Youngstown trustees upbeat on Business First ranking

by Larry Austin
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, June 10, 2006

Andrew Swanson of Youngstown receives a proclamation from Mayor of Youngstown Neil Riordan at Thursday’s Village Trustees meeting. Swanson came to the aid of two Wheatfield children who had been attacked in their home in March. Joseph Holka had entered a neighbor’s home and sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl and slashed the throat of the girl’s 11-year-old brother before setting the home on fire. Swanson found the teenagers, took them in his car, and called 911. The trustees in back are Tony Collard, Margaret-Ann Hanson, Riordan, Dave Gifford, and Fred Stephens. (photo by Larry Austin)

An analysis by Business First identifies Youngstown as the top village in the area, village trustees learned recently.

Members of the Village Board of Trustees discussed the ranking at Thursday’s monthly meeting. Business First said the village earns points for having a low poverty rate and a “strong sense of community. Youngstown offers the best quality of life of any small village in Western New York,” the Business First article said. The analysis stemmed from a study of 20 statistical indicators, including affluence, racial diversity and commuting times.

“It’s earned by the entire village team,” said Mayor Neil Riordan of the honor. “The residents, all the volunteers, the garden club, the business community, the village board, the police department, the volunteer firemen. It’s a village of teams and volunteers. That’s earned by all 2,000 people, not by any one person or one body.”

Copies of Business First hit newsstands Friday. The top 10 villages list included: 1. Youngstown, 2. Ellicottville, 3. Elba, 4. Almond, 5. Allegany, 6. Lakewood, 7. Wyoming, 8. Bemus Point, 9. Mayville and 10. Portville.

Resident Honored

The sense of community was evident in a proclamation the trustees made when they honored Brookshire Drive resident Andrew Swanson as “Brave Citizen of the Year.” Swanson came to the aid of two teenage crime victims in a life and death situation in March. He said he was on his way home from Tonawanda when he heard a girl screaming for help in Wheatfield. The 15-year-old girl had been raped and her 11-year-old brother had his throat cut in an attack at their home on River Road. Riordan said Swanson’s actions “demonstrated volunteer citizenry at its very best” and the “highest example of Youngstown’s values.”

“Wow, I don’t know what to say,” Swanson said. “I wasn’t expecting anything like this. I’m honored.”

Joseph Holka was subsequently arrested and charged with raping the girl and setting her house on fire.

Riordan Sounds off on Parkway

Later in the meeting, Riordan noted his displeasure with a meeting he attended Monday of the Niagara Greenway Commission. The meeting, held at Artpark, was reportedly hijacked by those proponents of removing the Robert Moses Parkway. “The forum was supposed to be objective, for all speakers and all municipalities with concerns with improving and preserving the waterfront, not to allow one organization only to lobby for closure of the parkway,” Riordan said.

The parkway is just one facet of the Greenway concerns, “but it shouldn’t be the only concern, and of a two-hour meeting one should not devote an hour and a half to a private lobby on the closure of the parkway,” Riordan said.

On a related note, the board voted 5-0 to support a resolution of the Lower River Region Chamber of Commerce expressing opposition to removal of the parkway. The resolution states that “complete removal of the Robert Moses Parkway would impede access to our region and result in a serious loss of business.”

“What’s really needed on that parkway is a plan. A plan, any plan at this juncture,” Riordan said, adding that the anti-parkway group “impugns any other opinions” on the matter.

Trustee Fred Stephens reported a meeting with the State Department of Environmental Conservation regarding the Youngstown Cold Storage building took place recently to review environmental tests done on the structure. Stephens said, from an environmental standpoint, there is no hazard at the site. A report is anticipated by the first of July, he said, with a public hearing to follow.

“Hopefully they’re going to come up with a recommendation as to what should be done with the structure,” Stephens said. “It’s moving forward as rapidly as we can move it.”

The board made several appointments at its annual reorganization meeting, which preceded the regular meeting. Among them: Margaret-Ann Hanson was appointed deputy mayor, Barbara Castilon, appointed clerk-treasurer/registrar; Cynthia J. Tripoli, appointed clerk/treasurer/registrar; Thomas Caserta, appointed village attorney; William Choboy, appointed building inspector; Charles NcNeely, appointed fire inspector; Janet Jachlewski, appointed historian; and Tom O’Connor, appointed village arborist.

The board also reappointed John Cannon chairman of the planning board.