City receives $875,000 federal grant

The city's South Side had the federal designation.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The lower portion of the city's North Side, at and near Youngstown State University, is receiving an $875,000 grant from the federal Weed and Seed Project, Mayor Jay Williams said.
An official announcement is scheduled for today from Williams and Greg White, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, at Tabernacle Baptist Church on Arlington Street.
The federal urban renewal program is aimed at helping cities reduce crime and increase the quality of life in targeted sections.
The designated area includes Wick Park, YSU, the St. Elizabeth Health Center area, portions of Brier Hill and the area near Mahoning County's Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center.
The city's South Side was designated as a Weed and Seed area in 1999. That grant expired at the end of last year.
"We've had some positive effects on the South Side [from Weed and Seed], but we now need to focus on long-term sustainability there," Williams said. "I'm certainly pleased to have another designation from the program."
The designation funds a variety of crime prevention and social services to the targeted area, such as drug-reduction efforts, after-school programs and services to the elderly.
"This will provide additional resources for saturated police patrols and allow the city to provide money for neighborhood projects," the mayor added.
Ricky George, associate director of the YSU Center for Human Services Development, along with Heidi Hallas, a research associate at the center, began working with city officials, other government entities, community organizations, businesses, religious leaders and residents more than a year ago on this project.
YSU will serve as the grant's fiscal agent.
Projected use
The money will be spent over a five-year period beginning in January 2007.
"The purpose of the project is to weed out crime and seed in social programs and to get the community working together," George said. "This won't solve all of the problems, but it will help."
In November 2005, a group of about 25 East Side residents attended a council meeting to express disappointment that an application wasn't submitted for that side of town.
They also pointed out that the city could have applied for two grants: one each for the North and East sides.
At that meeting, Councilman Richard Atkinson, R-3rd, who represents much of the North Side, said the location of the Weed and Seed area is based on Youngstown police crime statistics over the past five years.
Other council members at the time were skeptical of the crime statistics and unsuccessfully tried to include two East Side census tracts near the North Side in the application.
Williams said he also wants to talk to White today about crime-fighting strategies and if the federal government has a program similar to the Gun Reduction Interdiction Project.
The GRIP program in Youngstown ran between late June and early September of 2003 with an increased local and federal law enforcement presence in the city. The initiative resulted in nearly 400 arrests.
"The program changed at the national level, but I want to see if there's another federal program we can use to reduce crime," Williams said. "The city would help with some of the cost. I want to implement a program like it."
skolnick@vindy.com