AUSTINTOWN — Township trustees already have had one victory from lobbying legislators this month and are hoping for more of the same luck next week.
At Monday’s meeting, Trustee Robert Santos said their bid in Columbus to retain funding from recreational marijuana sales was successful. Now he hopes to extend the township’s good fortune when he visits Washington, D.C. next week.
Santos, fellow Trustee Bruce Shepas and Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito will be in the Capitol on July 15 and 16 to lobby for a $5.1 million grant to extend a sanitary sewer line into Austintown Township Park. A similar project was rejected in August, but Santos said that was because the township’s request was actually too conservative.
“In Washington, they said it would behoove us to go for this larger project,” Santos said. “We thought we were being fiscally responsible by going for a project that was $1.8 million instead of the $5.4 million grant, and when it was all said and done they said we’d have been better off going for the $5 million project.”
The original plan was to tie the proposed sewer line into the existing line at Ridgeview Avenue, off South Turner Road, and run southeast through the park to the Stacey Pavillion. Instead, Santos said, a new line would run about 1.5 miles from Meanderwood Court, down Kirk Road, into the park.
“We have a congressional spending grant going through (Rep. Michael) Rulli’s office that is being pushed to the Senate Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, so we’ll be down there advocating for that funding,” he said.
D’Apolito said the EPA has more interest in the project if it helps more residents.
“There’s more federal interest if we improve the sanitary system in the overall area, rather than just extending the line into the park,” he said.
Santos said that in addition to upgrading the park with proper bathrooms, and saving the money the township spends on port-o-johns, the sewer line opens up many other possibilities.
“I know, for example, the Austintown Girls Softball League runs a concession stand there and they have no running water,” he said. “This new sewer line means it would be much easier for us to install that kind of plumbing for them.”
Santos and his fellow trustees, Shepas and Monica Deavers, said they are grateful for the support they received from the rest of the local community in stopping legislation from the Ohio Senate and Gov. Mike DeWine that would have cut into the township’s potential profits from a recreational marijuana dispensary expected to open up along the state Route 46 corridor near Interstate 80 at some point this year.
When voters passed Issue 2 in 2023, the law imposed a 10% excise tax on all marijuana sales that would be divided between the host community (36%), Cannabis Social Equity and Jobs Fund (36%), the Substance Abuse and Addiction Fund (25%), and Division of Cannabis Control and Tax Commissioner Fund (3%). However, Senate Bill 56 — pondered as part of the legislative maneuvers involved with passing this year’s biennial budget — would have reduced the local share to only 25% over seven years.
“Because of the work this board has done, with help from the mayor of Struthers, the mayor of Niles, mayors of Girard, Campbell, Salem, our two state representatives, Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, and Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, as well as the help from the (Mahoning) county commissioners, we were able to lock in and secure 100% of that 36% of the host community funds,” Santos said. “So, it has been passed, the governor has signed it, and we will receive that 36% forever to help offset whatever expense it may be.”
Santos said the dispensary could generate as much as $700,000 per year or more, based on sales numbers from other dispensaries operating in similar communities across the country.
He said the board has decided that whatever funds it receives will be put “wherever it is needed.”
Shepas took a little credit on behalf of the board for its efforts on both issues.
“I believe (marijuana funds) to be a pretty big win for us, and just like Robert mentioned us going to DC next week, that’s the same thing there,” he said. “You have township trustees that are taking the initiative to go down to DC to advocate for Austintown. Hopefully we come out with a big win.”
