New arena will receive ticket to open

By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city is expected to issue a certificate of occupancy Friday for the city-owned convocation center.
Marcia Harris, one of the city's four fire department inspectors, has spent the past three weeks at the facility almost full time, and the other three have spent some time there making sure the center is in compliance with fire codes, said Fire Chief John J. O'Neill Jr.
"A building that size is very time-consuming," he said. "There is a shopping list of items that any building needs to be in compliance, including exit signs, fire extinguishers, sprinklers, smoke detectors and other items."
There were about 10 to 15 minor issues that needed to be addressed, and they are now in compliance, said Jeff Kossow, the arena's manager.
The facility needs the certificate to open, O'Neill and Kossow said.
The facility's opening show is a Three Doors Down concert Oct. 29.
Open house for the public
The arena is having an open house Oct. 22 for the public. Kossow expects 30,000 to 35,000 people to attend the open house.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony begins at 10 a.m. that day, and the facility is open for tours from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Help is hired
There won't be a shortage of part-time help at the convocation center when it opens. Center officials wanted to hire about 275 people for part-time jobs at a three-day job fair that ended Wednesday.
But the response was so overwhelming that all the positions were filled during the first two days of the job fair. Center officials held the final day of the job fair Wednesday but only took applications and didn't do any on-site interviews.
The jobs pay between $6.50 and $11 an hour, and include ticket-takers, ushers, food service workers, security, parking attendants, housekeeping personnel and stagehands.
Food contract
Meanwhile, the city board of control approved a 10-year contract Wednesday with Boston Culinary Group of Cambridge, Mass., to handle the center's food and beverage services.
The board also approved a $22,989 contract with Exclusively Expo Inc., a Romeoville, Ill., company to provide eight additional curtain panels for the convocation center, and an $11,936 contract with Curran Taylor Inc., a Canonsburg, Pa., company, for 32 under-the-counter suite refrigerators.
The arena's management is relocating its office Saturday from the second floor of the Wick Building to the convocation center.
Others leaving
It's not the only tenant leaving the Wick Building on West Federal Street.
Pam Brothers Investments of New York City the building in March for $125,000 from the city. The company is having the building's tenants move, with the last ones expected to vacate in a few weeks.
The city's economic development office, on the 12th floor, is moving to the mezzanine level at 20 Federal Place, the former Phar-Mor Center.
The board of control approved a $24,656 contract to B & amp;B Construction, a Youngstown company, to renovate the economic development office's new home.
Two city police department agencies in the Wick Building also will move to the 20 Federal Place mezzanine in the coming weeks. The new owners want to convert the Wick Building into apartments.
skolnick@vindy.com