Mahoning River Mayors See Lowellville Project as Model
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The upcoming removal of the First Street dam in Lowellville could serve as a model for other communities along the Mahoning River to follow. Lowellville’s success in securing funds for the dam removal was among the items discussed at Thursday’s annual meeting of the Mahoning River Corridor Mayors’ Association.
The association is collaborating with the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments to pull together a restoration plan that addresses dam issues along the Mahoning River by employing components of existing community plans, including Youngstown 2010, that deal specifically with the river.
“We don’t have the money to spend $200,000 to $300,000” to create a plan," said Dan Mamula, manager of the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative, an arm of the mayor’s association focused on brownfield and urban development in the nine corridor communities. “So we’re going to try to do it through Eastgate. We’re going to try to piece one together."
Lowellville should be releasing designs for the project in the next few weeks and demolition of the dam should begin in July or August, Mayor James Iudiciani said. Lowellville was able to secure $2.4 million for the project by partnering with the city of Canton to secure Ohio Environmental Protection Agency river restoration funds.
“That was a pioneer project,” Mamula said. “They deserve all the credit in the world because there was some hesitancy to get involved with those dams because of liabilities and so forth. … They’re like the template, Lowellville. What did we learn from Lowellville and how do we do it now with Struthers? Struthers is the next one that wants to go for it,” he explained, referring to river restoration funding.
A comprehensive plan wouldl address one of the issues that Struthers fell short on in its application for river funds, Mamula said. “The other challenge is match money,” he added.
“Hopefuly we can go right up the river [corridor],” he said.
Newton Falls Mayor Lyle Waddell noted that some on his city council question why the city should be concerned about a project as far away as Lowellville, but that they are beginning to understand. “It really does have an effect our way,” he said. “We’re all in this together.”
Projects the mayors' association and the river initiative are working to promote include addressing the Girard Leatherworks property, securing Clean Ohio funds for the former Republic Steel site owned by BRT Extrusions, and assisting with the former U.S. Steel site in McDonald.
“McDonald’s problem is the end-user,” Mamula said. The Phase II environmental assessment is complete but since Clean Ohio was incorporated into the state JobsOhio program, an end-user commitment for the property is required.
“We disagree with that,” Mamula said. “We feel that we have such sizable brownfield issues that we need help beyond having committed end users.”
Sarah Lown, senior economic development manager for the Western Reserve Port Authority, which absorbed the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative last year, reported that earlier this week Youngstown and Pittsburgh submitted a joint TechBelt Makes proposal to the U.S. Economic Development Administration to promote precision manufacturing in the region.
The two communities are jointly seeking one of 12 “Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership” designations to be awarded by the U.S. EDA. If awarded, the designation would provide preferential treatment for funding from 13 federal agencies to advance the identified sectors in the application, Lown said. In addition, a technical adviser would be assigned to assist with coordinating and implementing the approved plan.
Early efforts focussed on putting together an application that would cover a seven-county region that included Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties in Ohio and Mercer, Lawrence and Beaver counties in Pennsylvania.
"Pittsburgh has been wonderful in partnering with us," she said.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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