MAHONING COUNTY Agency to modify plans for addition

The downtown redevelopment agency now will plan a smaller addition.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Children Services Board doesn't think it can afford to finance a proposed addition to the state office building.
Downtown's redevelopment agency doesn't think it can afford to wait any longer to do the project.
Downtown officials said Tuesday that the stalemate probably means the proposed project is dead.
The redevelopment agency -- Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. -- proposed building a four-story addition to the George V. Voinovich Government Center. The building would have housed Children Services and the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
Instead, the downtown agency now will plan a scaled-down addition for BWC only, said Reid Dulberger, a CIC staffer. He also is executive vice president of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, which staffs CIC.
CIC officials came to Tuesday's CSB meeting expecting the group to approve the project.
They were stunned when the Rev. Joseph Allen, CSB board chairman, instead said the group remains interested in the project but has serious concerns about financing.
Allen asked an ad hoc committee of the board to meet as soon as possible with county officials to talk about financing.
Financing issues
Dulberger said the financing issues Allen raised were brand new to CIC despite months of negotiations.
CIC probably could have come up with other financing arrangements during the past few months, he said. It's probably too late now, Dulberger said.
BWC wants to occupy its new space no later than October 2004. That leaves just 14 months to build the addition, barely enough time, Dulberger said.
Allen said the CSB can't afford to put up the entire $7.5 million to finance the project.
Projected revenue the next four years, such as taxes and state funding, doesn't make up for what CSB would put into the project, he said. Revenue from BWC rent wouldn't be enough to replace the money that CBS would put in, he said.
Putting up so much money could leave CSB short on funds in the coming years, Allen said. CSB must assure it can meet the needs of children before committing money to a building project, he said.
"We need to make sure we're moving in the right direction," he said.
The $7.5 million figure is about $3 million more than CSB set aside two years ago for a new building, Allen said. The proposed project also was slightly larger than what CSB needs, he said.
County commissioners have made it clear they don't have funds to put toward a building project, Allen said.