Injury revives building issue

The State Theater is among seven buildings deemed in 2000 in danger of collapse.
& lt;a href=mailto:rgsmith@vindy.com & gt;By ROGER SMITH & lt;/a & gt;
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jeffrey Gue found out the hard way what city officials have known for years: Several downtown buildings are dangerous.
Despite Gue's serious fall Monday inside the dilapidated State Theater, the city won't be razing that building or any other West Federal Street eyesores anytime soon.
City officials continue blaming a lack of public or private money as the reason.
Gue, 22, of Clarencedale Avenue, remained in critical condition today in St. Elizabeth Health Center. Police say he fell two stories from a stairway to the theater's floor.
Two friends said they and Gue left a nearby bar early Monday morning. Gue was supposed to get a ride home from somebody else. The friends later went looking for Gue when he didn't return home. They spotted an open door on a fire escape and discovered Gue inside the building just before 9 p.m.
On Tuesday, authorities still were unsure what happened, said Jason Whitehead, executive director of the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp. CIC is the city's downtown redevelopment agency that owns the State Theater and almost 20 other mostly rundown buildings on West Federal Street.
Went through fire escape
Gue apparently climbed the fire escape and got in through an opening on an upper level, Whitehead said. The fire escape has metal doors and screens to prevent easy access from the street.
The theater was secure when CIC's property maintenance company checked the building three months ago, Whitehead said.
The theater has boarded doors and windows, and a chain-link fence stretches across the back of the theater. The fence went up two years ago after some bricks fell from the top of the building to the sidewalk.
There were no recent reports of the building's being unsecured, Whitehead said. Police officers park their private cars in an alley by the theater and usually report any problems, he said.
The State Theater has been a hazard for years.
In danger of collapse
The theater is among seven buildings that a structural engineer declared in 2000 to be in danger of collapse. The other buildings are on West Federal Street.
An estimate then to renovate the seven buildings into usable space was just shy of $20 million; the estimate to demolish them was $2 million to $4 million.
Neither action happened and won't anytime soon, said Councilman Artis Gillam Sr., D-1st.
The private sector has no reason to help pay for demolition, and the public sector can barely pay its own bills, he said.
Gillam sits on both sides of the issue.
As a councilman, he and his colleagues ultimately decide how to appropriate city money. There is a constant tug between funding downtown projects and neighborhood improvements.
Gillam also is CIC vice chairman. The agency owns the properties and has wanted to level the buildings for years.
Neither has close to enough money, however, so the issue has remained in neutral for years, he said.
Seeking funding
Gillam said he is pursuing state funding for downtown demolition. Previous tries for government funding, however, haven't produced any results.
CIC needs to press the city to somehow find a way to finance at least some demolition, said Charles P. Sammarone. He is the city's water commissioner, a past president and longtime CIC board member, and is outspoken about the building demolition issue.
"We've got to find a way. There's got to be a way," said Sammarone, who also served as city council president.
Another possibility is a municipal court project. Officials have talked for several years about razing a few downtown eyesores and building a new court. Public talks re-emerged recently and are expected to continue.
There is no good answer, according to one man close to the downtown building issue.
Recommends razing
Greg Strollo of Hanahan-Strollo and Associates led a group of downtown architects in 2001 who offered their thoughts on the CIC's buildings. They suggested most of the buildings at issue be demolished, despite their affinity for preservation.
Strollo, a longtime CIC board member who resigned recently, said the agency has acted as responsibly as it could.
CIC has used what little money it has to secure the buildings and repeatedly spoken out about the need for redevelopment, he said.
Nonetheless, the city's quandary is much like what other cities faced when their economies soured and business left downtown, Strollo said.
"It's one of the unfortunate realities of a town that once was a thriving urban center," he said.
& lt;a href=mailto:rgsmith@vindy.com & gt;rgsmith@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;