Site Was To Be Used As Housing For International Students Who Were Recruited By A Pennsylvania-Based Company To Attend Local High Schools
     
      BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      According to the Boardman Township Office of Planning/Zoning, a 58-year-old Youngstown women lied to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction when she applied for a license to bring ex-convicts to an apartment building at 365 East Midlothian Blvd. where the woman said she operates as a “transitional center.”
      Andrea Mahone Blackmon also provided false information when she applied for a rental unit certificate in 2023 and 2024 from the Boardman Township Planning/Zoning Office, according to the department’s director, T.J. Keiran.
      “False information was provided using Just In Time Initiative as the property owner, and Andrea Blackmon signing as the property owner,” Keiran said.
      According to the Mahoning County Auditor’s Office, the property is owned by American Scholar Ltd., of 516 Conneaut Lake Rd., Adamsville, Pa., that purchased the property in 2015 for the sum of $195,000. Its tax address is listed as 10 Penn Ave., in Greenville, Pa. that is registered to American Scholar Group.
      Prior to the sale, Michael Kurilla, of MK Consulting, 1003 Polley Dr., Austintown, Oh., told the Boardman Township Zoning Office the prospective purchaser, Edward Doerr, of American Scholar, “would propose to utilize…the building as a student dormitory for international students attending local high schools.”
      According to a rental registration form submitted to Boardman Township in Apr., 2019, the apartment building at 365 East Midlothian Blvd. was approved for American Scholar, that used its tax address as 10 Penn Ave., Greenville, Pa.
      “Registration is transferable only upon notification to…Planning and Zoning within 30 days of property transfer, Tricia D’Avignon, then assistant director, said on the 2019 certificate of registration.
      Without such notification, a rental registration (for 12 units) was approved in 2021, andthat stated the owner of the property was listed as Andrea Blackmon/Just In Time, P.O. Box 6400, Youngstown, Oh.
      According to records of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, currently six registered sex offenders currently live at the apartment building at 365 East Midlothian Blvd.
      Blackmon is featured on a banner on front of the building that touts the “Andrea Mahome Foundation,” whose address is listed as 365 East Midlothian Blvd. On the west side of the building is a sign that touts “American Scholar: Honor-Integrity-Excellence.”
      In addition to the foundation, a business, Paramount Property Investments, says it is also located at 365 East Midlothian Blvd.
      On Dec. 26, 2023, the Boardman Township Planning/Zoning Department received a request from the Mahoning County Building Inspector to provide “Zoning Compliance Authorization for up to 20 occupants in dormitory-style housing” at 365 East Midlothian Blvd.
      Compliance with Boardman Township zoning codes was sought to provide the ‘Transitional Center’ at 365 East Midlothian Blvd. with an occupancy permit to “obtain a license and enter into a contract with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in order to have individuals released from prison discharged to live at her (Mahone Blackmon’s) facility,” Keiran said.
      According to the planning/zoning director, Mahone Blackmon said in a television interview in 2023 she operated an employment agency on the first floor of the building at 365 East Midlothian Blvd., “and then our second and third floors are for guys that are coming home from any type of drug rehab. They need to be clean for at least six months and sincere about going to work. Same with guys coming home, guys and girls coming home from prison…”
      Keiran has notified David Ho, purported to be the CEO of American Scholar Group, of Penn Ave., Greenville, Pa., the property at 365 East Midlothian Blvd. is classified as a ‘group home,’ however is operated as a multi-family group home “without first having obtained a conditional use permit as required by the Boardman Township Zoning Resolution.” He said the Andrea Mahone Transitional Center at the “apartment complex” should “cease operating.”
      In addition, Keiran says the Just In Time Employment Agency LLC and Andrea Mahone Foundation are being operated at 365 East Midlothian Blvd. in violation of the township zoning resolution, noting “general office uses are not permitted in the R-2 zoning district.”
      The planning/zoning director says in his letter to Mr. Ho, “false information was provided on the 2023 and 2024 rental unit certification renewal applications, “including using ‘Just In Time Initiative’ as the property owner and Andrea Blackmon signing as the property owner.”
      According to the Mahoning County Auditor’s Office. The property at 366 East Midlothian Blvd. is $2,723.42 delinquent in property taxes.
      Mahone Blackmon is a member of Mahoning County Children’s Services Advisory Committee.
      She says her foundation is a partner with Mahoning County Children’s Services, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, the Youngstown City School District, Trumbull County Children’s Services, Mahoning County Public Health, Pathways Hub/Mahoning Valley, Just In Time Employment Agency, Gateway America, LTJ Development LLC and the city of Youngstown.
      Mahone Blackmon says she developed the welfare-to-work program in 1991 for Mahoning County Job and Family Services, and that “birthed” the Just in Time Employment Agency. She received a $20,832 PPP loan in 2021, according to the United States Treasury, that said the funds helped to retain “one job.” In addition, the registered agent for LTJ Development (a partner with Mahone’s foundation) is Just In Time Employment Agency