

Sitting down at the Canfield town mayor’s desk is Don Dragish, who took the oath of business for his first expression on Jan. 5. He claimed he is keen to get begun to go the town in the right direction in 2022. He earlier served on Canfield City Council.

CANFIELD — The metropolis has a new mayor.
Don Dragish was provided the oath of business office Jan. 5 by Mahoning County Typical Pleas Courtroom Decide R. Scott Krichbaum. Dragish replaced Mayor Richard Duffett, who chose not to operate for re-election.
For Dragish, politics ended up much from his ideas when he concluded college. He grew up on the West Aspect of Youngstown and attended Ursuline High Faculty, graduating in 1991. He went on to show up at Youngstown Point out University the place he acquired his diploma in style, internet marketing and promoting.
“My very first work was at Ski Limited in Boardman,” Dragish claimed. “I was designing catalogs for the small business.”
He stated each calendar year the corporation would ship out a few of million catalogs. That all modified in 2000 with the net explosion and folks beginning to obtain on the internet. Dragish mentioned he had to convert the catalog he aided style and design and make it electronic.
“In the first thirty day period, we designed $30,000 from the on-line gross sales,” he reported. “Plus we experienced significantly less printing costs.”
After 5 many years with Ski Limited, Dragish moved on to the Cafaro Firm. He mentioned he was tasked with promoting and constructing sites for 16 Cafaro malls. He also worked with the Cafaro serious estate division as properly, and aided with the live shows at Eastwood Subject. He stayed with Cafaro for 5 a long time just before shifting on.
He set in three years at the Prodigal Media Company, then decided to open up his very own enterprise he called Adtronico, which was suitable in line with his expertise in marketing and product sales. He stated he kept the business going although he worked for B.J. Alan for a couple of seasons.
Around 2011, Dragish moved to Canfield and alongside with his new bride, Tasha Dragish, began a loved ones when his son George was born.
When he moved to Canfield, he experienced stepped up his business enterprise and renamed it Dragish Marketing and advertising. As a resident of Canfield, Dragish desired to be additional concerned in the local community, so he joined Canfield Rotary. He figured out a large amount about the city, and he reported it was at a Rotary assembly that he was urged to get included in nearby politics.
He stated in 2012, voters authorised charter amendments that lowered the conditions for council members from 4 many years to two a long time. That intended in 2014, the late Councilman Andy Skrobola had to action down early, and there was a need to fill the seat.
“A good deal of men and women in Rotary stated I really should operate for office environment,” Dragish reported. “I did operate and was unopposed.”
From 2014 by way of 2018, Dragish served as a councilman, with the latter 3 yrs as council president. He was able to be a part of Mahoning County’s initially Joint Economic Advancement District (JEDD) when the Windsor JEDD was finalized with a partnership in between the city and township.
“The 4 years I served as councilman was a superior encounter,” he explained. “I uncovered a ton about our metropolis, the ins and outs, and what will make it do the job.”
He also served in the course of a time when metropolitan areas ended up caught in a difficult financial place. Condition cuts to entities like Canfield experienced council members scrambling to meet the desires of the metropolis.
“We had nothing (from the condition) and it was tough to perform without income,” Dragish explained. “That is when we actually pushed the problem of expanding the town and annexing the Purple Gate assets the town owns.”
For the duration of his council phrase, he added to his relatives when his daughter Genevieve was born.
In the vicinity of the conclusion of his time period, Dragish dropped his council seat and determined to make a operate for mayor. Then Mayor Bernie Kosar introduced he was stepping down, and Richard Duffett also threw his hat in the ring and won the election.
4 yrs later when Duffett made the decision to step down and Dragish made a decision again to operate, he was elected. He took place of work formally Jan. 5 prior to the very first council meeting of 2022. Decide R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Widespread Pleas Court docket issued the oath of office.
Dragish will have to acquire a particular course on working a mayor’s court docket just before he can set on the robe and deal with cases.
As for the potential, he explained he loves Canfield and believes it is a great and a safe place to increase a spouse and children.
“Canfield is evolving from where by it was 10 decades back,” he mentioned. “We have a fantastic local community, and individuals want to go in this article. I consider as council we can do so a lot a lot more. We will be able to do some truly great factors in the coming months.”
Dragish is a devoted, tough-functioning particular person, but he does have two passions that allow him unwind and be imaginative. A single is a enthusiasm for golf, and the other is cooking.
“I love to cook,” he claimed. “Anything from yard barbecues to Sunday dinners. Throughout the years, my good friends and I would get jointly for soccer game titles or other gatherings, and we just commenced cooking. Now I just love executing it.”
His father, Don Dragish Sr., served as a Youngstown police officer for 30 yrs and as a federal deputy marshal for 25 decades. Don Sr. attended the swearing-in ceremony and said he was very pleased of his son.
To advise a Saturday profile, make contact with features editor Burton Cole at [email protected] or metro editor Marly Reichert at [email protected].