BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      Incumbents and challengers for seats on the Boardman Township Board of Trustees and Boardman Local School Board spoke about their candidacies on Monday night before some 70 persons at the Community Center in Boardman Park. The forum was sponsored by the Boardman Civic Association.
      Incumbents seeking re-election for Township Trustee are Thomas Costello and Brad Calhoun. They are opposed by Tabitha Fitz-Patrick and Joseph Pavone, both of whom soundly lost their bids for the same office two years ago.
      Incumbents for the Boardman Local School Board seeking another four-year term are John Fryda, Vickie Davis and John Landers. Their lone challenger is Anthony Buchmann, president of the McKinley Cigar Club and who serves as an alternate on the Boardman Township Zoning Board of Appeals.
      Each candidate was limited to three minutes in touting their candidacy, followed by just a few questions, for each candidate.
      Costello and Calhoun, noting they are members of a team of elected officials that also includes Trustee Larry Moliterno and Fiscal Officer William Leicht, said they will continue to work on projects that benefit the community.
      Among those projects cited were updated zoning codes, improved ISO ratings for the Boardman Fire Department, maintenance of township roads, and appropriate staffing levels in the police and fire departments.
      Calhoun said the fire department’s insurance rating had been elevated to place the community in the top 14 per cent of all fire departments in the country.
      “We have created a tactical emergency medical service team to render aid to the police and our community during unusual conditions,” Calhoun said, noting the Boardman Fire Department answers 5,000 calls a year (mostly for EMS services).
      Both Calhoun and Costello lauded the collaborative effort between Boardman Township, the Boardman Local School Board and the ABC Water and Stormwater Utility District to demolish the vacant Market St. Elementary School and create a passive park.
      Costello, who also serves on the executive committee of the Coalition of Large Urban Townships (CLOUT) in Columbus, said he is a fiscal conservative.
      “Serving on that executive committee, we are able to share our issues and seek solutions,” Costello said.
      Costello noted maintaining appropriate staffing levels in the police and fire departments is important to the overall well-being of the community.
      Fitz-Patrick said she is a physical therapist and a licensed social worker, who favored creation of EMS services funded by township monies, and improved accountability.
      She cited her priorities as flooding issues, police and fire department funding and community credibility, and indicated she favored creating a fund of public monies to help citizens impacted by drainage issues.
      Pavone opened his remarks noting that “customer service” was his top priority.
      “I think we can get better at customer service,” Pavone said, adding he believed township meetings should be scheduled at convenient times for residents.
      Pavone told those in attendance that “flooding will never completely go away,” and said that ABC Utility District was making efforts to mitigate drainage issues.
      But, he said he believed there should be citizen participation on the board of the utility district.
      Pavone labeled tax abatements for the Southern Park Mall redevelopment as “ridiculous” and he favored charging non-residents for police and fire services.
      Safety issues, Pavone said, included speeding on Glenwood Ave., Hitchcock Rd. and Applewood Blvd.
      Each candidate for Trustee was asked to name their top, three priorities, if elected.
      Costello said his main concerns were solutions for drainage issues, continuing to seek grant monies to supplement the township budget, and continued efforts to work with other agencies.
      Calhoun offered his priorities included infrastructure projects, like road resurfacing and maintenance, drainage issues and maintaining services of the police, fire, road and zoning departments.
      Fitz-Patrick and Pavone did not offer three, top priorities.
      Fitz-Patrick indicated a top priority for her would be safer sidewalks from the Southern Blvd. area north to the Youngstown city limits, and concerns with accessibility to the police and fire departments.
      Pavone said Boardman should become a city for “better control and ability to serve residents.”
      School Board incumbents Landers and Davis each said they supported collaborating with township officials to create a stormwater park on the Market St. Elementary School property, as incumbent Fryda expressed pride in closing the school, a concept “that had been discussed for 20 years.”
      Fryda called the creation of a stormwater park “a no brainer” as the project will help families whose homes flood, and will also save the local school district some $500,000 in yearly maintenance costs for the property.
      Buchmann offered, “I’m the crazy guy. I would like to see a private company come there and build a trade school.”
      While Fryda, Davis and Landers said they did not favor open enrollment, Buchmann said he favored the concept because “It brings in extra money.”