Friday, June 30, 2006
The improvements to Chase Field include an indoor fitness center.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority plans to build houses on Evans Field and give a major face-lift to Chase Field on the city's North Side in the coming months.
The projects are two key components of YMHA's Hope VI Revitalization Program. Hope VI is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development redevelopment program for housing authorities.
YMHA received a $19.75 million Hope VI grant in March 2003 to revitalize a portion of the North Side near Youngstown State University and St. Elizabeth Health Center.
YMHA will build 29 single-family houses at the Evans Field site on Wirt Street between Oxford and Lexington avenues, said Megan Shutes, YMHA's Hope VI coordinator.
Joseph R. McRae, the city's park director, updated the Youngstown Park and Recreation Commission on the projects at its Thursday meeting.
Evans has a basketball court, football field and swings, but the park is not in good shape, McRae said.
Chase Field renovations
YMHA also will give the nearby Chase Field on Otis Street, off Wirt Street, a major makeover, McRae and Shutes said.
Plans call for a 16,000-square-foot indoor fitness center at Chase as well as outdoor amenities including three basketball courts, one tennis court, a multipurpose ball field, nearly 100 off-street parking spaces, two playgrounds and an outdoor golf driving range and putting greens.
Chase is in poor condition and isn't used much, McRae said.
He is pleased with YMHA's plan to enhance Chase, but he wants to make sure kids have a place to play while the two projects are ongoing.
YMHA agrees and expects to have Chase finished before the housing development at Evans, Shutes said.
Besides the $19.75 million HUD grant, YMHA also obtained about $20 million through other federal grants as well as state and city funding, and the donation of city property, including the two fields, for the program.
Other improvements planned
The money is funding the construction of 104 housing units, 30 available for homeownership, with the rest being rentals, for low- and moderate-income families on and near the former Westlake Terrace public housing complex that has since been demolished, Shutes said. The money also is funding recreation and job training centers.
Also at the commission meeting, McRae said the sprinkler system at the city-owned Henry Stambaugh Golf Course on Gypsy Lane needs to be replaced. It is the original system at the 83-year-old course, McRae said.
There are many problems with the current system including leaks and the need for more sprinklers, he said.
A new system would cost about $214,000, McRae said. He wants the city to install the new system as soon as possible and suggested the city reduce the park and recreation budget by $21,400 annually for a decade to pay it off.
With North Pool closed this summer, the only public pool open in the city is at Borts Park on Belle Vista Avenue on the West Side. The eight-week pool season opened June 21.
"One pool seems to be working well at this time," McRae said. "We've had no reports of overcrowding."
Improvement work at Borts was done in recent months, McRae said.
skolnick@vindy.com