BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      A Boardman Township Zoning Board of Appeals meeting has been set for Tues., June 18 to consider a conditional use permit application submitted for a proposed group home that would house ex-convicts, including sex offenders, at 365 East Midlothian Blvd.
      The owner of the property is reported as American Scholar Ltd., of 10 Penn Ave., Greenville, Pa., that was cited by Boardman Township Zoning on Feb. 23 “for operating a multi-family dwelling group home without first having obtained a conditional use permit.”
      In denying the permit application, Boardman Township Planning/Zoning Director T.J., Keiran noted in 2023 and 2024 rental unit certificate applications provided false and misleading information, including using ‘Just in Time Initiative’ as the property owner, and Andrea Mahone Blackmon signing as the property owner, “which she is not.”
      According to Ng Ching Ching, apparently of American Scholar, the multi-family dwelling at 365 East Midlothian Blvd. is already being used and operated by American Scholar’s tenant, the Andrea Mahone Foundation, “as a community transitional housing facility for previously incarcerated individuals, now limited to adult male residents, each of whom must be working and employed outside the residence.”
      In the application for a conditional use permit, Ching says “the current use of the building has diminished any prior problems to the neighborhood,” that includes a group home on nearby Sunset Blvd. that is operated by Gateways to better Living.
      Boardman Township Police Chief Todd Werth says that claim is not true.
      Records of the Boardman Police Department show there has been a significant increase in police calls to 365 East Midlothian Blvd. since the Andrea Mahone Foundation began operating there.
      From 2018 through 2020, there were just three calls to the East Midlothian site---one for a property report, another for a fraud report, and one for a suspicious person report.
      According to Boardman police statistics, after the Andrea Mahone Foundation took over the facility, from 2021 through Mar., 2024, police made 99 calls to the site, including 13 for assaults (including a sexual assault), two for overdose-related deaths, as well as many drug and mental health related calls.
      A proposal was submitted to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (ODRC) for transitional housing for previously incarcerated individuals in July, 2023 for 365 East Midlothian Blvd. and says the state agency will pay up to $85 a day in taxpayer monies to house ex-convicts. (That computes to some $650,000 a year for the maximum 20 ex-convicts the Mahone Foundation claims would be housed there).
      Among the ODRC requirements mandated for so-called transitional housing for ex-convicts is security services.
      In applying for a conditional use permit, the Mahone Foundation provided a signed “letter of commitment from sub-contractor” declaring that American Abacus, of Penn Ave., Greenville, Pa. would provide a variety of services, including security, for the site on East Midlothian Blvd., in addition to accounting and finance, and transportation.
      The letter displays the name of Drew C. Pierce, president. A check of the website for American Abacus says its services include---“Daily/Monthly Accounting: Expanding international products to American markets; Product Logistics & Placement; and International Investment in Businesses & Real Estate,” and makes no mention of security services.
      Chief Werth notes the Mahone Foundation’s application to the ODRC made false claims the Boardman Police Department ‘favorably recommended’ the proposal.
      “That is simply not the case,” the police chief said, adding “Portions of the application attributed to the Boardman Police Department are falsified and misrepresent the position of the department.”