Saturday, March 17, 2001
By ROGER G. SMITH
DAVID SKOLNICK
and PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
Although Youngstown by far lost more residents than any other big Ohio city the past decade -- 14.3 percent -- there are pockets of growth in the Mahoning Valley.
U.S. Census numbers for 2000 released Friday show double-digit percentage growth in Cortland, Columbiana and Canfield, and a whopping 188 percent growth in Columbiana County's Calcutta.
In Youngstown: The overarching number, however, was Youngstown's. The city's population dropped to 82,026 in 2000, from 95,732 a decade ago.
"That's a big chunk," said Bill D'Avignon, city deputy director of planning.
The 14.3 percent was about a percentage point higher than he expected. The numbers could be off between 3 percent and 4 percent because the Census Bureau didn't adjust the numbers, D'Avignon said.
Complaining probably won't do any good, but the city could make a statement objecting to the numbers, he said.
Compared to the past two census reports, however, the city decline is slowing. Population dropped about 18 percent between 1970 and 1980 and about 17 percent between 1980 and 1990, D'Avignon said.
"It's a continuing trend, but it looks as though the trend has slowed," he said.
Mayor George M. McKelvey didn't respond to calls seeking comment.
Mahoning County: Flight from Youngstown brought down Mahoning County, which lost 7,251 people the past decade. Mahoning remains the 10th largest county among the state's 88 counties.
Without Youngstown, the county would have experienced population growth. With Youngstown, it experienced the second-largest population decline by percentage of any county in the state. Only Jefferson County was worse with an 8-percent decline.
"Apparently 7,000 people leaving Youngstown decided to stay in Mahoning County," said Administrator Gary Kubic. "It points out we are a family of communities and a loss in one part hurts the rest."
Kubic and Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock said counties focusing their priorities on economic development and education are experiencing growth. Others, such as Mahoning County, are declining.
"Those places that lack economic and educational opportunities watch their people go elsewhere," Kubic said. "Can it be turned around? Yes, but it needs a sustained effort."
County and Youngstown officials must work together to make this area more attractive for people to call home, Sherlock said.
Jobs: "People looking for higher-paying jobs are not finding them in this county, especially in the city," she said. "These numbers reflect what we've said about needing to focus our attention on the city."
Youngstown's drop generally was expected based on estimates made through the decade, said Dr. Gil Peterson, the former head of Youngstown State University's Center for Urban Studies.
Nonetheless, losing nearly 14,000 residents is hard to ignore.
"That number certainly gets your attention," Peterson said. "It's too bad."
Neighbors such as Akron slipped 2.7 percent, Elyria slid 1.4 percent, Lorain 3.6 percent and Canton 4 percent.
Despite losing 2.5 percent of its residents, the city of Parma jumped ahead of Youngstown with about 3,600 more residents. Youngstown now is the state's eighth-largest city.
Burden's on residents: Youngstown streets and utilities -- and by virtue their costs -- are set up for 160,000 people. That means remaining residents pay a larger proportion of services than people do elsewhere.
"Growth-strong economies will have an advantage," Peterson said. "We carry a heavier burden."
The population drop largely can be attributed to the decline in the school system through the decade, said Jeffrey L. Chagnot, city development director.
The good news is that the district is on the rebound, he said, after residents passed the levy that will bring $163.5 million worth of new and renovated schools. Good schools will turn out the trained workers needed for the future, he said.
"The only way we can stop the bleeding is create a quality educational environment," Chagnot said.
The population loss likely will cause retailers and service providers to pull back their offerings here and focus on where the people are, he said.
"It doesn't help the economic demographics of this region," Chagnot said.
Thomas P. Costello, vice chairman of the Boardman trustees, was surprised the census showed a 4 percent population loss in the township. Trustees were expecting a substantial population increase, given the new retail and home development in recent years, he said.
"We were expecting the numbers to be approaching 50,000," Costello said. "We have not reduced our housing stock. Our housing stock has been steadily increasing every year."
Austintown: Another large township, Austintown, saw a 2.3 percent decline.
Austintown Trustee Warren "Bo" Pritchard said he thinks the township's population is underestimated by the census, possibly because it doesn't assign the proper population to Austintown in ZIP codes that overlap into adjacent communities. He said he thinks the Austintown population is really somewhere near 40,000.
However, he also said the showing of a 2 percent loss in the township's population over 10 years doesn't surprise him. Even though there's been considerable new home construction in the township in recent years, he said he thinks household size has declined, partly due to the baby-boomers' children having grown and moved out.
"I think you're seeing more homes and smaller families," he said.
On the other hand, the city of Canfield grew rapidly -- some 36 percent over the decade. The figure didn't surprise City Manager Charles Tieche. He attributed the growth to 7,374 to quality of schools, public safety and overall quality of life in his community, plus annexation of land into the city.
As for what the 2010 census might show, he said, "I'm not sure that we would grow at the 36 percent rate, but I think there's still going to be growth in our community's future, maybe in the neighborhood of half that."
Trumbull County: Trumbull County didn't fare as well in the census, experiencing a 1.2-percent decline, 14th worst of any of the state's counties.
"It's a little bit unsettling that we're losing population," said Trumbull County Commissioner Michael O'Brien. "It's important for us to be working on job retention and job creation. We need to work on economic development to stop this decrease."
Trumbull's population dropped from 227,813 in 1990 to 225,116 in 2000. The decline, along with a 5.6-percent population increase in Lake County, moved that county ahead of Trumbull. Lake County is now 11th-largest in the state, and Trumbull, 12th.
Just like Mahoning and Youngstown, Trumbull would have experienced a population increase if not for the loss of 3,961 residents in Warren, its largest city.
"That hurts us," said Alan Knapp, Trumbull County Planning Commission grants coordinator. "We lost about 14,000 people between 1980 and 1990. This is a lot smaller number. Obviously, it's not as bad as it was the last time."
Warren filed a protest when it received the census figure of 46,832 a few weeks ago, said Mayor Hank Angelo. He says the census undercounted the city's population by about 4,000 people.
Angelo says census takers failed to count some people living in new housing and that the city's population is actually still above 50,000.
"It puts us into another category as far as cities that would receive federal money," Angelo said of the 46,832 figure.
The 50,000 number is a critical threshold for eligibility for federal funding, notably funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cities above 50,000 get HUD money under an entitlement formula.
Based on the 1990 figure of 50,793, the city gets just over $2 million a year in HUD money for economic development projects, transportation, street resurfacing, sidewalk repairs, housing rehabilitation, neighborhood revitalization and a revolving loan fund.
If the city's population is deemed to be below 50,000, the city likely falls into another category where it must compete with other similar-sized communities for available HUD money, the mayor said.
"There's no guarantee you're going to get that HUD money," he said. "That would be a very severe blow to the city of Warren. It is very critical for the city of Warren to receive that HUD money."
Angelo hopes the city can be "grandfathered in" above 50,000 population for purposes of receiving HUD money.
The biggest percentage gainer in Trumbull County was Cortland, a city whose population went to 6,830 in 2000 -- a 21 percent gain.
"It is a very nice place to live," said Mayor Melissa Long.
Cortland's features: Cortland is a dry bedroom community with no city income tax. Another attraction, she said, is the high quality of the Lakeview schools, which serve Cortland and Bazetta Township.
Newton Falls was narrowly returned to city status in the 2000 Census after having been reduced from city to village status in the last census. Newton Falls gained 136 people, putting the population at 5,002.
Ohio municipalities are villages if their populations are below 5,000 and cities if they exceed it.
Joseph Hildack, Newton Falls' 3rd Ward councilman, said the gain was due partly to new single-family home building. He thought the census would put the population somewhat higher, at about 5,500. He believes the return to city status will make Newton Falls eligible for more state grants.
Increase in Columbiana: Columbiana County was the only one in the Mahoning Valley to see a population increase.
Its 3.5-percent growth, however, didn't keep pace with Ohio, which experienced an overall 4.7-percent population increase from 1990.
The 112,075 figure is about 4,000 more than in 1990. But that's still about 1,000 fewer people than the county's highest population total during the 1980 census, said Mark Gardner, development department director.
Even so, Gardner was pleased.
"A lot of it is growth from Mahoning County and some carryover from Pennsylvania," he said. "People move here to get away from things into what they think is 'out in the country.' People don't mind living somewhere and driving to work as much as they used to. My wife drives 35-40 minutes each way to work in Youngstown. Other people drive even further."
Despite losing 4 percent of its population, East Liverpool remains Columbiana County's largest city, with 13,089 people.
Salem remains the second-largest, losing a fraction of a percent at 12,197.
Just outside East Liverpool, Calcutta, a booming retail and restaurant community, showed a 188 percent gain, with a 2000 population of 3,491.
Columbiana Village became a city, with 5,635 in 2000, a 14-percent gain. Columbiana has experienced annexation and considerable new housing development, including Arrowhead Lake and Jamestown Trace, said Mayor Lowell Schloneger.
"It's doesn't surprise me that we're a city," he said. "We're kind of one of the places people want to be right now."
The community has a relatively low crime rate, a full industrial park and a good school system, with a new high school that opened a year ago.
Becoming a city means establishing a civil service commission and hiring system, complete with exams for jobs. Employees of a city also can join a labor union, he said.