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Village of Youngstown: Town of Porter recreation issues resurface at board meeting

Sat, Jan 16th 2016 07:00 am

By Allison Deutschman

Contributor

The boardroom in the Youngstown Red Brick building was swamped with people at Thursday's village meeting. The reason? Despite the fact this was the first meeting of the new year, old topics resurfaced.

As reported in the Sentinel last month, the Youngstown Village Board was disappointed in the lack of monetary compensation provided by the Town of Porter Recreation Department for facilities usage over the past two years.

To address the board's concerns, Mayor Raleigh Reynolds wrote a letter to the Town of Porter explaining the village's position, along with a request that funding be reinstated. Youngstown trustees approved this letter after it was read aloud at the meeting Thursday night.

"Our DPW works with the town (of Porter) DPW very well. Our Recreation Department has been working very closely with the town Recreation Department. We would like that to continue. I have no problem with providing the services for the town, but this shouldn't fall solely on our taxpayers. They need to help out, too," Reynolds said.

One of the examples provided in Reynolds' letter stated half of the patrons currently utilizing the senior van to attend doctor's appointments are from Porter. This fact was not to suggest ending these services, but rather to show the current sharing in place, despite the board's suggestion of a lack of assistance with funding.

The cost of operating the Town of Porter Historical Museum inside of the Red Brick building was also mentioned.

Deputy Mayor Tim Lockhart read a previous agreement between the village and town outlining the shared events and services the town had once agreed to help fund.

"This is not a threat. We will work with the Town of Porter regardless," Trustee Tim Adamson told the public.

After some discussion, village trustees approved the town's requests to use the village facilities for karate and other activities with the stipulation the requested dates for activities do not interfere with already scheduled activities at the Red Brick building.

Other discussions at this week's meeting included:

•The Youngstown board would like to meet with local business owners in the future to hear their opinions on adding food truck regulations to local Code 141.

•The gym at the Red Brick will be open in the evening on Fridays starting Jan. 22.

•The board is drafting a facilities use form to simplify the process of allowing groups to apply to use the Red Brick.

The next Youngstown Village Board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28.

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