Liberty Township residents first elected Arnie Clebone as a trustee in 2017. On Tuesday, those who live there have an opportunity to retain him for a third four-year term.

We believe Liberty residents should do just that. Clebone’s combination of education, experience, knowledge and passion for the township and making it better make reelecting him one of the easiest decisions in this year’s general election.

Clebone and fellow incumbent Greg Cizmar, who also is seeking a third term after first being elected in 2017, are among three candidates seeking two seats on Liberty’s board of trustees.

The challenger, Raymond Agnone, is a mystery. Unlike Clebone and Cizmar, Agnone did not complete this newspaper’s pre-election questionnaire and did not respond to multiple invitations to participate in an endorsement interview.

Cizmar also chose not to meet with the editorial board. Initially, he said he did not want to commit to an endorsement interview until he heard what Agnone had to say. We again reached out to both candidates this week and received no response. Cizmar did tell a reporter that his priorities are fiscal responsibility and attracting business to Liberty — a platform he said got him elected in 2017 and 2021.

Since neither Agnone nor Cizmar sought the newspaper’s endorsement, Clebone is the only candidate we can endorse in this race.

Clebone pitched three goals for Liberty Township if he is reelected. They are:

â–Ź Promote commercial, office and light industrial development on large tracts of vacant lands.

â–Ź Transform Belmont Avenue (from Churchill Commons to Gypsy Lane) into a thriving commercial and destination corridor.

â–Ź Ensure neighborhoods are safe, attractive and well-maintained objectives and strategies.

We appreciate Clebone’s mix of short- and long-term goals and priorities for Liberty, and agree that the township has room for both growth in business, housing and improvement in curb appeal, and as a destination for people and entities from both counties — Trumbull and Mahoning — it straddles.

We also appreciate Clebone’s attention to detail in his approach to achieving these goals. His bid to retain his position as a trustee is not simply rooted in hopes and platitudes. He recognizes what Liberty has to offer and what the township needs to do better.

This is a man with an impressive educational and professional background — including an economics degree and a master’s in city planning from Ohio State — and decades of work in business and as a consultant and board member with multiple entities at the local and state levels. Those assets should enable Clebone to help move Liberty forward in the next four years and deal with whatever obstacles might develop, including the uncertain nature of property taxes in Ohio and how their possible elimination could affect the township.

Clebone’s steady leadership in his first two terms, along with his institutional knowledge, contacts and a lifetime of relevant experience, should make retaining him an easy decision for the voters of Liberty Township.