Officials hope changes will boost urban areas

Struthers, Campbell and Youngstown might file a joint JRS Program application.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS -- Local officials hold out hope that probable rule changes in the state's Job Ready Sites Program after a shakedown round of funding will favor smaller urban communities.
Efforts so far to get the proposed rules for the state's new JRS Program changed so smaller urban areas can benefit from the program's initial funding round have been a bust.
High on the list of concerns of local government leaders are JRS program requirements for land areas, from 150 to 1,000 acres, and a clean bill of health for the land from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, neither of which urban areas generally have, they say.
If the OEPA's "no further action" designation is necessary to be eligible, cities such as Struthers and Campbell, which are redeveloping brownfield sites, will not be able to apply for a JRS grant, Struthers Mayor Daniel C. Mamula said.
Mamula led a delegation of Mahoning Valley officials that met recently with Lt. Gov. Bruce Johnson in Columbus to lobby for rules changes.
Under the JRS Program, one of three components of the new State Issue 1 development program passed at the November 2005 ballot, $150 million will be available over seven years.
The first round of funding was to be $30 million this year.
However, another concern of the local officials is Johnson's plan to combine the first two rounds and make $60 million, or 40 percent of the seven-year money pool, available this year.
Grant programs traditionally have a shakedown period during which rules are adjusted.
To compete for some of the money, local officials are hoping that will happen with JRS, and the new rules will make it more urban-friendly, said Campbell Mayor John Dill, who was part of the delegation that went to Columbus.
For that reason, "we don't want 40 percent of the entire pot spent in the first funding round," Dill said.
Mamula said, however, that Johnson, who is also director of the Ohio Department of Development, has no intention of changing the focus of the JRS program, which is on large, economy-shifting sites.
Johnson said Ohio receives several inquiries a year for big developed sites, and wants to be ready for that type of request in the future. The JRS money, limited to $5 million per project, would be used for infrastructure, such as roads and utilities, and would require a 25 percent local match.
State meeting
At the April 26 meeting in Columbus, Dill said Johnson told the Mahoning delegation that the JRS Program was from the beginning intended and portrayed as being for large-site development.
However, Mamula said that even large urban areas, such as Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, would not qualify under the current proposed criteria.
He said the Columbus city planner said at the meeting with Johnson that his city could not qualify for JRS money as now constituted.
"Did we all misunderstand" the intent of the program and what the JRS criteria would be, Mamula asked.
The lieutenant governor is sticking to his plan to use the JRS Program to fill the gap in development not covered by other programs, such as Clean Ohio, said John Getchey, executive director of the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
Johnson did say he would not use all of the $60 million in the first round if he does not receive applications for good projects, Getchey said.
Application
Applications were supposed to be available May 5, but Mamula said the date was changed to today.
He said the relatively short period of time until the applications are due, early July, works against Struthers and Campbell and others like them.
"You would almost have to have a project ready on the shelf," Mamula said.
"I think we were all a little disappointed with the results of the meeting with Johnson," said Alan Knapp, Trumbull County Planning Commission director.
But, the bottom line is that the state will not be changing the proposed guidelines. Knapp said his department is starting to research sites in Trumbull County that meet the criteria.
Previously, Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams said he is "on board" with the mayors of small communities even though his city might have one or two sites that would "approach the criteria. We are looking at this from a regional standpoint," he said.
alcorn@vindy.com