ASHTABULA — Main Avenue business owners and local residents came to the city council meeting Monday night to voice concerns regarding continuing issues with the homeless and mentally-ill population.
Christy Tobias, who owns a hair salon, said Main Avenue has gotten out of control.
“I’ve had numerous homeless addicts walk into my place of business, making my co-workers and clients nervous,” she said. “I’ve witnessed overdoses at the gazebo, people screaming at stop signs, red lights and cars. I’ve had my awning graffitied on that I’ve had to replace.”
Ashtabula resident and salon customer Susan Smith said during a salon visit, she saw a woman screaming and vandalizing Memorial Park.
“I’m asking the council, what can we do to feel safe in this town?” she said. “I’m not willing to risk to go to Main Avenue to shop. I don’t event want to get my hair done.”
The Bakery on Main owner Stacy Stevenson said visible encampments on the street have been a large issue in the summer.
In response, Ward 5 Councilperson Jane DiGiacomo said legislation was passed at the last council meeting to deal with these encampments.
DiGiacomo confirmed that property can now be removed by an officer.
Stevenson said she will not change her limited hours until something changes.
“I come in at 4 a.m.,” she said. “There’s activity … I’ll drive around the block a couple of times before I decide I want to walk in, because there’s too many people out walking in front of my business and I don’t want to get out and walk in.
“I see it all. I’ve broken up active drug deals, so I can open my business. I don’t want anyone to come in and sit at my business. … The view is not what I want my customers to have usually.”
YMCA Membership Director Tia Woodard said, like many businesses in the neighborhood, they have been negatively affected by the presence of people loitering.
“I’m here to express appreciation for the efforts we’re making,” she said.
Leonard Pratt, of People’s Baptist Church, said their association wants to know what is being done.
“I had a meeting recently with the Ashtabula Housing Council to discuss the day center concept again,” City Manager Jim Timonere said. “We’re right now just looking for a place that we can call a day center and have the agencies staff it on different days.”
Council Vice President Russell Simeone asked Timonere what council can do moving forward to help the police department battle repeat offenders.
“We need a bigger county jail,” Timonere said. “A lot of the 12 that we have are bound over to the county, but the county won’t come pick them up.
“There’s also cases where, depending on the level of issues the person has, the county might let them hang out with us longer than necessary because they don’t want the responsibility. Regardless of the cycle, that should not prevent us from continuing to arrest people and continuing to take them into custody.”
Ward 1 Councilperson Kym Foglio said she spoke to Ashtabula County Commissioner Casey Kozlowski recently about it.
“The jail issue is a long-standing issue that needs to be addressed,” Kozlowski said. “It really has escalated in the last month or two as it relates to jail space concerns.
“We received notification from the state of Ohio, through the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, that they were reducing our jail capacity again from 112 to 98 individuals after a recent inspection.”
He said the county is contracting with the Geagua County Jail to house inmates. The cost is $75 per day, per inmate for 20 individuals.
“This is not a long-term solution,” Kozlowski said. “We all recognize that the jail space has been greatly reduced from even pre-COVID. Before COVID, at one point, we had upwards of close to 160+ people in the jail.
“Now look at today where we can’t house more than 98. We’re actually waiting on some final numbers and details from our engineer on what costs would be for the construction of a new facility on our footprint in Jefferson, or on a green space. We don’t have the immediate funding to make this happen. We are going to seek out every grant opportunity and any other funds to get this over the finish line.”
An ordinance enacting new wastewater treatment utility rates and charges, effective Jan. 1, 2025, was approved.
Kelly Cartner, sewer billing accounting assistant for the city of Ashtabula, said previously the sewer usage charge will increase from $2.88 to $3.46 per unit, capital improvement from $0.70 to $0.84 per unit, the admin charge from $3.45 to $4.14 a month and the capital debt from $2.95 to $3.54 a month, effective Jan. 1, 2025.
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