AUSTINTOWN — Trustee Steve Kent’s chair at Monday’s township trustees meeting was empty several hours after Kent was convicted of a felony tampering-with-evidence charge.

Fellow Trustee Robert Santos expressed relief that Kent’s criminal trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ended Monday and said he hoped the “extremely unfortunate” situation of Kent being charged with several felonies involving a child soon will be over.

Mark D’Apolito, township administrator, when asked by a resident whether Kent will be removed from office as a trustee because of the conviction, said “We cannot engage in that conversation. We are waiting for some legal advice.”

Austintown resident Steve Terlecky said it’s upsetting to him that Kent was able to continue to serve as trustee while charged with four felony offenses. He said there were images of him in the news media “as being an Austintown trustee. I believe if you are sincere about making Austintown great, you need to move fast on getting rid of his nameplate.”

Terlecky added, “I would like you to take his name away.” Then he asked what the salary of an Austintown trustee is and wanted to know if some money can be “taken back” from Kent “for the rest of the year.”

D’Apolito then indicated that the board of trustees “does not proceed in a removal process.” He said that task is up to the Ohio attorney general, the county prosecutor’s office, the Ohio secretary of state. I believe we will be working with those.” D’Apolito is a former county assistant prosecutor.

County Prosecutor Gina DeGenova, when asked whether Kent will be removed as trustee because of the conviction, said she and her office are “looking into it.”

Trustee Monica Deavers said she hoped that Kent’s conviction “brings closure and healing to the victim, their families and all involved.”

In addition to tampering with evidence, Kent also was charged with three counts of felony sexual battery involving a student at Poland Seminary High School, where Kent was a student resource officer for the Poland Township Police Department. But the jury found him not guilty of those offenses.

Deavers added, “Out of respect for the American justice system and all involved, we will wait for sentencing and subsequent appeals before making statements.”

Santos said Austintown officials are “committed to … Austintown’s growth and the betterment of Austintown. We look forward now to ending this and moving on and doing what is right for the residents.”

Also at the meeting, the trustees honored the members of the Austintown softball team that played in the Little League World Series in Greenville, N.C. They were eliminated last week from the tournament after winning their district, state and regional tournaments.

Each player was presented a copy of a trustees’ proclamation honoring the team, which was the first from Austintown to win a regional championship. The team, coached by Matt Hamley, went 13-4 and scored 93 runs.

The proclamation was signed by Deavers and Santos.

The trustees also approved a rule setting a limit of two minutes per speaker for public comments at trustees meetings.

Deavers said despite the new rule, more time can be granted to someone whose topic is “very interesting, or we want them to speak longer than the two minutes, we will have the power to do that. We will put a motion in and say ‘We want Mr. John to speak longer than two minutes.”

Santos said he agreed with the new rule because sometimes people repeat themselves “for five, 10, 15 minutes, and it may have only taken two minutes to get their point across.”

He added that a meeting should be “smooth” and not spending too much time “listening to the same thing over and over.”

D’Apolito said it also is to “make sure that everybody that wants to speak gets an opportunity to do so.”

Two residents spoke about a proposed $2.2 million roundabout on state Route 46 at New Road in Austintown. One called it “unnecessary” and suggested that the money should be used to stop “through traffic that does not stop in Austintown.” He suggested that off- and on-ramps should be created on state Route 11 and Kirk Road.

He said it would alleviate traffic flows on Route 46 north and south and “put it where it belongs — on the freeway — state Route 11.”

Construction of the roundabout is slated to begin in fiscal year 2027, the governor’s office stated.