Staff photo / Renee Fox A crew from the Warren Water Department uses heavy equipment to pull stumps out of the area behind the Women’s Park. The area was cleared of about 20 trees in December to make room for a bocce court for the annual Italian-American Heritage Festival, but after concerns were raised, it is unclear if the courts will still be placed there.

WARREN — Last spring, city officials told board members of the Italian-American Heritage Festival committee it was time to move the annual August event from Courthouse Square to Perkins Park.

But the board didn’t, and still doesn’t, want to relocate.

“We love our setting in the Square because it reminds festival goers of a beautiful piazza in Italy,” said Carol Ficeti, president of the committee’s board.

When a proposal was set forth to move the festival out of Warren entirely, city leadership went to the committee and told it if the festival remained in Warren, the city would help accommodate its needs and work with it to keep the festival in the city, Ficeti said.

“This was not our idea. We did not ask to move, and we still don’t want to move. But they wanted us to move — and not just us. They told us they would like us to move to the amphitheater and that we weren’t going to be the only ones moving. We were going to be the first ones to move, but they wanted eventually all the festivals and all the events downtown at the amphitheater. They wanted us to kind of be the leaders of the move,” Ficeti said.

Last year, the members of the board met with city officials to walk through the park and the amphitheater in an attempt to see where the festival’s events could be held and if there was enough room to fit in everything — food vendors, beer tents, musical performances, and the games of Morra and bocce.

The committee’s board had, and still has, concerns that the festival won’t fit in the park, and it isn’t clear if there are enough power sources or ways to run gray water lines for the vendors, board members said.

During festival committee meetings, members discussed where the bocce court could go, but had not made decisions on the best place for the court and made no requests to the city to build it or place it anywhere, Ficeti said.

“We had ideas, our board, about where to put it, but we didn’t bring it up to the city yet. We never told them we wanted it there,” Ficeti said. “They showed us a potential layout, like where the fence was going to be and the water supply.”

Although the site was mentioned by the city to the committee members as the potential spot for the court, the committee didn’t know the city was going to start taking steps to create the court and it would be removing the 20 trees in an area behind the Women’s Park on Mahoning Avenue, just above the amphitheater and park, near the Kinsman House and south of the Perkins Mansion, where City Hall is, Ficeti said.

The move to take down the trees came as a surprise to the historical organizations that act as caretakers for the area — a recognized historical site — and sparked a petition that has gained more than 2,200 signatures asking the city’s administration to restore the area, replant trees and find an alternative site for the bocce courts.

Mayor Doug Franklin said in early January he is meeting with staff to consider alternative locations for the bocce court and that he would meet with the Historic Perkins Homestead Neighborhood Association and the Italian-American Heritage Festival Committee.

“I respect history and always had a great relationship with the historical societies that take care of the area. I admit the aggressive approach wasn’t the best approach, but I will continue to work with the groups and hear their concerns,” Franklin said then.

Ficeti said Saturday that Franklin has not yet reached out to her or other board members.

And Nola Yovich, president of the Historic Perkins Homestead Neighborhood Association, also said a meeting has yet to be scheduled with them.

“The mayor reported at council that the stumps would be removed and landscape professionals would be consulted and that he is considering other locations for the bocce court. The stumps are mostly removed, but no meeting has been arranged to discuss plans for the restoration of the historic property where the trees were removed,” Yovich said.

The stumps were dug out Thursday by a city water department crew.

At a city council meeting Jan. 23, Franklin said he was working on exploring alternative locations for the festival and would be working with a landscaper to consider replanting the area.

Ficeti and her other board members were clear they still don’t want to leave Courthouse Square because of the “piazza-like” setting and because there is enough room and utilities to run the festival there.

Ficeti said she wants the public to know the festival committee pays the city for the resources it dedicates. The bill was about $8,000 last year to cover expenses, including the health department inspections required, vendor licensing, rental of the Square, the closure of the roads and refuse services. In addition, they also paid $30 per hour for security officers.

The committee uses the money it raises to give back to the community, Ficeti said. The committee issued eight $1,000 scholarships to local students last year and has provided $5,000 for the log cabin restoration, nearly $8,000 to help reseed a park after heavy rains, donated the trees planted on the sidewalks in Courthouse Square, and has made donations to Relay For Life, local school band booster clubs and other charitable donations, Ficeti said.

While the committee’s 2017 tax forms show it has about $160,000 in the bank, the forms also show that the festival’s expenses nearly overtake revenues. In 2017, the committee brought in $142,000, but its expenses were $138,000.

By hosting the festival, the committee’s mission is to educate and celebrate Italian heritage by keeping games like Morra and bocce alive, a pasta sauce competition, and other tributes to Italian heritage, including music and dancing, Ficeti said.

It was never the intention of the committee to become involved in a controversy, Ficeti said, and she and her board just want to continue offering their festival, hopefully in Courthouse Square.