JFS move to temp quarters at Oak Hill set for July

YOUNGSTOWN — After several months of planning and coordination, Mahoning County commissioners today approved spending around $500,000 to move the county’s Department of Job and Family Services and Child Support Enforcement Agency into temporary quarters at Oakhill Renaissance Place.

Commissioner Anthony Traficanti took an opportunity at a meeting called to approve the contracts to express his frustration with the roadblocks that have held up the move into Oakhill.

The roadblock have come from a lawsuit filed last year by Ohio Valley Mall Co., a subsidiary of the Cafaro Co. that has attempted to block the purchase of the building and the commissioners’ plans to use it for county offices.

“I wish they would drop it,” Traficanti said of the suit. “I wasn’t put in office to sit in court. We can’t move forward with this kind of foolishness. This should have been done a year ago,” Traficanti said of the move to Oakhill.

The JFS reopening date at the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center on Oak Hill Avenue is set for July 23.

For the complete story, see Thursday's Vindicator and Vindy.com.