Making a clean sweep

By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A sampling of what Federal Plaza's west end looked like at noontime Thursday:
UCigarette butts wedged between bricks.
USmall piles of dirt and gravel scattered about.
UA stray potato chip bag and cigarette package blowing in the breeze.
Then came the big guns -- fire hoses shooting thousands of gallons of water at 200 pounds per square inch.
No more dirt, no more trash -- and no butts about it.
A long overdue scrub-down has started in what's to be an ongoing effort to keep downtown clean, said Claire Maluso, who recently returned as Federal Plaza director.
Blanketing Federal Street and the plaza with white lights will be the next step once the cleanup is done, she said.
"A city that is clean and well-lit is a start," Maluso added. "It's a first step to development."
Repairs made
Last week, city crews started repairing broken bricks, replacing holes with concrete and removing broken benches from the plaza's west section.
A crew of four from a halfway house, Community Corrections Association, shoveled away dirt and gravel, picked up trash and cleared fallen leaves Thursday afternoon.
Then, four firefighters used hoses to blast away grime from the sidewalks and the brick plaza.
Dee Kempe was happy to see it.
Kempe, a saleswoman for two decades at Jerry Lee's Jewelry in the Phar-Mor Center, can't remember the last time she saw the plaza cleaned intensively. Jerry Lee's has a display window that looks out to the plaza.
Kempe said she hopes a clean, lighted and well-kept plaza will draw holiday shoppers downtown as Maluso envisions. Getting people to come downtown at all is the hardest part, she said.
First impressions matter, which is why the cleanup is important, said Councilman Artis Gillam Sr., D-1st, who represents downtown.
The city administration hasn't made keeping downtown clean a high enough priority in recent years, he said.
"This is the living room of our city," he said.
Keeping it clean
The rest of the plaza, and the rest of Federal Street, will be power washed in the coming days, Maluso added. CCA has committed to bringing a crew to the plaza daily to keep it clean, she said.
Maluso also said that only vehicles with handicap permits will be allowed to park on the plaza. Illegally parked vehicles bring in dirt, create dust by wearing away the bricks and break masonry work, she said.
Meanwhile, Maluso is raising private money for white lights to be placed on trees, bushes and light poles across Federal Street.
She wants the lights ready for holiday time. She plans to keep the plaza area lighted year-round from the Western Reserve Transit Authority terminal at Fifth Avenue to the area beyond where the plaza ends at Walnut Street.
She wants to raise up to $25,000.
rgsmith@vindy.com