Last week Boardman Township Trustees Larry Moliterno, Tom Costello and Brad Calhoun unanimously approved a resolution declaring the Wagon Wheel Motel, 7015 Market St., as a public nuisance.
      For many years the Wagon Wheel has been cited with uncorrected violations by inspectors from the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of the State Fire Marshal.
      On Mar. 28, the Mahoning County Building Inspection Department gave the motel an adjudication order, mandating certain improvements be made by May 3, including corrections to structural issues.
      The history of annual inspections and uncorrected violations cited by the Ohio Department of Commerce were never totally rectified, and the state agency failed to take additional action on the motel. It just made more annual inspections.
      The adjudication order issued by Mahoning County saw its May 3 deadline come and go, and the county, like state officials, failed to take any action.
      It was some three years ago that several residents who live near the Wagon Wheel showed-up at a meeting of township trustees to complain about the facility. Their complaints were lodged after a heroin addict who had been at the motel died in a yard in that nearby residential neighborhood. For certain, that was not the first heroin overdose at the Wagon Wheel, known by state officials for failing to keep proper logs of those who stay at the motel, a practice that is in exception to state law.
      Acting on the recommendation of Boardman Trustees, the Boardman Fire Department also inspected the motel and cited several structural issues. (Bed bugs, a common complaint about the motel, are not in the fire department’s jurisdiction).
      Acting upon the Boardman Fire Department’s inspection findings, (and possibly influenced by police reports that often cited bed bugs), the trustees declared the Wagon Wheel Motel a public nuisance
      We commend local elected township officials who acted when state and county officials failed to do so.