County receives funds for lead removal

The Mahoning County money also will help a
Warren housing program.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control Program will be able to remove lead from more than 201 homes over the next three years with the additional $3 million in federal money it recently received.

It will also for the first time reach out to is neighbor to the north to provide help with Trumbull County efforts to eliminate lead paint from homes.

Phillip O. Puryear, director of the county lead-control program, said his most recent grant application to HUD suggested that the program share some of its funds with Warren’s Community Development Department, which plans to abate lead in 20 to 25 homes in the next three years with the money.

Mahoning County’s program also will share money with Girard and Niles, which will abate lead in about five homes each, Puryear said.

Trumbull County does not have a lead-hazard control program, but it does receive money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to renovate homes in low-income areas.

Removing lead-based paint is always part of such renovations, said Michael Keys, Warren’s community development coordinator.

At Tuesday’s check presentation from Paul Diegelman of the Cleveland HUD office, Puryear said the continued funding will allow Mahoning County’s program to spend about $8,000 per home for lead-paint removal.

Keys said the Mahoning County HUD money will stretch the buying power of Warren’s home funds so that it can renovate an additional number of houses.

Across Ohio, the majority of the HUD lead-abatement money went to urban areas. In addition to Mahoning County, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Cuyahoga County and Springfield all received between $3 million and $7 million. Nationwide, HUD awarded $143 million for lead abatement.

Diegelman said Mahoning County’s program is one of the nation’s best. As a result, its representatives have spoken at national conferences to talk about its successes.

Puryear said Mahoning County’s program tries to remove lead in owner-occupied homes first and in homes where children under 6 live because they are the most at risk from eating paint chips or ingesting paint dust after playing around it.

Lead ingestion has been blamed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, mental retardation, lowered intelligence, seizures and other developmental difficulties, health officials said. The United States banned lead-based paint in homes in 1978.

runyan@vindy.com