Officials consider corporation's offer

By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Southside Community Development Corporation says its offer to donate Oak Hill Renaissance Place to Mahoning County still stands.
Corporation officials said the county could move its Department of Job and Family Services to the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center and save the county $450,000 it is now paying in rent each year to house the JFS at the McGuffey Plaza on the city's East Side.
Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said he hopes he and fellow commissioners David Ludt and John McNally IV will be in a position to respond to the SCDC's offer to donate the property to the county by the end of the year.
The SCDC, which owns the facility, has had the offer on the table since spring 2004.
Traficanti and Ludt heard a presentation by development corporation officials Tuesday in Renaissance Place's conference center.
SCDC members propose moving JFS operations to the first floor and relocating other county offices to the facility as leases expire.
"The obvious advantages to the county in accepting the donation of this facility make the decision a no-brainer," said Atty. John Weed Powers, former SCDC director.
Powers said the corporation is aware of the commissioners' urgent need to conserve operating funds and their interest in improving the working environment of the JFS department.
An ideal fit
He said putting JFS in Renaissance Place would fit with the corporation's mission to use the facility to serve inner-city, low-income residents.
Powers said besides donating the property, the corporation would give the county $500,000 for redesign of the first floor to accommodate JFS. There is plenty of clean, dry space for storage of records, and the three-level parking deck would be ideal for JFS employees.
Powers said an additional 35,000 square feet in the former hospital's tower wing is well-suited for the county's Child Support Enforcement Agency.
Traficanti liked the offer, but added that managing the property the county already has, in particular dealing with the overcrowding problems at the county jail, have distracted commissioners from making a decision.
Ludt said the corporation has assembled a group of people he has faith in to make decisions about the condition of the property and any potential liability.
"I've been on board for this from Day One," Ludt said.
Building's tenants
Forum Health donated the building to SCDC in 1999. The corporation has since secured several grants and low-interest loans to improve the property, and has 14 tenants, including the Youngstown Area Community Action Council's Head Start preschool program, Youngstown State University's Department of Physics, Youngstown City Health District and the Mahoning County Coroner's office and morgue.
SCDC has a nine-member board and an executive director, and has recruited Robert Hanahan, a retired architect; John Logue, retired executive vice president of the Builders Association of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania; retired lawyer David Comstock; and Joseph Sylvester Jr. of Joseph Sylvester Construction Company Inc. to serve on a volunteer building commission to assist the county if the commissioners accept the property.