YOUNGSTOWN CSB to get new space in addition

CIC needs an answer within about a month to meet the state's deadline.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Downtown's redevelopment agency is tacking two floors onto its proposed addition to the state office building.
The new floors would house Mahoning County Children Services Board operations.
The new $6 million, 80,000-square-foot proposed addition combines two plans that the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. has worked on recently.
A month ago, CIC outlined an addition next to the George V. Voinovich Government Center for the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation. Workers' compensation wants to move its Warren office to Youngstown as part of a statewide restructuring.
The new office would have about 130 workers. The agency wants the space ready within about 15 months.
A few weeks ago, the CSB pleaded with county commissioners for a new building for its roughly 100 workers, a project at least two years in the making. The downtown redevelopment agency proposed a CSB building on the former Master's block in 2001, but the idea has languished in uncertainty. CSB has about $4 million set aside for a new building.
Approved proposal
CIC's executive board approved the latest building proposal Thursday. CIC then immediately took its pitch to county and CSB officials.
CSB officials said they will meet with their full board June 10 to talk about the proposal.
CIC needs an answer within about a month to meet the state's deadline to provide space downtown.
CIC can bid out the project four to six weeks after a final decision and build the addition in less than a year, said Reid Dulberger, executive vice president at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber and a CIC staff member.
Mayor George M. McKelvey called the plan a good idea whose timing couldn't be better.
The state wants office space available right away and it appears the county is ready to move, he said.
The addition would improve the downtown streetscape, too, he added.
Site of addition
CIC would build the addition on top of the neighboring parking lot -- the former Higbee department store site. The addition would cover about half the parking lot.
Plans call for the ground level to be left available for parking. The parking area, however, would have the building's facade on three sides to make the lot look like part of the office.
A glass walkway would connect the addition and the Voinovich building at the second floor so BWC would have its office all on one level.
The county offices would be on the third and fourth floors.
Security is an issue for CSB, which deals with tense family situations. The arrangement would give CSB its own secure entrance in a lobby on the addition's parking level.
Workers' compensation employees would get to the new space by using the Voinovich entrance and passing through the glass breezeway on the second floor.
rgsmith@vindy.com