hours later, reporting a shadow searching boxes on the second floor. The police arrived after 20 minutes, found Phillips on the third floor and arrested him.

Police were unable to verify the owners of House of Hope. Without a person available to file charges, police had to release Phillips because they can hold a suspect for only 48 hours.

Records on the websites of the Mahoning County auditor and recorder list the property under Center for Hope LLC. The Ohio secretary of state’s online database lists House of Hope Center LLC as the owner. Neither site lists the individuals who make up these corporations.

Lisa Lloyd, a former administrator of the House of Hope, said she co-owns the property with Michael Binder and Charlene Crissman, who operated the home with Lloyd. Binder declined to comment, and Crissman could not be reached.

Youngstown police Officer David Santangelo of the department’s scrap-metal investigations division said neither Lloyd, Binder nor Crissman have provided adequate documentation of their ownership, and YPD is investigating the matter to determine the people responsible for the property.

“We can’t hold someone in jail without a confirmed property owner to file charges,” Santangelo said.

While Phillips was at Mahoning County jail, Mark Peyko, president of the North Side Citizens’ Coalition, witnessed men stripping the house of all the metal on the outside.

“The things that are being stolen from this house are devaluing it and endangering it. There’s a progression in looting, generally. What happens is they go for the low-hanging fruit first,” Peyko said. “It opens the door for other things. … They’ll steal whatever they can out of the home.”

Peyko also is worried about the costs of repairing the home. He said the damages will deter people from buying and renovating the structure, complicating the coalition’s efforts to revitalize the North Side.

“It does frustrate it, but we are moving ahead,” Peyko said.

Santangelo’s division has made more than 300 arrests in the last five years of people stripping abandoned buildings throughout the city. He said these crimes can create a danger to neighborhoods because the perpetrators sometimes will set the buildings on fire to cover their tracks.

Peyko called 911 Emergency at 7:18 p.m., but police weren’t dispatched until 7:52.

“Calls are prioritized and dispatched in that order.” Santangelo said. “We’re working on this problem and still investigating the matter.”

Peyko called again Oct. 6 at 2:30 p.m. A unit promptly arrived three minutes later and found two vehicles and workers who told the officer they were “boarding up the property,” according to a police incident report.

Santangelo was sent to the property shortly after to investigate the calls. Three men were in the basement of one of the buildings, removing a water heater for Lisa Lloyd.

Lloyd confirmed that she asked the men to remove the water heater and secure the doors and windows.

“I have boarded up the one side of the building. I cleaned the parking lot, and I tried to board up the basement, and every time I try to go over there to board up the building, they call the police on me,” Lloyd said.

The morning of Oct. 7, police responded to another call from Peyko. Crissman was at the facility with four men, removing furniture and other items. The incident report states that Crissman was concerned that property was being stolen from the home.

Earlier this year, officials at Ohio Valley Teen Challenge on nearby Broadway Avenue donated a stove and refrigerator to the House of Hope after reading of the home’s problems in The Vindicator. Teen Challenge property manager Bruce Paulette was there with Crissman to get his stove, but the refrigerator already had been stolen.

“They just trashed the whole inside of that place,” Paulette said.

The crime lab photographed the property, and “the scene was cleared without any further action,” according to the police incident report.

The neighborhood remained quiet for a few days until Oct. 11, when two calls were made about a green Dodge pickup truck and three men inside the building. The scene was cleared twice without further action.

Sharkey said he will continue to keep an eye on the place, hoping to keep it safe.

“You wonder, at what point does this stop?” Sharkey said.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including The Vindicator, WYSU-FM Radio, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).

By Christine Keeling
ckeeling@vindy.com

Youngstown

The state says a Youngstown church must pay property taxes on its Idora parcel — again.

The Ohio Department of Taxation denied a 2007 application by Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church to have its former Idora Amusement Park parcel and the 12 surrounding properties it owns on Woodford Avenue and Pearce Avenue deemed tax-exempt.

The state’s Sept. 19 final determination mimics its Dec. 8, 2010, decision, even after the church was allowed to submit more information to support its plans.

Although the finding makes $20,590 in property taxes for those parcels that the church hasn’t paid since 2006 due immediately, and could open the door for investors interested in gaining control of the 27 acres on the city’s South side, the church says “this is the time” to start phase one of its development plan.

The Idora parcel used to house an amusement park, which was established in 1899. A 1984 fire and a decline in revenue forced it to close. Mount Calvary purchased the parcel in 1985 and initially announced plans to break ground on the Idora property in 1987 for its City of God, which was to include a nursing home, shopping plaza, counseling center, retirement home and religious education and worship facilities. The church lost the parcel in a foreclosure in 1989 and re-acquired the deed in 1994.

The church is in “denial of their lack of funding,” said James London, president of the Idora Neighborhood Association. “The 27 acres is just a bunch of dirt. There was no passion or community fun after the church took control of the property.”

London said he was pleased the state saw there was no reason for the tax-exemption, because if it had been granted, he believes it would be another 27 years before the church would do anything with the property.

“I am, truly, 150 percent ecstatic” that the tax department “came back with this decision,” London said. “It’s a win for the community.”

But Mount Calvary’s Pastor C. Shawn Tyson said he’s the “new dynamic” in the equation for the Idora property’s future.

Pastor Tyson said Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church’s previous leader, Bishop Norman Wagner, had an eye on the future when he purchased the Idora parcel.

“Wagner’s vision of the City of God was beyond his lifetime,” said Pastor Tyson. “Now, he has passed the baton to me, and I am not going to let him down.”

Bishop Wagner died in January 2010, and Pastor Tyson was installed in October 2010.

Pastor Tyson said he left Indianapolis to come to Youngstown because he believed in Bishop Wagner’s dream. Pastor Tyson said he wasn’t sure what the church’s posture was in the past, but that he was committed to meeting and collaborating with community organizations in the Idora neighborhood about the parcel’s future.

He said he was “aggressively” focusing on the first phase of a four-phase project, which would “beautify” the derelict land. The plans include walking trails, athletic track, football field and tennis courts and is set to begin in spring 2012. He said he also wants the community to have access to the property.

While he wouldn’t comment on the status of the tax-exempt denial, he did say he was optimistic a resolution would be found.

Attorneys for the church were investigating options, he said.

60 DAYS FOR APPEAL

Carrie Young, attorney examiner at the Ohio Board of Tax Appeals, said the church has 60 days to appeal the tax commission’s ruling. If it does, a hearing would be set in Columbus where the church would face a three-member board. Any further appeals would go to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Several Supreme Court cases were cited to support the tax department’s decision, which came after the department received the church’s plans.

In its tax-exempt application, the church stated it planned to build a new edifice at the location and use the property for special church events, but the Ohio Department of Taxation disagreed.

“The parcels subject to this application are not used exclusively for public worship, nor are they actively being developed for public worship with a current, tangible and funded plan,” states the finding.

“Therefore, the entire subject property fails to qualify for real property tax exemption.”

In June, the church submitted preliminary drawings and a budget summary dated Dec. 19, 2003. They featured a more than 100,000-square foot worship center projected to cost $24.2 million. It touted a bookstore, banquet facility and pew seating for 3,200, although the church puts its current membership at 900.

From aerial photography, the tax department noted, “amusement park facilities were razed, leaving only the foundation and areas of heavy vegetation on the property.” It said, the land appeared vacant, other than a softball field — and no mention of fundraising for the development was on the application or the pastor’s website.

According to Ohio law, vacant land owned by a church that is used for recreational purpose is not necessary for public worship and may not be exempted from taxation.

The attorney examiner had questions about its proposed edifice.

In an Aug. 29 faxed response, the church said it may be downsizing its plans, had not established a beginning date for construction, “planned” to have various church services at the “Idora land” and had been in contact with prospective lenders but had not secured financing.

DEALING WITH DEBT

“We are presently engaged in our church debt liquidation programs,” the church wrote, before being denied.

The debt is daunting.

In two audits, in July and August, the state auditor’s office issued findings for recovery against the church for more than $96,000 in regard to monies exchanged between itself and its now-closed charter school, Legacy Academy for the Leaders and Arts.

A 2004 audit revealed more than $30,000 in findings for similar reasons.

In 2007, the church borrowed $2.5 million in loans from America’s Christian Credit Union of California against its 1812 Oak Hill Ave. address, the Idora parcel and surrounding properties it owns.

It settled a $1.5 million claim filed by Teen Missions International of Florida, for monies it loaned for the proposed City of God.

The state’s attorney general noted a $20,000 payment by the church toward its $239,566 balance. But Mount Calvary could owe an additional $16,047 in taxes, if a new lien request filed by the attorney general is deemed valid.

Possibly in another attempt to reduce debt, the church approached the city’s planning department to discuss turning over some of its other properties it owns throughout the city to the county’s land bank which is set to begin this fall. The church owns more than 80 properties, besides the Idora parcel, and as of May owed $12,000 in delinquent real estate taxes to a lien purchaser, America Tax Funding of Florida.

The city said the title work was not complete on the properties, and Pastor Tyson said the arrangement was still in the exploratory stage.

Pastor Tyson said he wasn’t aware of the church’s financial challenges before being installed but was very involved in a debt-elimination campaign. “The goal is to be debt-free in two years,” he said.

The church, Pastor Tyson said, is asking members to make a pledge, a special gift or a sacrificial giving to help raise money. Efforts to operate the ministry more efficiently are also under way.

ON WITH DEVELOPMENT

Past due taxes on the Idora property will not impede development plans, said Pastor Tyson.

Dan Yemma, Mahoning County treasurer, said the department will assess the situation and decide the best way to collect the $20,590 due in property taxes from the church. “In this economic environment, we are willing to work with people,” he said.

The church will be required to come up with some money if a delinquent payment agreement is reached, said Yemma. The longest repayment period available is five years.

Yemma said if the church fails to honor its obligation, the department would proceed to procure the property for the county land bank.

“I think we would have interested parties right away on this property,” he said. “It’s a property we don’t want to have sitting.”

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation is interested in creating a plan for the parcel and met with church leaders Sept. 28 to discuss the parcel’s future.

“It was the most productive and proactive conversation that’s taken place in years,” said Presley Gillespie, executive director of YNDC. “We want to do everything we can, working with the church, community and stakeholders to restore the property to productive use.”

He said construction of a community center was mentioned during the meeting, as well as, the possibility of the development of a partnership with the land bank.

Gillespie said he’s looking for creative ways to meet the goals of the community and church, but that any solid plan needs financial and human capital behind it.

More Information:

By Alyssa Lenhoff and Timothy Francisco

TheNewsOutlet.org

Philip Leyman spent many years working as a bagger at a Giant Eagle supermarket – an irony for a man whose cerebral palsy and seizures now require him to use a wheelchair and force him to rely on a bus or taxi for his own groceries.

Leyman and one of his neighbors, David Senediak, use a public bus to take them to Walmart in Boardman. The men, who live in the Goodwill Apartments near the Market Street-Midlothian Boulevard intersection, are among thousands of Youngstown residents who live in what is called a “food desert” — an urban area with limited access to fresh food.

A 2010 federal study listed the Youngstown metropolitan area as the nation’s third worst area for the number of people suffering food hardships because they don’t have enough money to feed themselves.

That may change with Bottom Dollar Food building three grocery stores, 621 W. Princeton Ave. near the Idora neighborhood; 890 E. Midlothian Blvd.; as well as 3377 Mahoning Ave. in the Mahoning Plaza. This discount grocery store chain, run by Food Lion and a subsidiary of Delhaize Group, has stores in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Though it’s a good step, those three grocery stores will not feed the entire city and may not change Youngstown’s federal ranking. The federal report, compiled by the Food Research and Action Center in 2010, says that 24 percent of the metro Youngstown population suffers because, in addition to the problem of scarce stores, many residents simply don’t have money to buy enough food to feed their families.

The report shows that only Memphis, Tenn., and Bakersfield, Calif., had more “food hardship” during 2008-09, the period of time studied.

Data from the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. shows that most of Youngstown’s nearly 70,000 residents live more than a half -mile from a grocery store and that 18 percent of these people do not have access to a vehicle to drive them to stores.

City officials and organizers with the YNDC have launched several initiatives aimed at getting fresh food into Youngstown’s neighborhoods. In addition to luring supermarkets, they are working to set up urban gardens and farmers markets.

“There’s a lot to do,” said Ian Benniston, deputy director of the YNDC. “We have a very big problem in the city of Youngstown.”

Benniston said there are only five full-service grocery stores in the city or just over the border, and many city residents do not drive and live more than a short walk from them.

Leyman and Senediak epitomize that challenge. Neither drive, and Leyman’s wife, who also suffers from a disability, can drive, but they don’t have a car.

Leyman said he likes the apartment he shares with his wife and son. But he liked it even more when the Phar-Mor store was open at the corner of Midlothian and Market Street. That store, which sold everything from potatoes to dust pans, closed in 2002 and is now the Newport branch of the Public Library of Mahoning County.

At least once a week, Leyman, his wife and son take a bus to the Giant Eagle in Liberty. His wife and son take a taxi home because of the difficulty of managing the grocery bags on the bus.

Leyman has to take the bus because of his wheelchair. He said the total trip costs about $20 and cuts into their grocery budget – a budget that Leyman said is already tight.

“Eating right is so important for all of us,” Leyman said. “But it’s not easy, and it gets hard to get to the store and expensive to get there.”

Smaller stores, like Jordan’s Market in Youngstown, help fill in the shopping gaps.

Abdalla Shakhatreh has run Jordan’s since 1985. He is one of few merchants still operating on Market Street. Others have long since fled to the suburbs.

He is well aware of how important his grocery store is to the people who live in the neighborhoods that surround the lower portion of Market Street near downtown.

“They don’t have anywhere else to go,” Shakhatreh said.

Most of his customers walk or take the bus to the market, where they can pay utility bills, buy prepared food from the deli or get groceries, including some fresh fruit and vegetables. The market provides a hub of needed services. He said crime has never been a problem with his store.

Many so-called “corner markets” have signs on their buildings saying they offer food or groceries, but do not have fresh produce.

Shakhatreh has trouble understanding why other grocery retailers have not been able to stay open in city neighborhoods.

“These are good customers,” he said. “But I know them because I grew up here, and my kids know their kids.”

The News Outlet, which pairs student journalists with professionals, is a collaboration between Youngstown State University, Kent State University, the University of Akron and The Vindicator, The Akron Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio.

By Joe Giesy
TheNewsOutlet.org

Youngstown

Gailor Blake, 88, opened the door to his Austintown home at 9 a.m. to welcome Terri Zarlingo with a bright smile.

“She’s like family,” Blake said, as Zarlingo, a driver for Celtic Healthcare’s hot- meals delivery program, arrives.

Once Zarlingo finishes her short, friendly discussion with Blake, she sets his meal out and leaves. She may be the last person Blake — one of the last survivors of his own family — sees that day unless neighbors visit.

Many independent-living seniors in the Mahoning Valley face similar situations: They live alone with no one to check on them but social workers or home-nurse aides.

Other senior citizens do not receive home-visit services at all.

Several organizations in Youngstown and Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties provide services for the area’s aging population, but no overarching agency exists to centralize these services and standardize the well-being of the Mahoning Valley’s independent senior citizens.

Youngstown Councilwoman Annie Gillam thinks the city could benefit from a central agency.

Gillam, D-1st, said accounting for every person in the city may not be possible, but getting involved with programs through churches and area agencies could prove beneficial to better inform elderly citizens about available services.

Older adults living alone with no one to check on them could be in danger, said Alan Bayowski, gerontologist and director of the Shepherd Foundation, an affiliate of Shepherd of the Valley, which provides senior services in the Valley.

Should a senior fall or become too ill to seek treatment, that person could be left alone for days or even weeks, he said.

Lisa Solley with the Area Agency on Aging 11 Inc., Niles, said most older citizens want to stay in their homes, but they need some assistance.

Her agency collects federal, state and local funds and then distributes them to local providers in Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties. Those providers then help those who qualify for services.

Solley said most people who request services might not qualify for funds, but the agency still tries to link them up with appropriate services. If no state funding is available, federal programs can sometimes be used, she said.

Ohio’s citizens and service organizations face the challenge of no state funding for citizens above the poverty line.

Organizations such as Celtic Healthcare, 3530 Belmont Ave., provide food, home-health aides and transportation for qualifying adults over 60 through grants.

Other federal funds provide services such as air-conditioning units for households in need. Solley said this service was used by AAA11 clients more recently in the high-temperature conditions last month.

Extreme weather conditions exacerbate danger when ice on the drive between the door and mailbox causes the senior citizen to slip or high heat affects pre-existing medical conditions such as breathing problems or congestive heart failure.

Bayowski said even five minutes in the hot sun can have a real negative effect on older adults, which becomes a problem when they try to work outside.

“As we get older, our desire to remain active pushes us to do things our bodies are unable to do,” Bayowski said.

Blake falls into this category.

He still manages his household chores and yard work. Despite seeing him for only short periods of time, Zarlingo was able to persuade him to leave his untrimmed hedges for another time and remain in his air-conditioned house during the recent summer heat wave.

Bayowski praised meal programs for this reason as vital to older adults who live alone because they provide both food and regular companionship.

Solley also spoke highly of the programs.

“For at least five days, you have someone checking on them,” Solley said.

Along with Celtic Healthcare and other programs in the Valley, Meals on Wheels Youngstown has volunteers deliver meals to clients who request the service.

Laura Jenkins with Meals on Wheels Youngstown said delivery drivers call her if a client who normally answers the door does not do so or things near the house seem out of the ordinary.

Jenkins said there were some occasions when emergency services discovered the client on the floor, unable to get up or even dead.

Zarlingo once came to the aid of a client who had a stroke and collapsed during the meal delivery. Zarlingo was able to call 911, and the woman still lives on her own several years after the incident.

The Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department provides a Senior Watch Program to identify households with independent-living senior citizens at risk of criminal victimization.

The Senior Services Unit identifies at-risk citizens through community outreach at public events senior citizens may attend. Like other agencies, the unit relies on referrals from community members.

Once a referral or request has been made, the unit contacts senior citizens in Mahoning County to determine their level of personal safety and then sends officers to visit them periodically and report suspicious activities.

For some communities, taking care of neighbors could be as simple as mowing the lawn or bringing in the newspaper.

Zarlingo takes it a step further, though, when she runs small errands for her clients that includes tracking down an extension cord for one man who could not plug in his air conditioner or a five-pound bag of sugar she would drop off for Blake when she made later deliveries back in Austintown.

The NewsOutlet, which pairs student journalists with professionals, is a collaboration between Youngstown State University, Kent State University, the University of Akron and The Vindicator, Akron Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio.

TheNewsOutlet.org

Up stream from where Luis Velazquez regularly casts his fishing pole beneath the Liberty-Girard Bridge, the slow moving water glistens in summer sunlight as oil residue creates a thin sliver silhouette along the riverbank. Calmly flowing down stream, water disappears and rushes over one of nine remaining low-head dams along the lower Mahoning River. Just over the crest of the industry made waterfall, fishermen such as Velazquez can often be found along the banks of what former Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams categorizes as the “most grossly underused” physical asset of the Mahoning Valley.

Velazquez, 30, a native of Youngstown’s West Side has heard stories all of his life of pollutants lurking below the same waters he has fished for the past 10 years and camped along as a kid. He said he is not deterred and will continue fishing.

Click for Video

YSU faculty devote careers to cleaning Mahoning River

Without hesitating, Lauren Schroeder, trudges into the Mahoning River warning that what was seeping into his weathered, once white tennis shoes is “nasty stuff.”
Knee high in water, with a fishermen’s hat atop his head, Schroeder, a retired professor of evolution and ecology at Youngstown State University, said he has been testing and monitoring the water of the Mahoning River for decades.
“In the 1960s, there was an environmental movement that was just awakening and a big press for environmental organizations, environmental studies and cleaning up the environment. I got caught up in that,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder and several of his YSU colleagues have spent decades studying the polluted river and trying to develop solutions for it.
More than 30 years after Schroeder’s work with the river began, however, the Mahoning River remains highly polluted despite collaborative efforts from river clean up enthusiasts.
In a study designed by Schroeder, YSU researchers want to identify unique algae organisms called diatoms thinking that they could help identify the most polluted areas of the river. that they could serve as a natural cleaning agent. (diatoms are not natural cleaning agents, rather they reflect the quality of the environment in which they live.) The sea shell-like diatoms naturally secrete a cell wall that is like glass, which acts as a barrier and allows diatoms to preserve themselves. There are more than 300 types of diatoms found throughout the Mahoning River.
“Each one has a particular set of environmental conditions where it grows the best in, and these conditions are different for each of these diatoms. So, if we go look at the diatoms that are present and we know what conditions they prefer, we can judge the quality of the river based on the computation of these diatom communities,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder will continue to survey the diatom populations below and above dam sites to measure the effects dams have on the diatom communities. He is hopeful the dams along the river will be removed and his study will then be able to research the effects of dam removals on diatom communities.
Scott Martin, chair of YSU Civil Engineering, said many at YSU have been attracted to studying the river.“The Mahoning is unique in that is highly polluted and has been for decades. There’s been a lot of study into the possibility of cleaning it up but that has kind of fizzled out to some extent due to government bureaucracy.”
He acknowledged it would be a long process to get the river clean, and he joked he may be gone by then. Regardless he is still conducting research and is hopeful one day the river will be clean. Martin first became involved with the Mahoning River watershed basin more than 27 years ago.
Martin and a graduate student work with Schroeder’s research to prioritize dams for removal in an effort to restore the river’s natural flow.
“That decision will ultimately be made by the regulators, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, who would need to provide permits for any dam removal,” Martin said.
Meanwhile in the biology department, Carl Johnston is working on sediment remediation. The study looks to identify the indigenous bacterium that lives within the contaminated sediments and apply what they learn to a cleanup.
“Once we work with the organisms we may be able to add either oxygen or some other nutrient or amendments that will stimulate the native bacteria,” he said.
Johnston said there’s going to have to be a lot of testing to find the optimal way of treating different parts of the river because of the differences in pollution levels and types.
“We should be doing small scale testing, chemical testing and then knowing what is in a particular site, you would decide how that should be treated.”

A river that was choked by pollutants for decades remains even further strangled by multi-government finger pointing that has resulted in the expenditure of millions of dollars on suggestions, but little action.

A $500,000 federally sponsored study conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1999 determined regardless of recent water quality improvements, the Mahoning River cannot be expected to be restored until the contaminated sediments are addressed.

The river remains a threat to public health. The Mahoning River, one of the most polluted waterways in America, is so contaminated that in 1988, the Ohio Department of Health issued a Health Human Advisory on the lower 28-miles of the river warning against contact with sediments and fish consumption.

Despite years of conversation and study and promises of funding and support, the Mahoning River is no closer to clean today than it was 30 years ago when companies stopped dumping millions of pollutants into the river each year.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineer study said that as recently as 1977, the average net discharge from the nine major Mahoning Valley steel plants exceeded 400,000 pounds per day of suspended oils, 70,000 pounds per day of oil and grease, and 800 pounds per day of zinc.

The report further states, “to put these numbers in perspective, the million gallon Monongahela River Ashland oil spill of 1988 was characterized as one of the most severe inland oil spills in the nation’s history. However, by comparison, the much smaller Mahoning River chronically received the equivalent of more than four Ashland oil spills every year for decades.”

Another federally funded $3.5 million feasibility report explored methods to extract and remediate contaminated sediments, while ultimately restoring the natural river ecology. The report called for hydraulic and mechanical dredging of 750,000 cubic yards of in-river and riverbank contamination, and the removal of seven low-head dams. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can do neither.

Bill Decicco, who retired in August 2008 as executive director of Castlo Inc., spent much of his 20-year career as the leader of the economic development agency for Poland Township and the cities of Campbell, Struthers, Lowellville and Coitsville. He always thought that the Mahoning River would be cleaned up in his lifetime and then would be a great asset for the communities he served.

“If you were here in 2005 and said, ‘Bill, well what do you think about cleaning up the Mahoning River?’ I’d say, ‘Well 2005 we finish up this study and by 2017, 2020 at the latest, we’ll have a clean river.”

Decicco is not the only one who thought the river would be cleaned in his lifetime.

Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone, who has been involved in city government for 28 years, said he is no longer optimistic about chances for a clean up. “It’s been talked about for almost 40 years,” Sammarone said in a recent interview. “Everyone is in favor of doing it, it’s just how do you fund it?”

Sammarone’s predecessor, former Mayor Williams was also stumped on how to allocate funds.

Millions of dollars and thousands of hours have already been spent studying the pollution and the cancer-causing toxins buried in the riverbanks, and developing plans for how to fix the problems. Suggested methods have never progressed beyond the documentation to actual work. Clean up of the Mahoning River has been stalled in Phase II of the feasibility study.

Eastgate Regional Council of Governments became involved as the community sponsor in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study bearing half of the financial burden. Rachel McCartney, of EastGate, says the river falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and that is where the clean up funds were initially going to originate.

“Involving a federal agency such as the Corps has its positive and negative sides. Of course, we are now experiencing the negative side – a stalled project,” McCartney said.

Officials offer varying explanations for why the cleanup has stalled: disagreements about the proper approach to development, weak environmental laws, timid political leadership, and people unwilling to demand action. The major stumbling block, however, is who should pay for the estimated $150 million project.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17^th, said the factories that polluted the river, including many now-defunct steel companies, are legally responsible. He said that it is unlikely to be able to collect from them or from the companies that took over their former locations.

Ryan said the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers cannot do any dredging because of Congress’ “CERCLA” regulations, which operate on the premise that the polluter pays.

Ryan does not agree with those regulations,  “It would risk causing existing businesses on the Mahoning River watershed to be held liable for millions of dollars of clean up costs that some businesses inherited. The outcome could mean job losses, or even bankruptcy, for businesses already struggling to survive in these difficult economic times.”

Williams believes no one has tried to collect from any of the former companies, but he said he would support such efforts. U.S. Steel, with headquarters now in Pittsburgh, is the only company still in existence that once operated along the river.

“I would think it’d be highly improbable, if not impossible, for the local communities to go after these polluters. This is a federal issue,” Williams said.

In an interview while he was still mayor, Williams listed the cleanup of the river among the top 10 priorities for the city, but realized that little or nothing is happening to advance the effort.

“If the Mahoning River were clean and navigable, there would be more development in downtown,” he said, explaining that bodies of water attract people.

Williams isn’t sure if the river will ever be clean enough for recreation. “I’m always hopeful,” he said. “But it is a difficult and tedious process.”

Allison Preiss, press secretary for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, said the Ohio lawmaker is committed to helping the effort. “Having clean and functional waterways is important for many communities in Ohio – Youngstown included,” she said. “Senator Brown is monitoring the clean up situation for the Mahoning River and stands willing to assist the Valley for anything that can be done on the federal level to contribute to that effort.”

Preiss, however, declined to discuss whether Brown would support measures to go after the original polluters. She also failed to answer questions regarding who is responsible for the clean up, but said, “for attaining federal funds through the Army Corps, senators/congressman can make a request during the appropriations process of the president can list the project in his budget, this typically implies that the Corps thinks the project is a priority.”

The contamination stems from years of long-idled steel and other industrial companies dumping waste into the river and using the water from the river for cooling products they manufactured.

Although steel companies have long since shuttered their operations in the Mahoning Valley, the toxic remnants they left have already survived more than 30 years. Without serious and sustained efforts to remove them will likely be here for decades to come, Decicco said.

A series of low-head dams trap sediment polluted with organic chemicals and heavy metals, holding the river hostage to years of industry.  The suggested dredging of 750,000 cubic yards of contaminated in-river and riverbank, with the removal of low-head dams would restore the rivers natural flow and ecology.

The Ohio EPA monitors, “chemical, biological and physical conditions within streams and rivers in Ohio,” according to Mike Settles of the Ohio EPA. The Mahoning was most recently studied 2006 to 2007 along the upper region located upstream from the Leavittsburg dam. The lower Mahoning was studied in the 1980s and 1990s, and a new study will be conducted in 2012.

Williams said the problem is that no one appears to be leading the cleanup effort despite the fact that there are several organizations chartered for such a purpose and people who draw paychecks for the work.

Daniel Mamula, who was hired in 2009 as the manager of the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative, said he believes that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – the federal agency that conducted the studies of the river – is supposed to be coordinating and leading the effort to find funding for the project.

Carmen Rozzi, the initial project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, says that’s not his agency’s job.

Instead, he says it is up to Congress to decide if it wants to allocate funding for the project.

“For federal involvement, a federal agency needs ‘two acts of Congress’ in order to accomplish anything,” Rozzi said. “Any federal agency needs authority to accomplish the mission then must seek the appropriations. At the Corps, we thought Section 312(b) Removal of Contaminated Sediments for Environmental Restoration within Navigable Waters was the authority, however it is missing much of what we need and is not a good fit for our effort.”

Mamula, the former mayor of Struthers, said that his agency is working to lure companies to locate businesses along the river. Since the initiation of the corridor initiative, utilizing grants from the Clean Ohio Fund and the Federal Brown Field program, 450 acres of brown field sites development is either remediated or under the process of being cleaned, and of that, 125 acres of brown fields meet commercial or industrial standards in the various communities along the Mahoning River.

“We want to do this business development as well as recreational, environmental and trying to keep that balance is really tough because the pressure is on for job and business,” Mamula said.

Lori Jordan, 43, of Austintown doesn’t fish the Mahoning but enjoys the tranquilly she finds along its banks.

“If they were to clean up the river, it would at least give people some positivity and hope. You know what, we are finally cleaning up the area. We can go somewhere that’s not real costly that you can relax and enjoy the day,” Jordan said.

Mamula is skeptical the river will ever be fully clean but believes sections will be addressed.

Mamula acknowledged Trumbull County is naturally ahead of recreational development with Packard Park and Perkins Park, in addition to bike trails and easy river access. Riverbanks in Mahoning are steep and difficult terrain, inevitably increasing recreation project price tags.  Mamula would like recreation development near the Covelli Center such as a bike path.

Despite the contact ban, Mamula said he does not understand why the river cannot be used for casual recreation now. He said the contact ban has not stopped people from boating or fishing on the river and he is not sure that it should. “People are using the river more and more,” Mamula said.

Williams, however, said he would hate to see too much time or money spent on developing recreational areas until the water is deemed safe.

Williams also said that companies that launch operations along the river might have to move if the cleanup and dredging effort is ever launched because dredging will involve bringing in large pieces of machinery and having plenty of space to navigate.

“The concern would be, we’d locate businesses right there on the banks, and the business says, ‘hey, it’s fine, it’s great,’ then three years later, we get this project rolling. All of the sudden boy that needed to be a staging area for the equipment or for the material that’s dredged and now we’ve got a business in an area that doesn’t make sense for cleaning the river.”

Mayor Sammarone, however, said he welcomes business along the banks of the Mahoning, ”you come in here with a business, we’ll bend over backwards to get you here,” he said.

Williams’ concerns about the direction of the corridor initiative are representative of much of the discussion that has surrounded the cleanup project. One person or organization wants to move one direction; another has a different vision; nothing happens.

Several groups and projects continue to push the cleanup and are receiving local and federal funding as well as private donations to sustain work related to the Mahoning River.

For instance, Mamula’s Mahoning River Corridor Initiative received an $80,000 grant from the Ohio Department Of Development to fund a feasibility study, “to establish a regional urban economical development and brown field revitalization plan.”

The Mahoning River Corridor Initiative also netted $15,000 from three non-profit organizations: $18,000 from nine participating communities, $5,000 from the Urban Universities Program and  $57,000 from the Fund for Our Economic Future to fund, “the design and implementation of an interactive web site to market selected corridor properties regionally and nationally,” Mamula said.

The creation of this organization brings the count to at least seven of the number of organizations devoted to the Mahoning River.

Other organizations who spend time or money working on development or clean up of the Mahoning River are the Mahoning River Consortium, Mahoning River of Opportunity, Mahoning River Corridor Mayors’ Association, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, CASTLO, Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce and Commonwealth.

Rozzi said it’s very doubtful the Mahoning River will be cleaned if the funds cannot be allocated for the proposed cleanup project. However, the Department of Justice was successful in prosecuting an insurance agent of a former polluter and has provided the Ohio EPA with approximately $1.3 million of what would be considered non-federal funds for this effort Rozzi said.

By CHRISTINE DARIN
TheNewsOutlet.org

CANFIELD

Kelly Black, feline manager and foster coordinator for Angels for Animals, walks through the shelter, showing room after room of animals.

She ends the tour in the overflow room, a small room filled with cages on the second floor.

Cats stick their paws out to play. Each cage is occupied.

“When this room fills up, I know I’m in trouble,” Black said. “That’s when I have to start making hard decisions.”

If Black can’t find the cats a home, she will have to start choosing which ones to euthanize.

The need to raise awareness and money for the hundreds of animals in the center’s care is a never-ending task. Animals suffering from abuse and neglect arrive every day.

Odysseus, an orange female cat, was brought to Angels for Animals in June with one eye surgically removed and a serious infection in the other. The shelter removed the remaining eye, and now she waits patiently to be adopted.

Odysseus, eager for affection, relies on her other senses as she easily makes her way through Black’s office to jump on any visitor’s lap.

Black said the shelter is always looking for new ways to raise funds for the facility. This year it entered the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ 100K Challenge.

During August, September and October, ASPCA challenges 50 animal welfare agencies to try to save at least 300 additional animals lives than each did during the same months in 2010.

Angels for Animals competed with 94 animal welfare agencies across the country in April to be one of the 50 agencies to face off for the challenge.

The facility with the largest increase in lives saved in excess of 300 will win the grand prize grant of $100,000. Second place will receive $25,000 and a $20,000 best-in-region grant will be given to the largest increase in saves within five regions throughout the United States.

Prizes will be announced Nov. 30.

Bert Troughton, vice president of ProLearning ASPCA Community Outreach, said the challenge helps the shelters raise the profile of their organizations.

“It is giving us an opportunity to re-evaluate our programs and expand on our programs,” Black said.

Last year, Angels for Animals saved 403 animals from euthanasia between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31, so the goal for the competition is to save at least 703 cats and dogs.

Actually, Kate McDermott, general manager of Angels for Animals, said the shelter hopes to save 1,000 pets.

“The overall goal is to raise awareness of the need for homes for thousands of animals,” McDermott said.

From Aug. 1-7 , the shelter will feature half-priced adoptions for the ASPCA Challenge Kick-Off Week. Among other upcoming promotions is the “Cat and Dog for a Song and Dance” from Aug. 9-12, during which potential adopters can sing a song and dance to receive a 25 percent discount on an adoption. The shelter plans to display the talent on YouTube.

Other events are the “Study Buddy Back to School Sale,” “Pet and Pajamas,” and “Plinko for Pets” tailored after the game on “The Price is Right.”

Angels for Animals received 2,951 animals dropped off there in 2010, a total that doesn’t include the animals already in-house or in foster homes. The shelter euthanized 2,999 animals and found homes for 1,513 last year.

“We don’t like the numbers, but it’s the reality of the situation,” said Diane Less, co-founder of Angels for Animals.

She said many of the animals are injured or sick and need to be euthanized. But the shelter receives hundreds of viable animals, and the funds don’t exist to spay and neuter, provide housing and care for them all.

Black said the biggest problem is that people don’t get their animals spayed and neutered. During an average kitten season, the shelter can receive 30 to 40 cats a day.

“If we can get everybody fixed, then we don’t have all these unwanted animals anymore,” she said.

If the Angels for Animals shelter wins the challenge, McDermott said the group will use the winnings for the spay/neuter program, updates to the facility and the adoption program.

“I think no matter who wins the challenge, every organization wins because of the greater awareness of the overall issue,” McDermott said.

For people who can’t adopt a pet, there are other ways to help Angels such as monetary donations, or donations of supplies including food, blankets, towels, and newspapers.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU radio and The Vindicator.

By CHRISTINE DARIN
TheNewsOutlet.org

CANFIELD

When Holly Heikkinen found a lump on her breast while nursing her youngest child last winter, she knew she was in for a battle.

The early-intervention specialist at Fairhaven School in Niles is no stranger to tough battles, however.

The 1998 Canfield High School graduate attended the University of Mount Union, and she was a standout volleyball and basketball player at each school.

Heikkinen, 31, said her parents always taught a good work ethic that pushed her to do well in sports.

Nicole Vlajkovich was five years younger than Heikkinen in high school, but she remembers the varsity coach telling seventh-grade summer basketball camp students to watch Heikkinen because she was so tough and such a good role model.

“She didn’t realize the impact she had on me,” Vlajkovich said.

Heikkinen’s family — her husband, Matthew; daughters, Hannah, 7, and Becca, 18 months; and son, Graham, 5 — relies on her teaching salary, and now they are faced with looming medical expenses due to her cancer.

Dr. Becky Heikkinen, her mother-in-law, and Vlajkovich, are hosting the “Benefit for Holly” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Bernard-Daniels Lumber Co. parking lot, 250 Railroad St.

The event will feature a trash-and-treasure sale, a bike raffle, bake sale and a silent auction with gift baskets. Refreshments will be for sale, including water, lemonade, soda and hot dogs.

“One thing that is special about our school district is that we help our own,” Vlajkovich said. “It’s a tribute to her and a Canfield tradition.”

Doctors diagnosed Heikkinen with stage-two breast cancer in January. In February, Heikkinen began chemotherapy treatments lasting up to five hours each.
The sessions weakened her immune system, causing her to contract an infection that resulted in a three-day hospital stay.

Throughout the sessions, which ended June 3, she spent many days feeling nauseous.

Now, facing surgery, Heikkinen is focused on the impact her disease is having on her three young children.

“I keep my life as normal as possible for the sake of my children,” she said, often assuring them that while she would become very sick, she would get better after visiting the hospital.

On Thursday, Heikkinen will undergo bilateral mastectomy followed by radiation treatments for six weeks.

In addition to teaching full time and raising her children, Heikkinen’s treatments took her to Magee-Women’s Hospital at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center as well as local facilities for appointments, which sometimes required taking unpaid sick leave from work.

Heikkinen said she recently gave advice to a co-worker, who has a friend with cancer. She said to stay positive because battling cancer is a tough, depressing journey.

“If I didn’t laugh and stay positive, I would probably cry,” Heikkinen said.

Mary Jean Polkovitch, a Canfield High School teacher, said she’d like to see as many people as possible to come to the Sunday benefit.

“The thing that impressed me most about Holly was that she is so hardworking,” said Polkovitch, who taught Heikkinen honors English her junior year. “Holly is such a fighter.”

“The people I work with are wonderful, giving people,” Vlajkovich said, adding they have donated raffle items and helped in many ways.

Donations for the sale, including clothing, sports equipment, books, DVDs, kitchen items, furniture, toys, games, appliances will be accepted until Sunday morning before the benefit. To donate, call Dr. Heikkinen at 330-881-6667 or Vlajkovich at 330-204-8106.

Also needed are volunteers to work at the event, baked goods for the bake sale and gift baskets to raffle. Money can also be donated to the Holly Heikkinen Benefit Fund at any Huntington Bank branch.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU radio and The Vindicator.

By CHRIS COTELESSE
TheNewsOutlet.org

A light rain falls on the racetrack at Mountaineer Casino, and horses and jockeys cut through the thick, wet air of the West Virginia panhandle.

Limpopo takes an early lead around the turn. She’s more than two lengths ahead by the homestretch.

Strike Up a Ruckus takes to the outside in fourth place. Her muscles flex and relax in ever-quickening cycles, kicking up wet earth. A middle-aged woman in sweatpants drags deeply on a cigarette and whispers, “Come on, Ruckus.”

But Limpopo is too far ahead. This race is hers. But for the woman, there will be other races.
Every week, she and hundreds of others come to the racetrack in Newell, W.Va. At least two companies are trying to bring that same draw to the Mahoning Valley.

One company is hoping to build a racetrack in Austintown, and the other wants to locate in Vienna.
But like people who place bets at racetracks, the cities that host these facilities aren’t guaranteed a win. There are many hurdles to overcome, including a change in state law, before either racetrack would materialize.
And like Limpopo — only one company will win.

Tom Fries, executive director of the Ohio Racing Commission, said the organization is going to take its time with the application process.

“We’ll take all sorts of variables into consideration. Obviously, economic impact would be one of them — their commitment to horse racing in Ohio.”

Two Ohio communities that house racetracks, according to their officials, said that the payoff from racetracks may not be much.

Beulah Park, built in 1923, is Ohio’s first racetrack. At the height of its popularity, it wasn’t uncommon for 5,000 to 8,000 people to visit its 210 acres each racing day and stay in one of Grove City’s 1,300 hotel rooms.
It was a staple of the local economy. But in recent years, interest in horse racing has seen a marked decline.
Chuck Boso, development director for Grove City, believes that the Beulah Park land is being “underutilized.”
He said Beulah Park employs about 100 people, most of whom are part time. The track hosts two meets, once in the fall and again beginning in the winter. Grove City receives up to $15,000 in taxes on the betting pool for each meet.

“One could argue that there could be better use of the grounds and increased potential revenue to the city,” he said.

Thistledown, in North Randall just southeast of Cleveland, has experienced the same.
Chuck Horvath, building commissioner for North Randall, said that at its peak, the track employed around 800 people.

That number is now about 250 during the live season and about 100 otherwise, according to its reports.
The foot traffic generated by the track used to overflow to the Randall Park Mall across from Thistledown. But the mall has been closed for three years.

“Our community is mostly a retail-driven community, and a lot of them have left,” he said.
Austintown Administrator Michael Dockry is more optimistic about the economic benefit of horse racing in his community.

He welcomes plans by Penn National Gaming Inc., owners of Beulah Park, to build a racetrack where Interstate 80 meets state Route 46.

Penn National said the project would create an estimated 1,500 direct and indirect jobs to operate and maintain the facility.

Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for Penn, said the construction jobs had not been estimated but offered a comparison.

“This is a $200 million facility. The casino that’s under construction in Columbus is a $350 million facility, and it’s going to have 3,500 construction workers. So we’re talking about a significant number of construction jobs,” he said.

There also is a potential increase in commercial traffic that could persuade businesses to develop around the racetrack.

“There is vacant space, virgin land, if you will, on state Route 46 that I think would see a boost in value,” Dockry said.

Austintown will receive up to $15,000 for each horse-racing meet, and Dockry noted a one-time purchase of a zoning permit at a cost between $150,000-$200,000.

But, he said the real gain would be “just a general economic impact.”

“More people looking to own homes probably both in Austintown and the surrounding area … more people working, spending money not only on homes but on groceries and food. All the area businesses ought to find some benefit,” he said.

But Austintown isn’t ready for a victory lap just yet. Developers will have to hurdle state law.

PNG wants to relocate its operations in Beulah Park to Dayton and Raceway Park in Toledo to Austintown. Tenenbaum said these proposals depend on whether the Ohio Racing Commission approves the moves, and whether the state allows slot machines, officially called video lottery terminals, beyond the casinos and into the racetracks.

PNG owns the rights to build two of Ohio’s four new casinos in Columbus and Toledo. Racetracks so near their casinos could hurt PNG’s business model.

Alternatively, Tenenbaum said allowing VLTs at racetracks and widening the radius between gaming facilities would increase income to the tracks, tax revenue by $200 million, and horse-racing purses by $5 million to $6 million.

The total tax revenue paid by all seven of Ohio’s racetracks to the state in 2009 was less than $9.5 million, down from more than $14 million in 2005.

While PNG plans only to build if VLTs are legalized, another company wants to go forward even without the machines.
About 20 miles, or 160 furlongs, northeast of Austintown is Vienna, where the Mahoning Valley Development Group plans to build a horsetrack and resort.

Mahoning Valley Development Group Chairman Rick Lertzman has been lobbying to legalize gambling for more than 20 years with My Ohio Now. In 2008, the group wrote a ballot measure that would have brought a casino to southwestern Ohio.

He believes MVDG has a competitive edge over PNG.

“We’re building a resort facility too. So we’re looking at having a major structure to have kind of an all-year-round resort.”

He estimated the annual revenue at around $250 million for gambling if the VLTs are allowed, and $120 million for the resort, which would include an indoor water park.

Lertzman said the economic benefits would reach beyond the gaming facility.

“It’s kind of a ripple effect when you create an industry like this. … Besides the 1,500 jobs, another 1,000 jobs will be created by the ancillary industries that service the facility.”

But only one project will make it to the finish line. Ohio law requires at least 50 miles between racetracks.
“If Penn National applies, they will get permission to relocate the license from Toledo to the Valley,” Tenebaum said.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU radio and The Vindicator.

By CHELSEA MILLER
TheNewsOutlet.org

CANFIELD

Pete Widera remembers last Aug. 30 well.

At first, the signs were slight: tight chest and difficulty breathing. Fifteen minutes later, his wife, Jeanne Widera, 66, had a full-fledged heart attack.

The Canfield man called 9-1-1 and, after his wife was resuscitated, asked Lane Ambulance workers to take her to St. Elizabeth Health Center’s hospital in Youngstown, one of 13 Level I trauma centers in Ohio.

Four months later, Jeanne died.

He now wonders if his hospital choice may have cost Jeanne her life.

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have flown her to Cleveland,” he said.

Widera believes that his wife’s death may have been prevented if a procedure, called therapeutic hypothermia, had been used when she first came to the emergency room.

While it’s not uncommon for grieving family members to make such claims, therapeutic hypothermia is practiced at all 11 Level 1 trauma facilities in Ohio. ValleyCare Northside Medical Center in Youngstown, which is not a Level I Trauma Center, also uses the procedure.

Therapeutic hypothermia is performed with a cooling blanket that reduces body temperature to about 32 degrees, said Dr. Andrew Burger, a cardiologist at the University Hospital of Cincinnati, who uses this procedure. The body temperature is then closely monitored to slow body organs to reduce injury and brain damage.

“The equipment is not complex,” he said. “[Doctors have to]understand how it works, but it’s not hard.”

Although some instances don’t warrant the procedure, such as being brain-dead on arrival or showing no hope of recovery,, Burger said the procedure is usually recommended.

It was unavailable last fall to treat Jeanne Widera.

St. E’s has it today.

In the past decade, therapeutic hypothermia has become a standard of care.

A study published in 2002 in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that 55 percent of the 136 cardiac- arrest patients who received the procedure had a favorable outcome. After six months, cardiac mortality rates were 41 percent in the hypothermia group and 55 percent in the non-hypothermia group.

Since then, the procedure has become widespread in U.S. hospitals.

“Every community, I would hope by now, has a place where they offer this therapy,” said Dr. Michael Mooney, interventional cardiologist and co-director of cardiovascular labs at the Minneapolis Heart Institute.

Dr. Mooney, who has been performing the procedure for six years at his hospital, said, “The American College of Emergency Physicians has come out in favor of it; so has the American College of Cardiology, and so it’s not considered controversial anymore.”

St. Elizabeth officials said that because therapeutic hypothermia was not a “required” standard of care, they did not use it.

The procedure may not be “required,” but several studies have proven the benefits of therapeutic hypothermia, said Dr. Vincent Mosesso, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh

“I would say over the last couple years, it’s become more and more like a standard of care,” Mosesso said.

Jeanne’s final months of life were back and forth between local facilities.

She was admitted to a local nursing home in October, but after breathing troubles, she was readmitted to St. E’s.

Through her ordeal, she was essentially incapacitated, Pete said. She would open her mouth and eyes but was not able to breathe without support. In December, with no hope of recovery, Pete said it was recommended that Jeanne come off life support. Eleven days later, Jeanne died.

St. Elizabeth’s could not comment on her care because of patient confidentiality.

But it would discuss where it is headed with the procedure.

Lisa Parish, vice president of clinical services and supply chain management at Humility of Mary Health Partners, said the hospital has recently begun performing the procedure with a small group of patients.

Tina Creighton, spokesperson for St. Elizabeth’s, said the hospital decided to offer the procedure after other hospitals have proven it to be beneficial.

“After sometimes years of research and observation a procedure can become a ‘best practice’ or standard of care,” she said. “These other options have been tested to be safe and may be useful, but it’s important to remember that there is typically not just one that is the best, or the only option for effective care.”

When Widera was admitted, the hospital offered a procedure called RapidBlue, which is a type of therapeutic hypothermia or heart- attack victims, said Jessica Ulbrich, a representative of St. Elizabeth’s. The hospital also offers passive cooling by placing a cool blanket on the patient.

Patient condition and physician preference determines if the procedure is needed and which type is used, said Parish.

Widera said neither option was given to his wife.

“I’ve talked to a lot of other hospitals, and they have it available. They know Medicare does not cover this, but it’s available to save a person’s life that’s there,” he said. “I was told … three times (by representatives of St. Elizabeth’s), that this system is not cost-effective and Medicare won’t cover it.”

Creighton said coverage of the procedure depends on the insurance plan or provider, but the hospital provides care regardless of a person’s ability to pay.

Dr. Mosesso said in Widera’s case, he would have transferred her to Northside Medical if it meant the procedure would be performed.

“I would recommend that if the person had sudden cardiac arrest and was resuscitated, that they should be transported to a hospital that has a program for post resuscitation, including therapeutic hypothermia,” he said.

While the procedure is not available at every hospital, those who have suffered from cardiac arrest should be transferred to a hospital that performs it, Dr. Mooney said.

He also stressed there should have been better communication between the hospital and the ambulance taking her there.

“The problem may really have been with the EMS system — to not know that they need to … take these patients to the right hospital,” Dr. Mooney said.

Randy Pugh, chief operations officer for Lane Ambulance, said his crew takes the patient to the hospital of the family’s preference, with the exception of trauma victims. Pugh said Lane offers recommendations, but must follow the patient’s wishes.

“Patients who have had cardiac arrest, particularly if it’s not traumatic, should in my view, be brought to centers who offer therapeutic hypothermia,” Dr. Mooney said.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists.

By Doug Livingston
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN
National and local urban planners say Rust Belt cities such as Cleveland and Pittsburgh have survived and flourished through comprehensive city planning.

Well-staffed planning departments have revitalized post-industrial communities by transforming the stagnant business district in downtown Cleveland into a vibrant area for stores and eateries.

Likewise, once languishing Station Square in Pittsburgh has been revitalized as a revenue-raking tourist attraction.

Youngstown, like Pittsburgh and Cleveland, has embraced a comprehensive plan for the future: the Youngstown 2010 plan. Unlike Pittsburgh and Cleveland, however, some say the 2010 plan has lost momentum and point to the absence of a fully staffed city planning department as part of the problem.

City council members want to fill the position of city planner, vacant since Anthony Kobak quit in 2009. But at the urging of the city administrators, who say there isn’t money in the city’s general fund for the post, council hasn’t allocated funding for it.

William D’Avignon, director of the city’s Community Development Agency, said fully implementing the 2010 plan and effectively shrinking Youngstown has not happened because of vacancies in the planning department, which has lost three of its five employees since 2002 when the 2010 plan was drafted.

A 25 percent funding cut to local governments for the fiscal year beginning July 1 and then a 50 percent cut for the year beginning July 1, 2012 — proposed by the governor and approved by the Ohio House — discouraged filling the city planner and the park and recreation director positions, city officials say.

Councilman Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd, said there may still be hope to seize administration funds for a chief planner from the CDA budget, which allocates state and federal entitlements for housing and urban development.

Mayor Jay Williams said that until concessions are made in other areas of government, namely the judicial and legislative branches, funding would remain scarce.

“It becomes virtually impossible to try to hire new people when you’re trying to first maintain the people you have,” Williams said.

His efforts to maintain staff at the police and fire departments take priority over the planning department.
“The argument isn’t whether planning is important,” Williams said, agreeing with council’s push for a city planner, but the mayor says he also has to focus on the pressing issues of crime and city services.
D’Avignon has assumed the duties of chief city planner for the past two years.

“The city has an internationally recognized plan, and effectively implementing it has been difficult without the proper staff,” D’Avignon said.

Bill Kline, director of research and advisory services for the American Planning Association, said planning staffs are logical targets for cuts.

“Cities are tightening their belts. People are getting laid off,” Kline said. “Who wants to cut back on the fire department and watch your house burn down?”

Officials agree the need to shield police and fire departments from major budgetary cuts is understandable, even at the expense of long-term planning efforts. But Kline and other urban-development experts say that to alleviate ongoing blight, crime and other elements, the city must look into the future.

Former city planners and experts in the American Planning Association explain that a city planner has the ability and training to think long term and comprehensively, bringing together all the issues that plague cities. A planner prioritizes these issues, seeks funds to address them and forms a plan.

D’Avignon said a city planner potentially could bring millions of dollars for urban development. But the city and taxpayers can’t afford the $180,000 cost for the chief planner and park and recreation director positions.
“If the person brings in grants, that’s fine,” Williams said. “But you don’t build the department around the hope that grants are going to come and sustain it.”

Williams said salary and benefit costs for the city’s employees account for nearly 80 percent of the general-fund budget. The city planner position would cost money when funds are dire. And the impact of the recession on state and local budgets has downsized the planning and urban development departments in many cities.
Hunter Morrison, former director of campus planning and community development for Youngstown State University and former Cleveland city planner, said council and administrators are not always in agreement over the importance of a planning department.

“As a planner who’s gone up against a lot of councilmen over a lot of years justifying my existence and the existence of the staff that worked for me in the city of Cleveland, it’s music to my ears” to hear that council and the mayor agree that planning is important, Morrison said.

Along with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., Williams has turned to YSU to help with the insufficient staffing at the planning department.

“Every city in Ohio that I know of is stretched, and nobody’s operating at an ideal strength,” Morrison said. “Every city in this day and age is faced with some hard choices between hiring cops and hiring planners, and usually they hire cops.”

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU radio and The Vindicator.

By Christine Keeling
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN
Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church passes its Sunday collection plate to a congregation of 1,500 — including a few top Youngstown city officials — while county and state agencies wait for the thousands of dollars they are owed.
The Youngstown-based church has amassed a public record trail of debt that includes $257,950 in unpaid income tax, $38,000 in delinquent and potentially delinquent property taxes, $11,786 owed to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and loans totaling $2.5 million taken against properties it owns in Youngstown.
In addition, a state auditor found the church’s foray into a charter school, Legacy Academy for Leaders and the Arts, yielded a $598,000 operating loss, and the
Mahoning County prosecutor’s office is working to recover some of the funds.
Still, Mount Calvary leaders are considering building a new church on the former Idora Park property on the city’s South Side.
“It [debt] won’t plague the development plan,” said Jason Whitehead, chief of staff to Mayor Jay Williams and undershepherd of Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church. “Needlessly to say, under the new leadership of Pastor [C. Shawn] Tyson we are looking to retire all debt the church now has and move forward aggressively with building a new edifice.”
The church’s former leader, Bishop Norman Wagner, died in January 2010, and Pastor Tyson was installed in October.
Whitehead said the church’s plans are more dependent on how much the church leadership wanted to spend on a new building.
“It’s really the church deciding what they are going to build,” said Whitehead. “Are they going to build a $2 million church, or are they going to build a $5 million church?”
Whitehead said he wasn’t part of the church’s decision-making in the past but began getting involved in its development plans over the last year. Whitehead was a candidate for church pastor after Wagner‘s death.
Mahoning County Courthouse records show 11 tax liens filed against the church in 2010 by the Ohio Department of Taxation totaling more than $37,000 and four 2008 filings for more than $274,000.
Dan Tierney, public information officer for the Ohio attorney general, confirmed by email the church’s outstanding tax liability at $257,950. The state’s attorney general files liens on behalf of the state tax department.
John Kohlstrand, former communication director for the Ohio Department of Taxation, said tax-lien cases proceed after a tax payment goes delinquent or a return is not filed.
“It’s a little less common for a church to be involved in a tax issue, but it’s not unheard of,” said Kohlstrand, who was displaced in January by the Kasich administration.
Not including Legacy Academy, Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church has ties to nonprofit organizations Calvary Publications and Calvary Estates Inc., which received more than $4.2 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development loans for its senior-living apartments, Calvary Towers, on Market Street in November. The church also founded Mayor Williams’ alma mater, Calvary Christian Academy, which closed in 2001.
Kohlstrand said liens were placed against all properties the church owns in the county until the tax liabilities are resolved.
Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church and its defunct, private tuition-funded Calvary Christian Academy School own 88 properties throughout Youngstown and didn’t pay 2010 Mahoning County property taxes on more than 60 of them.
As of March, the Mahoning County auditor’s website showed the church owed more than $4,000 in delinquent property taxes in 2010. The church could be responsible for an additional $22,256 for its Idora Park property ownership. A 2007 tax-exempt application filed for Idora Park was denied by the state. The church has that decision under appeal.
American Tax Funding, a bulk-sale purchaser and servicer of delinquent property taxes, said in an email it had more than 300 property liens in the church’s and Calvary Christian Academy’s name that the Florida company bought when the church failed to pay its property taxes in previous years. The liens totaled almost $12,000.
The company said it had additional liens against the church and school that expired in April 2010. Ohio law gives lien purchasers six years to take action against property owners.
Whitehead said a nonexistent school owning pockets of properties isn’t good for the city.
“Taking off my hat as Mount Calvary member and putting on the hat of being chief of staff to the city, you want the owners [of land] to be someone who wants to cultivate that land, take care of the land and take pride in the land,” Whitehead said.
He said that throughout the years, people deeded many of the properties to the school after they died, and the church was unaware of their ownership until it got a tax bill.
The church “probably wouldn’t have accepted those properties if we had known in advance,” Whitehead said.
Whitehead said the church is considering turning some of the properties over to Lien Forward Ohio for future development. Lien Forward’s goal is to work with the communities to return land to productive use
A representative at iServe, a real-estate and mortgage lender in Texas, said the church had ignored all communication attempts regarding a $525 lien the company is servicing for unpaid property taxes at the church’s 1812 Oak Hill Ave. worship location.
And the church’s debt doesn’t stop at its doors.
Mount Calvary’s parking lot is home to its cash-strapped, trailer-housed charter school, Legacy Academy for the Leaders and Art, which opened in 2001.
According to a 2004 state audit, released in 2009, Legacy Academy had 153 students enrolled and employed 35 people. It received more than $1.2 million in state funding and accrued a $598,000 operating loss. Four of its five-member governing board are appointed by the church.
The audit showed the school collected more than $100,000 in federal withholdings, $16,318 in Medicare withholdings and $33,575 in city income tax from employee payroll checks, but didn’t remit the money to the Internal Revenue Service or the city of Youngstown.
The school “is subject to collection activity,” Mayor Williams, a church member, said in March, about past-due income taxes. “No entity is immune.”
Williams said he was no more involved in his church’s decisions than Catholic church members were in deciding which parishes were going to close.
Collection of city income taxes is contracted to the independent Regional Income Tax Agency, which wouldn’t discuss delinquent tax matters. It also filed a complaint against Legacy Academy for Leaders and Arts seeking $84,162 in outstanding city income tax April 18.
Of that, $62,070 was for taxes not remitted from employees in these tax periods: September through December 2006, all of 2007 and 2008, January through September 2009 and July through December 2010.
The additional $22,092 is being sought for penalties and interest.
According to the state audit, money exchanges between the school, the church and employees were inappropriate or undocumented. Among the findings:
Legacy Academy paid more than $26,000 for utilities and maintenance that should have been paid by its leaseholder, Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church.
The church received $6,897 for administrative services with no proper documentation or approval from the school’s governing board.
The school was obligated to pay annual rent to the church after its first year of operation in the amount of $540,000 but owed $154,000 at the time of the audit.
Some teacher’s expenses were reimbursed without proper receipts.
“We are in the process of recovering funds,” said Karen Gaglione, an assistant county prosecutor. “It’s not in a lawsuit state, yet.”
Although Gaglione said the parties were cooperating regarding issues outlined in the 2004 audit, the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation said it was shortchanged in 2010.
In November, Melissa Vince, spokeswoman for BWC, said a letter dated Oct. 22 was sent to the school regarding more than $11,000 it owed worker’s compensation since Sept. 2.
As of March, the amount was still owed, and new problems for the school surfaced.
Mahoning County Common Pleas Court records show the Ohio Department of Taxation filed income-tax actions against the school for more than $258,000 during December 2010 and January 2011.
Education had always been a cornerstone of the church, Whitehead said.
“The economic piece is being given a lot of attention,” Whitehead said. “We want to be an example of doing things correctly and doing things right, so there are no outstanding tax liabilities, no audit findings, etc.”
He said the church is looking at its future in the community school business.
“If the expenses are exceeding revenue and because it’s such a competitive arena, we are evaluating whether or not to remain in it,” he said. “And if we remain, what adjustments do we have to make to meet all expenses?”
Legacy Academy announced a public financial-emergency meeting at the school March 19, but no meeting appeared to take place.
Records at the Mahoning County Recorder’s office indicate how the church tried to handle debt in the past.
On June 1, 2007, the church used its worship address to secure a $1.8 million loan from America’s Christian Credit Union of California. It then settled a $1.5 million lawsuit filed by Teen Missions International of Florida for nonpayment of loans the church took to develop its City of God complex on the 26-acre Idora parcel and also paid more than $200,000 on liens held by the Internal Revenue Service.
In July 2007, Mount Calvary used its former Idora Park parcel and 13 of its other Youngstown properties to secure another loan for $680,000 from America’s Christian Credit Union. The loans totaled almost three times the market value on the county auditor’s website.
Edward Bolling Sr., chief financial officer of Mount Calvary and Legacy, would only offer that the church took loans from Teen Mission to purchase the Idora property.
“In order to protect the privacy and interest of the church, there is going to be information I’m not going to divulge without first finding out from Mr. Whitehead what information he divulged,” Bolling said.
He then declined to comment further. Further attempts to speak to Whitehead went unanswered, as did all attempts to speak with Pastor Tyson.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU radio and The Vindicator.

By Christine Keeling

TheNewsOutlet.org

The land that featured a well-known roller coaster, big-name performances and legendary french fries now offers dangling power lines, obscene graffiti and a patchwork of weeds sprouting from asphalt cracks.

Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church proposed building a $50 million City of God when it purchased the former Idora Park property on Youngstown’s South Side for $300,000.

That was 1985.

But 26 years later, the divine destination is derelict and its future undecided.

The 26-acre parcel sits in the middle of a massive neighborhood-redevelopment effort, the church is reconsidering its plan and Mahoning County could lose more than $21,000 in property taxes if the state decides, after almost four years, to classify it tax-exempt.

“It’s just sitting there,” said 30-year Idora neighborhood resident Bernice Ward. “They won’t sell it; they won’t do anything about it. We tried to reach [the church] to see if we could go there for a minute. But they don’t return our calls.”

James London, Idora Neighborhood Association president, said he attempted to contact the church two years ago to get permission to have a community picnic at the site and later to paint rusted posts on the property. He said the church never responded. London said he eventually asked the church to reply if it objected to the project.

Idora’s important to the neighbors and the city.

Besides painting the posts, the association developed a 4-H group that received a statewide award for urban youth engagement, stopped the sale of liquor at the Party Pantry and Park N Shop and is collaborating with Councilman Paul Drennen to object to Gina’s Food Mart’s liquor license. It also worked with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. to provide garden signs in the neighborhood.

The city of Youngstown, in collaboration with the YNDC, spent more than $1.5 million revitalizing the Idora neighborhood after a plan was adopted by city council in March 2008.

In 20 months, the city demolished 56 houses, added new street signs and joined forces with the YNDC to rehab more than 30 homes. In addition, the YNDC secured 30 vacant dwellings, repaired five homes, installed three pavilions, returned 118 lots to productive use and gave down-payment assistance to six homebuyers.

A new 18,000-square-foot grocery store in the area is preparing to break ground, and Mill Creek MetroParks plans to spend $300,000 to upgrade the East Cohassett Trail that runs through the neighborhood.

Presley Gillespie, executive director of the YNDC, said he believes the church-owned Idora Park parcel negatively impacts the economics and pride of the community and affects the quality of residents’ lives.

One church member and city leader disagreed.

Jason Whitehead, chief of staff to Mayor Jay Williams and undershepherd of Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church, said he doesn’t believe the property is negative as it stands today.

“The City of God is not a geographical location,” said Whitehead. “It’s concept was that the city of Youngstown would be a place where God would reign supreme, reign first in the lives of men and women, and [the church] would seek to develop the entire city as a place where men and women [who are part of Christian leadership] could come rest and relax.”

He said the church looked to use the Idora property as its “centerpiece.”

The church’s City of God plan included a nursing home, counseling center, shopping plaza, retirement home and religious education and worship facilities. It was set to break ground in 1987.

“The concept is being modified,” said Whitehead. “The Christian-restoration concept was really driven by Bishop [Norman] Wagner.”

He said the church’s new leadership would make its decision on the future of the property in 12 to 18 months.

Wagner died in January 2010 and District Elder C. Shawn Tyson was installed as the new leader of Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church in October.

Leroy Simmons, a 30-year Idora resident, said he knew about the church‘s original plan and believes the neighborhood’s future would be better if the property got in the hands of someone who would take action.

Bill D’Avignon, director of Youngstown Community Development and Planning, said the department looked at taking control of the property when the church stopped paying its property taxes but found the church had filed for tax-exempt status.

Yvette Klenotic, delinquent real-estate director for the Mahoning County treasurer, said properties with unpaid property taxes could face a lien sale or foreclosure. But, if a tax-exempt status is pending, no action will be taken against the property owner.

“It’s stalemated until a decision is made,” said Klenotic.

In May 2007, the church filed an application for Real Property Tax Exemption and Remission to the Mahoning County auditor on its Idora property and 12 surrounding properties on Woodford Avenue and Pearce Avenue.

On the application, the church stated the properties were “used for special church events.” Its plans included building a “new church edifice,” and its tax-exempt use began in 1994.

John Kohlstrand, former communication director for the Ohio Department of Taxation, said tax exemptions are given to primary sites of worship. He said church-owned baseball fields and properties with administrative buildings on them that facilitate worship have been rejected due to an Ohio Supreme Court ruling. But, he added, consideration can be given if a church is in the process of being built.

If the tax-exempt status is granted in full, Kohlstrand — displaced in January by the Kasich administration — said the church could receive a refund on property taxes paid since 1994.

If the application is denied, the church would owe $21,256 in property taxes on the Idora property not paid since 2007.

“We haven’t ruled out [building a new church], but we’re not locked into that property right now,” said Whitehead. “We are really looking at some out-of-the-box thinking as it compares to what we have stated in the past.”

He said the church, as a private-property owner, can do whatever it wants with the property, but its new leadership considered keeping portions of the land as green space and using a nostalgic and historical approach with walking trails for people who are inquisitive about the former amusement park. He also said portions of the property may be turned over to Mill Creek MetroParks.

Youngstown’s 2010 plan for Idora seemed more definite. It lists the property’s future use as recreational area.

“Each vacant property in Youngstown has unique assets and uses,” said Mayor Williams.

He said 2010 plan developers thought Idora’s “highest and best” use was recreational space because of its natural geographical location next to Mill Creek MetroParks.

Williams, a member of Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church, said he isn’t involved in its leadership or any decisions made by church leaders.

“I don’t know the future of the property,” said Williams. Neighbors, the development corporation “and the church need to come to a consensus,” he added.

He said the city would support those efforts.

Whitehead said Tyson’s Mount Calvary wanted to be good neighbors and not on the opposite side of the aisle. But the church was not going to allow a neighborhood group to dictate the parcel’s future.

Last fall, YNDC leaders extended an invitation to meet with church leaders to discuss the possibility of layering resources.

“There’s unlimited possibilities that can take place in that space,” said Gillespie. “No one organization can do it.”

On Dec. 8, the Ohio Department of Taxation denied the church’s application for tax exemption because the church failed to respond to its Sept. 24 letter requesting more information.

The tax-exempt application “was denied because the church failed to submit information that supported progress had been made toward the goal of creating a property that would be exempt,” said Gary Gudmundson, communication director for the Ohio State Department of Taxation. “The state looked to see, did they do any fundraising? Hire an architect? Contractor? Was there any tangible demonstration that they are moving forward?”

In mid-January, Whitehead and Tyson agreed to meet with the YNDC.

Gillespie said during the Jan. 27 introductory meeting that the church expressed an interest in working with the YNDC and the community to develop a plan for the Idora property that benefited all parties.

“The fact they sat with us is a good first step,” said Gillespie.

Two weeks later, the taxation department set aside its tax-exemption denial.

Gudmundson said the church provided information about the Idora property’s future in February that resulted in the change of ruling. Though he said he was not able to elaborate, he added the state made further inquiries in March about the church’s plans, but that it has yet to respond.

Gudmundson didn’t put a time line on the state’s final decision, other than to say, “When [the church] responds as best as they can to our requests and proves convincingly why the property should be exempt, we can make a decision.”

He said the department was working directly with the church and hoped it could provide the additional information in the next 30 to 60 days.

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Twisters tend to lose punch as they reach Northeast Ohio, local weather professionals say

By Dillon Deshong
TheNewsOutlet.org

As tornado sirens wailed yet again across the Midwest and Southeast this week and the nation continues the cleanup from a series of powerful storms, Northeast Ohio remained relatively quiet.

Already this April, the National Weather Service is investigating 509 possible tornadoes — more than twice the recent average — and 38 people have been killed.

Tuesday night brought the latest threat to this area as a powerful line of storms roared across Illinois and Indiana, pushing 75 mph winds and large hail into the Buckeye State, where there were five confirmed tornadoes.

But an interesting thing happened as those storms roared across the western part of the state and into the northeast early Wednesday morning: They lost their punch.

That should come as no surprise.

The loosely defined ”tornado alley” — the unfettered flatlands where warm moist Gulf air meets chilly northern air — comes to an end as it approaches the tall buildings, lake-effect winds and the Appalachian foothills of Ohio’s eastern half.

The numbers show clearly that the farther east you go in Ohio, the fewer the tornadoes.

Since 2000, Stark County has had seven tornadoes — more than any other Northeast Ohio county in the past 10 years.

On the other hand, Columbiana County to the east of Stark hasn’t had a tornado since 1995, and Trumbull County, east of Portage, has been tornado-free since 1998.

Gary Garnet, a ”warning coordinator” for the National Weather Service in Cleveland, has built a career on studying weather patterns.

While science has come a long way in helping to predict where severe weather will hit, Garnet admits that severe weather can strike anywhere.

A search of records back to 1950 shows that people who live in Lorain County to the west of Cleveland have a higher chance of encountering a tornado than those who live in any other county in Northeast Ohio.

Lorain County is Ohio’s fifth-largest county in square miles, extends as far south from the lake as Akron is, and is on the eastern edge of the level terrain.

Lorain has had 27 tornadoes in that period, and following south, the numbers aren’t much different. Medina and Wayne counties both have had 21 in that period, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

Garnet said there are multiple geographic factors that make some counties more prone than others.

Lake County, with only two tornadoes in 60 years, is a narrow strip along the Lake Erie shoreline. Cool air coming off the lake pushes thunderstorms farther inland, he said.

”Lorain County is a little longer north and south, so that lake breeze doesn’t always make it all the way through,” said Garnet. ”The southern part of Lorain County is susceptible to getting storms, therefore it is more susceptible to getting tornadoes.”

Complacency warning

Mike Conklin, an adjunct professor of geology at the University of Akron, warns that residents shouldn’t be complacent.

”Overall, there is not a steadfast rule where a tornado cannot form. So anywhere is pretty much possible,” Conklin said.

Four of the nation’s 52 most severe tornadoes since 1950 — categorized as F5 — occurred in Ohio, and two were in unlikely places: Niles east of Portage County and in Gallipolis, a town tucked along the Ohio River in southeast Ohio.

And Stark County has been an unusual target in recent years. There have been seven since 2000, but only four in the previous 50 years.

On the other hand, Summit and Portage counties are tied at 11 each since 1950, but only one and three, respectively, have occurred since 2000.

Whether 2011 will be dangerous for Ohio won’t be known for a few months. Ohio’s tornadic activity increases in May and peaks in June’s warm moist air, according to weather statistics.

But it doesn’t end there. The most recent event in the Akron-Canton area was seven months ago — Sept. 16 — when a tornado devastated the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wayne County.

Nonetheless, ”Tornado frequency in Northeast Ohio is less than say, tornado alley or Mississippi because they’re closer to the Gulf of Mexico,” said Mark Johnson, chief meteorologist for WEWS (Channel 5).

”The further north from warmth the less tornadoes you’ll have, that’s why Ohio has 16 tornadoes a year and Texas has 70,” he said.

Spotting difficult

And spotting tornadoes, according to the weather service’s Garnet, is harder in Ohio, too.

”While a tornado is a tornado, the visibility and conditions that occur oftentimes in Ohio makes them less visible to the eye,” Garnet said. ”We get a lot of humidity and haze in this part of the world during the summer, and that can obscure features within thunderstorms, like tornadoes.”

Lightning, meanwhile, is one of the least predictable threats for the region.

”Lightning can hit anywhere,” Conklin said. ”The stair-step pattern tends to find the highest point in a small area to attach to — like treetops and flagpoles are the likeliest places to be struck by lightning. When you are in an open field you are the highest point in that area.”

And there is the element of surprise: Lightning can strike up to 20 miles from where it is raining.

From 1998 to 2008, 15 Ohioans died as a result of being struck by lightning.

The National Weather Service says the odds of being struck are one in 750,000, and only 10 percent are killed.

Each spark can contain up to 100 million volts and can reach temperatures of 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The shock often results in a nervous system injury.

”Most of the time your heart stops and you get a paralyzed diaphragm,” said Greg Haum, a doctor in the emergency room at Akron General Hospital. ”The main thing an EMS could do on the scene is establish an airway. [The victim's] pupils will be fixed and dilated and you’ll think they’re dead, but they’re not. Everything is just paralyzed.”

A direct hit will sometimes leave a fern-patterned mark on the back or chest, he said.

”Usually [victims] come right back out of it, but the problem is they can die of asphyxiation because their diaphragm is paralyzed,” Haum said.

Better identification

Johnson of WEWS said that although there is no ability to predict lightning strikes, meteorologists are getting better at knowing days in advance that severe storms are likely, and as storms approach, they can identify dangerous rotation that can lead to a tornado.

Johnson also offered some advice:

• Talking on a landline telephone may be dangerous during a storm. Lines can be struck by lightning, and there have been instances in which phone users have suffered hearing damage due to the power surge. Talking on a cell phone is fine.

• Stay out of water. It is a great conductor of electricity, and if you are in a boat, you are likely to be the highest point and thus a target for lightning.

• For lightning, the buildup of static electricity can be felt. Usually, the hair on your head and arms will start to stand up — if that occurs you are very near if not in the lightning strike.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, Kent State University, the University of Akron, the Akron Beacon Journal, the Canton Repository, Rubber City Radio, WYSU radio and the Youngstown Vindicator. Find out more about the NewsOutlet at http://www.thenewsoutlet.org.

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By – Courtney Thomas

Mid-American Conference university students across Ohio are paying millions of dollars to fund athletics, and chances are they’re not aware of it because there’s no indication of those charges on the student bill.
Kent State reporters called 12 MAC division schools and requested an annual budget for the athletic department and a line-item breakdown of student fees.

“All of that money goes into one general account. It’s pretty much a black hole. What’s done from there, we don’t know.” Jeff Bowman, Assistant Bursar at Toledo State University describing what happens to all the money students pay.

When a student takes a 3-credit English course at Ohio University, the student pays $144 ($46/credit) to the athletic department. Like most all universities in the MAC the athletic department at OU is funded by student fees from the academic students. Miami comes in a close second by charging $41 per hour. Akron checks in at $32 and Kent, BGSU, Buffalo and Northern Illinois are around $20 an hour.
Students pay millions of dollars a year to pay for full ride athletic scholarships. MAC universities spend more on athletic full rides than on academic full rides.

Read the full story at http://et.kent.edu/jmc40004/fees/story/thomas.htm

By JOE GIESY
TheNewsOutlet.org

WARREN — A banner shimmers across the center of the website.

Pictures of women in seductive poses line the bottom of the page.

A row of links across the top invite a further look into the Tokyo Health Spa in Warren.

The website’s “About Me” explains the Tokyo Health mission: “We take pride in being an exclusive, professional adult relaxation and massage” facility.

In the website’s gallery, women’s ages, measurements and weight are listed next to their pictures.

Other Warren parlors appear on the Internet in “sex tourism” forums that reference trips for sexual services.

Warren Police Capt. Joe Marhulik said police are aggressively investigating the 10 massage parlors licensed by the Warren City Health Department.
Trumbull County has 12 massage parlors — 10 in Warren, one in Niles and one in Newton Falls. Some of these spas are mentioned in the online “sex tourism” forums.
Websites such as www.usasexguide.info detail alleged happenings in the Warren spas.

In February, one user posted about his visit to Hot Sun Spa in Warren, saying he received oral sex there.

The sexual acts, however, often are cloaked in terms that are explained in a key on the website. “DFK” is “deep French kissing.” Other terms are far more graphic, describing everything from condomless sex acts to “Full service,” which means “intercourse.”

Richard Thompson, owner of Hot Sun Spa, declined to comment. Other spa-license owners denied that sex happens at their facilities.
Police are not so convinced, however. But the same constitutional issues and privacy laws that protect normal citizens from a police state also stymie the police investigation into spas and parlors.

The police need probable cause to get search warrants. But despite numerous complaints from community members, no one is willing to provide a written statement against any of the massage parlors.

Andrea Thompson, owner of Tokyo Spa and VIP Health Spa, said any accusations about illegal activity in her massage parlors are not true.

“Obviously, they have nothing better to do,” she said about the people making allegations about massage parlors in Warren.
Thompson said she might not know if sexual activity takes place in her spas because the massages always take place in private rooms, and she cannot always be present during operating hours. But she said all the women who work there are paid and are there of their own free will.
Thompson said she just heard of the online “sex tourism” forums recently but has not looked at them yet, and added she thinks the forums are just people joking around.

Marhulik and Warren police Sgt. John Yuricek Jr. said police are following up on complaints from community members, but it’s a long, tedious process.
Other communities have succeeded in closing massage parlors, including Liberty Township where police led a 10-year undercover investigation into massage parlors within township limits that led to the closing of several spas and the filing of 87 lewd-sexuality charges.

Yuricek said an investigation into the massage parlors would have to involve undercover police officers or confidential informants.

“The problem with that angle is it’s behind closed doors of a business,” Yuricek said. “We have our beliefs, but proving it is a whole different thing.”
Police have received at least one anonymous tip and would welcome more.

But Yuricek said someone has to come forward and make a signed and sworn statement for the police to obtain a search warrant.

“This is an established business who is licensed, who up front is going by the book. But what goes on behind closed doors might be something different,” Yuricek said.

As part of the ongoing investigation into the spas, Yuricek sometimes accompanies city health inspectors to keep an eye out for any criminal activity, which he says is unlikely to happen out in the open while he’s there.

To be compliant under the city’s health code, spas have to allow inspectors in to look around and ensure everything is up to health code. If spa workers prevent inspectors from going in, they can be cited under health codes.

Robert Pinti, city health department deputy commissioner, said massage-parlor health-inspection reports in Warren are often cleaner with fewer incidences than many of the city’s restaurants that also are subject to inspections by the department.

Pinti said his staff and police check to see if the women in the spa match the women on the licenses.

Each massage parlor in Warren must be licensed by the health department and provide licensure for each employee at the parlor, including massage technicians and any other workers.

The 10 massage parlors licensed by the Warren Health Department are Hot Sun Spa, Hong Kong Spa, Gemini Spa, Fantacy Spa, Tokyo Health Spa, Fuji Spa, VIP Health Spa, Moon Night Spa, Sunny Spa and Ocean Spa.

“Warren’s current ordinances never regulated or limited the number of massage parlors that could be operated,” Yuricek said.

Niles put the limit on number of massage parlors to one, and Warren is in the process of putting a 10-parlor cap within city limits. Marhulik said that with 10 already in existence, setting the cap any lower is problematic because it would force some spas to close.

William Nguyen, owner of Fantacy Spa, said he doesn’t think prostitution is happening around here and definitely not at Fantacy.
Seung Talk Oh, owner of Hong Kong Spa, said there is no sex at Hong Kong Spa — “just massages.”

Massage-parlor license owners Timothy Burnett, Ocean Spa; William Ketchum, Fuji Spa; James B. Foster, Gemini Spa; and Un Suk Cho, Sunny Spa, could not be reached to comment.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU radio and The Vindicator.

Wayne County resident Brett Baker graduated from the University of Akron in 2007 with a master’s degree in education. Last year, after being laid off from a charter school in Canton due to budget cuts, he became one of nearly 2,450 Ohio educators who are no longer teaching.

Baker sat anxiously with more than 700 college graduates who packed the Northeast Ohio Education job fair in Akron in March looking for a job in a shrinking job market.

“I knew getting into teaching that, in general, it was portrayed to me as very competitive,” Baker, 40, said. “My nose isn’t always in the newspapers trying to figure out how many teaching jobs there are out there. I just do the best I can.”

Video by Amanda Morrow-The News Outlet

According to the Ohio Department of Education, there are 204,190 active teaching licenses issued but only 103,952 educators in the state. What’s worse, the profession has seen a decline of 2,445 jobs since 2008.

The news comes as a shock to some who were told the education field was growing.

The 2008-2018 Ohio Job Outlook report projected a 7.5-percent increase in educational employment. However, since 2008, the number of Ohio educators has decreased two percent with 2,818 less teachers in district schools, according to Ohio Department of Education data compiled from October.

And budget cuts are looming.

As Ohio faces an $8 billion shortfall through fiscal year 2013, John Kasich’s two-year $55.5 billion budget will decrease the education budget by $2.5 billion.

“The governor made education a priority in balancing this budget,” Robert Sommers, director of 21st Century Education at the governor’s office, said, calling the education cuts modest compared to those in other departments.

The budget cuts are skewed by the loss of federal stimulus dollars that propped up many schools last year. Sommers said the state has actually increased its contribution, in spite of a shrinking overall budget. Had education, which accounts for 60 percent of government spending, been cut at the same level as other departments, the $2.5 billion cuts over the next two years would have been more like $5 billion, Sommers said.

Sommers said teaching positions are shrinking because of poor economic growth, the recession and a decrease over the past 10 years in K-12 student enrollment as more students choose charter and home schooling.

Analysis of Ohio Department of Education statistics reveals teaching positions in district and joint vocational schools decreased by nearly 3 percent since 2008, but charter schoolteachers increased by nearly 15 percent.

Under the governor’s proposed education reform, the EdChoice program, which funds students who choose to attend other districts or charter schools, will be increased from 14,000 scholarships to 60,000 scholarships in the next two years.

The budget provisions are designed to create a competitive environment where failing schools are shutdown and teachers whose students perform well are rewarded, Sommers said.

“We absolutely believe that the competitive marketplace breeds higher performance,” Sommers said.

Some schools have anticipated these budget cuts; other, less frugal schools will suffer more, Sommers said.

The cuts affect everything from filling retired teacher’s position to sending a recruiter to a job fair.

Joanne Gallagher is a coordinator in the office of career and counseling services at Youngstown State University, one of 12 colleges that connected students with employers at the Northeast Ohio Education Day.

Gallagher expected a lower than normal turnout this year, and when those usual employers didn’t show up, she called them to ask why.

“Sometimes it’s budgetary cuts; they’re not able to come to job fairs because it costs them money,” Gallagher said. “Also, they didn’t believe that ethically and in good conscience it would be fair to come and recruit students at a job fair when, at the same time, their districts might be laying off teachers.”

Still, the 67 employers present were more than expected, she said. But, by a ratio of at least 10 to one, the students outnumbered employers, many of whom had few openings.

“We have been overwhelmed by applicants,” South Euclid Lyndhurst City Schools recruiter Heath Horton said. “I have received well over 200 resumes.”

Horton’s school district, like many others, has not yet compiled a listing of vacancies for next year. But that list, Horton said, will likely pale in comparison to the applicants.

One of the hopeful applicants was Jason Clark, who drove his family three hours from outside the Columbus area to find a job. While his family waited in a hotel across the street, Clark sat in a hallway chair, resting his tired feet from the grueling job search.

“I didn’t expect this. This is more of a madhouse,” Clark, a laid off police officer of four years, said.

The recession has affected all Ohio jobs, he said.

“I went from carrying a badge to carrying a book,” Clark said, leaving the job fair with only one interview.

Clark may be up against even more candidates next year.

Sommers explained that within a year after the governor’s budget is accepted, education reforms will be proposed. One of those reforms will eliminate “restrictive licensure procedures” and allow qualified, passionate teachers who do not have a license to teach.

“The problem with the current licensure process is it does not differentiate from high quality and poor quality teachers,” Sommers said, adding that ineffectual teachers in poorly performing school district are, in fact, licensed.

“It’s just not right for a student to have to live with an ineffectual teacher,” Sommers said. “No child should ever be forced to go to a school that’s not meeting their needs.”

The budget provisions and education reforms are part of a transition to fix the economy and unemployment, Sommers said.

“Now, four years from now, if we haven’t got this fixed then we’ll take responsibility,” Sommers said, blaming previous governors and legislatures for the $8 billion projected deficit. “We think we’re gonna have it fixed. There’s gonna be more jobs in Ohio, better tax revenue … once we make it through that transition.”

While the schools and the state finalize their budgets, current teachers fear layoffs like those made to more than 700 educators in the Cleveland city school district on April 6.

As for college graduates, the state’s debt is only shadowed by their own.

Amanda Fisher will be graduating from Walsh University in May with $80,000 debt.

Fisher was told that teaching jobs would be available, but with 100,000 other licensed Ohio teachers competing in a shrinking job pool, the 23-year-old early education major is fretting about employment — and ever getting out of debt.

“It’s scary,” she said. “I’ll probably be paying my whole life, especially on a teacher’s salary.”

Local teachers unite against Senate Bill 5 by The News Outlet

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Published in The Vindicator on March 25, 2011(Link)

By CHRISTOPHER COTELESSE
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

Photo by Rami Daud | The Vindicator Can Dao, owner of the Tokyo House restaurant on South Avenue, Youngstown, prepares a meal for patrons. Customers said the food is so good that they’ll wait several hours to eat the Asian cuisine. For 20 years, Dao and his wife, Hin, have owned and operated the restaurant.

It’s a cold Wednesday in a worn parking lot on Youngstown’s South Side, and several groups of people sit patiently in their cars.

Some people sit for up to two hours.

The groups occasionally eye one another from behind the windows of their vehicles, waiting for someone to make the first move.

Someone does.

A car door swings open, and it means everyone else will do the same.

They line up at the door of a dilapidated building that once was a gas station. The line on this day eventually will snake along the side of the 1907 South Ave. building that sits just a stone’s throw south of Interstate 680.

Inside is one of Youngstown’s most successful, yet best-kept, dining secrets — the Tokyo House restaurant.

People endure cold weather and two-hour waits for plum wine and teriyaki chicken prepared on a searing hibachi by Can Dao, who has owned Tokyo House for about 20 years with his wife, Hin.

Five days a week, the Vietnamese proprietors serve Japanese food on plates made in Korea. Among their ultra-loyal customers is Bryan Fullerton, who has been going to Tokyo House for about 12 years. He goes there as often as he can, but tries to get there at least once a month.

“It’s always an awesome experience when you go,” he said.

He and his friend Zach Hertel created a Facebook fan page, Can’s Tokyo House, more than a year ago, and watched it grow immediately. It has about 1,500 members and is about the only way to stay abreast of the restaurant.

It has no website of its own. Its listed telephone number is disconnected. The only way to connect to the Tokya House is through Facebook and its fan base — as evidenced by its recent closure.

For several months, the restaurant was closed as it tended to code issues with the city. When it reopened Jan. 10, it was posted on Facebook and lines that first Monday were instant.

No phone and no web page is consistent with many aspects of the place.

It starts with the pot-holed parking lot and extremely dated exterior. It continues inside with well-worn bench seats cut into the floor and covered by plain berber carpet. Just a few simple pictures hang on the mostly bare walls.

Even the cash register is low-key, and they don’t accept credit cards. The only two employees are Can and Hin.

And that is where part of the appeal starts. Customers will say that the food is one key thing about the place. But they quickly will point to Can as the other.

Officially, he’s quiet and discreet, which includes declining in-depth interviews.

“I don’t want to be famous. I just want to live,” he said.

But from 4 to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, he’s on stage behind his grills. He combines jokes and theatrics for a night of entertainment — flirting with pretty girls and creating fireballs on the grill that reach to the edge of the overhead fan. And people keep coming back.

“I have a good time with everyone here,” Can said.

“He makes it,” said customer Tim Morrow. He’s been frequenting Tokyo House about once a month for five years.

“It’s kind of like a tradition,” he said. “It’s just a great place to be and you meet a bunch of people that are crazy enough to stand outside with you.”

Often people will wait two to three hours before taking a seat, and then they wait longer while Can, the only cook, and Hin, the only server, make their way around to the six tables that each seat eight people.

Because Can doesn’t take reservations, many patrons choose to brave the cold and wait sooner rather than later, arriving shortly before the doors open.

“If you don’t, you’re going to be waiting for three hours or so. So it’s best to get here early,” Morrow said. “It’s just that good.”

Debbie Dibacco agrees.

“The food is incredible. The portions are great. It’s one of my favorite places,” she said. She added that another appeal is $6.95 for a meal she can eat for two days.

Dibacco said Can is an integral part of the experience, praising his ability to remember the names and occupations of his customers.

“He makes everybody feel welcome,” she said. She has eaten at Tokyo House regularly for almost 20 years, and plans to do so as long as the doors are open. And she’ll wait outside as long as she has to, she said.

“If I was coming here, I wouldn’t leave until I ate,” she said.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU radio and The Vindicator.

10 years after relaunch, Youngstown Business Incubator looks back, forward

By ADAM PLANTY
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

The arrival of California’s Revere Data to the Youngstown Business Incubator makes Jim Cossler, the YBI’s chief executive and self-proclaimed “chief evangelist,” thankful in many ways, but one especially.

He now has a company besides Turning Technologies to brag about.

Revere Data’s 2009 decision to come to Youngstown has many looking at the incubator as a national contender. YBI turns 10 years old this year — well, 10 in terms of its current definition.

It actually started five years before in what Cossler calls “a dirty little secret.”

“We were an urban- renewal project disguised as an incubator,” he said.

It relaunched itself in 2000, and in 2001 helped launch Turning Technologies, which produces audience-response software.

More than $12 million in government funds later, that single launch in 10 years is what one national incubator group cites as a knock against YBI.

But those inside and outside YBI say the second decade is set to start in a dynamic way.

Zethus Software and BizVeo are two YBI companies that can be bigger than Turning, Cossler said.

“When we started the incubator, we didn’t have all the resources set in place for these companies to succeed, and Turning Technologies still did well,” Cossler said. “Now those resources are in place and these other companies can benefit from that fact.”

A new definition

It wasn’t until Cossler joined the YBI in 1998 that significant redefining of the incubator began.

The incubator was established in 1995 after the nearly century-old main building donated for the business had been renovated via $1.3 million in federal, state and local government grants.

The YBI moved away from the traditional approach of housing various kinds of companies and announced in January 2000 its decision to focus only on companies that develop software for other businesses.

Ten years since choosing its new direction, the incubator now claims a portfolio of 18 companies, led by Turning Technologies. Turning first joined the incubator in 2001. It was ranked by Inc. Magazine in 2007 as the country’s fastest-growing software company and posted sales of $34 million in 2009.

Betty Jo Licata, dean of the Williamson College of Business Administration at Youngstown State University and YBI board member since 1995, is happy with the incubator’s accomplishments.

“The YBI has served as a catalyst for developing Youngstown’s reputation as one of the top 10 cities in the country to start a business, according to Entrepreneur magazine,” she said.

YBI helps startup businesses by providing them free utilities and office space while companies focus on developing products and services. Once the companies have remained profitable for an extended period of time, they are expected to pay rent for their office space, albeit at a hefty discount.

Space-time-money

The YBI has received more than $12 million in various grants for construction and operational costs over the 15-year span. It operates on a yearly budget of $700,000. Half a million dollars of that comes from the government in the form of grants, while the rest is a mix of private donations and rental income.

The average salary of the roughly 230 jobs at the incubator is $57,000, including Turning Technologies, which now resides in the $6 million Taft Center downtown and pays rent to the incubator.

The Taft Center connects the original YBI building with its other property, the Semple Building.

The three buildings establish a significant presence on West Federal Street, placing the expanding tech campus directly in the shadow of one of the oldest buildings in Youngstown, the Home Savings and Loan building.

The Semple Building was renovated using $1.8 million in federal funds and houses the Youngstown office of San Francisco-based business Revere Data.

While 10 employees are in the offices now, Revere CEO Kevin O’Brien said as many as 100 could be working there in two years. The building is about 40 percent leased, but the incubator hopes to have it filled within a year.

“The YBI, because of its size, can afford to take the time to allow businesses to mature, which is fortunate for them,” said Dinah Adkins, former president of National Business Incubator Association.

“The issue is that once a company grows, it needs the space to do so. Youngstown is ensuring that space is not a problem,” said Adkins.

The NBIA, based in Athens, Ohio, estimates that in 2005, business incubators supported more than 27,000 startup companies providing full-time employment to more than 100,000 workers, generating more than $17 billion in annual revenue.

The NBIA also points to research showing that every dollar of federal funds devoted to an incubator generates about $30 in local tax revenue.

Linda Knopp, the NBIA director of news and information, said that the YBI is below average for the number of companies it’s created.

“But it’s doing well in total sales,” she said. “The average combined client revenue for all the incubators in the United States in 2006 was $16.1 million.”

Turning posted sales of $20.6 million in 2006, single-handedly putting the YBI ahead of other incubators throughout the country.

The tech community

YBI companies are expected to help one another with no expectation of payment beyond having the favor returned when they need a helping hand.

“It’s one of those open-door things, where we’re in a planning meeting and something comes up. We can walk out the door, head upstairs and knock on Zethus’ door and say, ‘Hey come on in, what can we help you with?’” said Alex Milne, BizVeo co-founder and senior vice president of sales and marketing.

“You can’t put a dollar value on that.”

Tony DeAscentis was one of the first employees hired at Turning. He stayed with the company until there were more than 100 employees. Now he’s serving as the CEO of BizVeo and looking to recreate the successful environment he spent years working in.

“We hope that Tony does for BizVeo what he did for Turning,” Cossler said. BizVeo develops specialized streaming video to share information.

DeAscentis is aware of the expectations for him, but said that the downtown area lends itself well to maintaining a good atmosphere for the company.

“Turning, BizVeo, the incubator itself — people like having access to all the stuff downtown,” he said. DeAscentis occasionally meets his son, a junior at Kent State University, for lunch at local establishments such as the Lemon Grove Caf .

The collaboration extends beyond West Federal, too.

BizVeo has been testing its product with St. Elizabeth Health Care Center. It’s worked out well for both organizations, but it’s been extremely beneficial for BizVeo.

“The Humility of Mary Health Partners has signed an annual contract to use our technology,” Milne said. “It’s our first contract, and we’re very excited to have acquired them as clients.”

Selling Youngstown, Warren

The Lemon Grove opened in August of last year and is one of the businesses taking advantage of being so close in downtown Youngstown.

Owner Jacob Harver said the cafe gets enough business from larger companies such as Turning Technologies that it’s worth his time to try and entice them to his establishment on a regular basis.

“I’m thinking of starting ‘Turning Tuesdays’ or something like that where we would offer Turning employees a discount for eating here that day,” he said.

The YBI is doing much to benefit the city’s image, said Mayor Jay Williams.

“The YBI has emerged and continues to be an integral part of the renaissance of the economy of Youngstown,” he said.

The YBI has done well enough that the city of Warren has begun the process of establishing its own incubator targeted at alternative-energy technologies. U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, said last year that he believes the incubator will be a great establishment in Warren, and points to the YBI as proof that the Warren Energy Incubator can succeed.

“Statistics show that 87 percent of companies that started out in an incubator are still in operation four years later, compared to 44 percent that start outside of an incubator,” Ryan said in announcing the Warren project.

What’s Next?

After roughly $12 million in renovations and expansions, there is still plenty of room for growth.

“Youngstown is fortunate because not all incubators have space available around their area for expansion,” the NBIA’s Knopp said.

In the 2011 transportation appropriations bill working its way through the U.S. House of Representatives, $700,000 has been targeted for YBI to help it expand to a vacant building on Boardman Street. That is where BizVeo would relocate.

Ultimately, growing companies is the primary purpose of the incubator.

In choosing which ideas to bring into the building, Cossler believes it’s important for people to be willing to relinquish a measure of their vision.

“We want people to love their ideas, just don’t marry them,” he said.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU Radio and The Vindicator.

Hockey takes backseat to football in fans’ hearts by The News Outlet

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By CHRIS COTELESSE
NewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN — The squared borders of Wick Park provide a defined routine and world for Steve Hiet.

With winter’s end in sight, he’ll again become a regular face in the park.

As unofficial groundskeeper, he gains a measure of fulfillment by keeping Wick Park safe and by picking up trash.

“It’s good for people to have a nice, clean place to bring their family,” he said.

Steve Heit’s delusions revolve around an epic war in the late 20th century where God and Satan gathered their soldiers for the final showdown.

When he’s not looking out for trash, Steve is looking out for the enemy — and that’s where two worlds collide for him and for those around him.

He’s been diagnosed as schizo-affective, a disease that combines the hallucinations and delusions of schizophrenia with the irregular personality of a mood disorder.

His delusions revolve around an epic war in the late 20th century where God and Satan gathered their soldiers for the final showdown.

The good guys lost.

To Steve, most people are “death creatures,” the demonic army now exercising dominion over the Earth.

His face hides behind a long, unkempt mostly gray beard. His eyes scan everyone in range, anticipating an enemy that could manifest at any moment.

“They forced me to fight on Satan’s side when they murdered all the Christians and stuff in Armageddon,” Steve said.

He is one of 3,736 people who received mental-health services from Turning Point Counseling in 2009, a fraction of the 13,830 treated by the Mahoning County Mental Health Board.
Steve’s life is similar to those thousands of lives. He lives in an apartment near Wick operated by The Burdman Group.

Tom Arens is Burdman’s behavioral health program director and has known Steve for more than 15 years. He and Steve’s dad, Clark Hiet, have the most routine contact with Steve and allowed a unique glimpse into his two worlds.

William D Lewis/The Vindicator Stephen Hiet, RIGHT, and his father Clark Hiet of Springfield Township walk through Wick Park in Youngstown. Hiet is one of 3,736 people who received mental-health services from Turning Point Counseling in 2009.

Those competing worlds have distanced most others from Steve. But Tom and Clark see beyond that.

“I think he’s got the capacity to work in some sort of limited way,” Arens said. “He’s a bright guy, and I’ve seen him work.”
Stephen was born Dec. 1, 1966, to Clark and Sandra Hiet at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown. The youngest of two girls and two boys, he was favored by his mother.

“If he wanted shrimp, he got shrimp to eat and the rest ate a can of macaroni,” Clark said. “He was a spoiled child.”

Clark said Steve also was the most intelligent of all his children.

“He could read everything — even the newspaper — when he was 5 years old,” Steve’s stepmother, Sharon said.

He often skipped class, but was able to achieve success when he wanted.

He’d “grab the book before, and read a little bit, and ace it. Then he just decided the next time he didn’t want to do it, so he didn’t. So they flunked him.” Clark said.

Steve attended Springfield Local High School and laughs at the memories.

“I just barely graduated. I goofed off and smoked weed,” he said.

The sun glared in his face, and he held up a thin, sinewy forearm to block the light. A full smile pulled at the deep wrinkles around his eyes.
He talked about continuing an education through mail-order courses and taking a job at a Columbiana factory.
“They put a damn projector thing in my head. They trained me all that government engineering stuff to which I could go to work in that foundry. Armageddon in the foundry,” he said.
The two worlds have no boundaries for Steve. It’s all the same to him.
“He likes delusions better than reality,” Sharon said.
Agents of the U.S. government, which he calls “the bosses,” forced him to work in the factory, making tanks and nuclear bombs for the host of Hell.
Steve said he escaped and retaliated against the forces of evil, claiming a body count of 350,000 CIA agents.
He said “the bosses” have been watching him and limiting his movement ever since.
Though he often can be seen on his North Side walks, the winter keeps him indoors more than he would like.
Steve is in an apartment just off Wick Park. His expenses are paid with income from Social Security. He doesn’t need full-time care but is near assistance if it is needed.
“I’ve got to believe he benefits from just the feeling that he’s not isolated,” Arens said. He said restlessness is common for patients such as Steve. And his wanderings have given him an added purpose.

“He’s kind of a character in this neighborhood,” Arens said.

The chapters in his life are ongoing interruptions.

Debbie Aeppli married Steve before he was diagnosed. They had a baby girl, Danielle. She hasn’t seen him since she was 10 years old. She is now 21 and lives near Atlanta and attends college.

“I really do not know anything about him,” Danielle said.

The marriage dissolved after Steve’s first major episode.

Soon after Danielle was born, Steve’s delusions emerged, and paranoia had gotten the best of him. He climbed into a tree and shot at the planes in the sky.

His brother, Michael, came to talk him down, and Steve aimed a loaded shotgun at his head, and instead filled Michael’s radiator with buckshot.

“He couldn’t have missed,” Clark said. “He was too good with a gun.”

Steve was committed to psychiatric care.

Debbie filed for divorce. Michael doesn’t speak to his brother anymore; same for their sister, Donna. Both still live in the Mahoning Valley. A sister, Joan, died of cancer when she was 14.

Other than mental-health professionals and fellow patients, Steve’s only regular contact is his father and stepmother.

Even his mother, now Sandra Curl and living in Texas, who doted on his every want and need, is afraid of Steve after he threatened her.

Clark said Steve has never hurt anyone and doesn’t expect any danger from his son.

“I don’t think he could do it,” Clark said. “Of course, there’s always a first time.”

“It’s not fair to say mentally ill people are dangerous. Anyone who is paranoid is potentially dangerous,” Arens said. “You got about two-thirds of the people that, with the right treatment, can pretty much blend in to society.”

Steve is part of the other third. His grizzled appearance distinguishes him as part of the wayward masses that inhabit the city and haunt its parks.

Arens has hope for Steve to move himself into the ranks of the functional.
Steve isn’t completely engulfed in the war in his mind. There is a portion of the person he used to be hiding underneath the psychosis.
He can be lucid and rational when talking about subjects such as his daughter or mother. But he just as easily slips into his apocalyptic nightmares.
“It’s like you can see that there’s a light back there if you could turn it on,” Clark said.

“We can try to inspire him. We can try to talk to him,” Arens said.

Ultimately, people in Steve’s situation must take medications and comply with treatment. With effort, his condition could improve, but he’ll always be symptomatic.

“You don’t get cured from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder,” Arens said.

Local park provides semblance of order to Steve’s World by The News Outlet

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The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists and is a collaboration of Youngstown State University, WYSU radio and The Vindicator.

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As cities across the country tighten their belts during tough financial times, budget cuts will alter staffing for each city’s planning department. With looming budget cuts in Ohio, Youngstown administrators, who will unveil the 2011 budget next week, are forced to choose between hiring city planners and hiring police officers. NewsOutlet reporter Doug Livingston has the story.

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By DAN POMPILI
TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN — A house on Illinois Avenue is filled with more hope than usual these days.

While the Ohio Department of Health is pursuing injunctions to close the beleaguered House of Hope, some community members are rallying around the troubled adult-care facility.

Immediately after The Vindicator published a series of articles in January chronicling the home’s recent trials and tribulations, Pastor Roy Barnett and Bruce Paulette of Ohio Valley Teen Challenge contacted the facility’s administrators with an offer to help.

Teen Challenge was also the subject of a Vindicator series last fall.

“It only takes one to get involved and make a difference,” said Barnett, the executive director of the faith-based drug-treatment program. In recent weeks, Teen Challenge has sent many of its 48 resident volunteers the two blocks from the corner of Florencedale Avenue and Broadway to House of Hope, 115 Illinois Ave., to clean and paint much of the first floor.

As a result, the dining area is now bright and welcoming. Bathrooms, pictured as dilapidated in photos taken during November and December inspections, are also under renovation.

William D Lewis/The Vindicator Charlene Crissman, administrator and part owner of House of Hope, stands in the kitchen of her facility in Youngstown.

Teen Challenge advisory board member Budd Brothers also sits on the newly formed board of directors for House of Hope. The board was formed about two weeks ago, when House of Hope determined it would convert to a nonprofit organization. Currently only Brothers and Paulette sit on the board, but administrators say the formation is ongoing.

By switching from a limited liability company to nonprofit status, House of Hope will be eligible to apply for grants and financial aid for which they do not now qualify.

Lisa Lloyd, administrator and co-director of care, said the home isn’t making a profit anyway, so the new plan makes the most sense to get the House of Hope the help it needs.

Brothers has donated an eight-burner stove to the facility, and he and Paulette provided an updated freezer, three ovens, new steam tables and new food trays for the home. Though not all the equipment is new, it is all in good condition and an improvement over what the home had previously. Paulette estimated the donations are worth between $5,000 and $6,000.

“If [the ODH] will just back off for a little bit and give us some time,” Brothers said, “they’ll see the residents will have everything they need there to make it a first-class act.”

Photo by William D. Lewis/TheVindicator A bathroom in the House of Hope sports its new look.

Lloyd said since Teen Challenge got involved, the home’s administrators are less worried.

“It’s like a peace has come over the building,” she said.

Brothers and Teen Challenge are not the home’s only advocates.

City Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st, spoke to the legal department at the Ohio Department of Health on Feb. 14 to ask for more time for the home to make corrections.

“I want them to have a fair chance as long as they’re doing what they need to do,” Gillam said.

Gillam expressed concerns over the condition of the mental-health care system since the closing of Woodside Receiving Hospital for the mentally ill in 1999. Some of House of Hope’s residents are former Woodside patients.

“If they don’t follow the rules, then they should be shut down,” Gillam said. “But if they have new people, they should be given a chance” to make corrections.

Lloyd said the facility is asking the state to give them sufficient time to implement changes.

“We’ve made so many improvements, but they’re not even giving us a chance,” she said. “Everyone is portraying us as slumlords, and we’re not.”

Lloyd said House of Hope has had the operation license since August 2010, when it was transferred from Bryson Manor owner Robert Van Sickle. The facility was overdue for investment and improvements when they took over.

Barnett said the facility has improved under the new ownership. He used to visit the home in the late 1990s when he worked for Biomedical Labs in Liberty, and the home was still called Bryson Manor. He said back then the home smelled like smoke and he observed little supervision.

Owner/Administrator Charlene Crissman provided copies of eight letters of support written by family members of residents and health professionals with patients living at House of Hope. The letters argue that closing the home would be “a disaster” for the residents and the community.

Since January, however, Lloyd said families or case workers have removed 14 residents from the home. They estimate the financial impact at about $12,000 to $14,000 per month, while many operating costs remain essentially the same.

Crissman and Paulette said the payroll cost comprises the largest percentage of expenses, though they would not release specific numbers. Paulette attacked the state health department’s contention the facility is inadequately staffed.

That contention was included in recent correspondence with the home, including a Feb. 3 letter informing Crissman of the state’s plan to revoke House of Hope’s license

Lloyd said they keep two caregivers on shift at all times and have added one more to the midnight shift. She said all her staffers are trained in first aid and CPR, a fact House of Hope lawyer James J. Leo included in his appeal letter to the state.

Staffing, however, is not the state’s only complaint against the home. The ODH has charged that various conditions within the home constitute a “real and present danger” to the residents. Lloyd and Crissman disagree.

The two administrators say the state’s case against them began in early 2009 when Bryson Manor won a decision in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court after ODH nearly revoked the license.

Crissman said she knew the state health department would “come after us with everything they’ve got.” Since then the home has been cited repeatedly for minor infractions, she said.

Among the citations listed as evidence of “real and present danger” at the home, an inspector found lighter fluid in a resident’s room and deemed it a safety violation. The state specifically ordered House of Hope to confiscate the lighter fluid.

Lloyd and Crissman, however, said the investigator could not tell them for certain if they could legally take a resident’s personal property.

“When do we go over the line of their rights?” Lloyd asked. “They do have rights … and now we’re treating them like they’re in jail.”

John Saulitis, an ombudsman for Area Agency on Aging 11 and an outspoken critic of the facility, said residents need to be treated as individuals.

“It is contingent on an assessment of the person,” he said. “Are they a safe smoker?”

Saulitis said he successfully fought a facility that attempted to evict a resident for refusing to surrender his lighter and cigarettes. In that case, the resident was determined to exhibit safe-smoking behavior and could not be forced to surrender personal property.

Lloyd said the state has taken the case of a small can of lighter fluid for a patient’s lighter “way too far.”

Ultimately, both administrators said, it comes down to their residents. The 46 residents who remain have been upset and are questioning administrators about the home’s future.

“The residents have been in tears about ‘Will we have a home?’” Lloyd said. “We’re trying to assure them we’re not [going to] close.”

Lisa Solley, also an ombudsman for Area Agency on Aging 11, said House of Hope’s recent efforts deserve acknowledgment but do not solve all the facility’s problems.

“I applaud their efforts to try to improve the facility, and I hope that continues,” she said. “But I think [the case] goes beyond cosmetic issues, and I hope they improve the problems with staffing and the health and safety issues.”

Saulitis said the problems at the home are serious and the state’s case should not be taken lightly.

“A finding of real and present danger does not happen very often. It’s as serious as it gets,” he said.

Still, Crissman said the men from Teen Challenge are the home’s saving grace.

“They’ve stepped up above and beyond. It’s like a rebirth,” she said.

Paulette said he has roofers living in the Teen Challenge residence who plan to assess roof damage. They also plan to completely renovate the landscaping around the house.

Barnett said he and his men are proud to be helping the home.

“These people have the same drive as Ohio Valley Teen Challenge,” he said. “We’re here trying to help people.”

No actions have been taken yet in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where ODH has filed an injunction to close the home.

Tess Pollock, a public relations officer with ODH, said a phone conference is scheduled Friday, during which a date will be set for the administrative hearing on House of Hope’s license revocation.

The NewsOutlet is a joint media venture by student and professional journalists.

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