Public can offer arena input

By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- City council and the Youngstown arena board will sponsor a public forum next week to hear opinions about the proposed civic center.
The hearing is set for 5 p.m. Wednesday in city council chambers.
"The idea is to get input from legislators and political leaders from throughout the county and not just have it perceived as a city-only project," said Leonard Schiavone, the arena board's chairman. The meeting is also open to the general public.
No legislation: The board expressed disappointment Thursday that city council did not act at its meeting Wednesday on legislation that would help the board move forward with the project.
The board wants $100,000 from the city to hire its own lawyer, open an office in the city-owned Wick Building, buy director's insurance to protect its members from liability and pay for an office secretary. Also, the board is looking for council legislation giving it control over the construction and management of the proposed 10,000-seat arena, Schiavone said.
Reached at his home after the board meeting, Councilman James E. Fortune Sr., D-6th, who is chairman of the body's finance committee, said that because of all his other responsibilities, he simply forgot about the arena board legislation. He said that he will introduce it at council's next meeting, on May 2, and that the funding amount will be about $100,000.
Arena board members said that until May 2, they can do nothing to move the project along. Without money and an attorney, the board is just "spinning its wheels," said Patrick Ungaro, a board member and former Youngstown mayor.
"It's ridiculous; we've been meeting all this time with nothing," Ungaro said. "I'm not sure we should meet until we get funding. I don't see the relevancy of meeting."
The board has met weekly since January.
Ad money: Robert VanSickle, the board's vice chairman, decided to front the money to advertise for legal counsel until the body gets financial assistance from the city.
Claire Maluso, an arena board member who works for U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., said the congressman's office gets a steady stream of calls from other Mahoning Valley communities offering to be the home of the arena. Traficant, of Poland, D-17th, obtained $26.8 million in federal funding for the project.
But the federal money is locked in specifically for a civic center in Youngstown and cannot be used for any other purpose or in any other community, she said.
"I'm still getting the story line from my boss that this project has to move forward and this money is very vulnerable until we have a site," Maluso said. "We need to move as quickly as possible."