Emergency-training exercise will cause detours downtown

YOUNGSTOWN — Traffic will be detoured around streets in the eastern end of the city’s downtown from 5:30 to 10 p.m. today as emergency personnel conduct a training exercise near the main U.S. Post Office, 99 S. Walnut St., the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency has announced.

The county EMA and Haz-Mat Team, the U.S. Postal Service, the city fire department, and the city police department and its bomb squad and crisis response team will participate in the exercise.

As part of the exercise, armed law enforcement personnel will be moving in and around the parking deck opposite the post office, and police and fire vehicles and ambulances will be moving in that vicinity, the county EMA said.

Most of the activity will occur along portions of South Walnut, East Federal and East Front streets adjacent to the Post Office. The training is part of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security mandate to review local emergency preparedness, response and recovery procedures.

Detoured streets will be marked and city police and county deputy sheriffs will be on hand for traffic control.