A year for upgrades, breakdowns, inspirational neighborhood action
Girard House Explosion
A House on the Corner of Townsend and Washington Streets in Girard Exploded Thursday, July 18, 2008 around 6:30 p.m. Photographers James Hughes and Steve Meyers contributed to this slide show.
By Jon Moffett
2008 began on a positive note for Youngstown.
The year began with the focus on improving the quality of living downtown.
Louis A. Frangos was awarded state and federal funding for his Realty Tower, Wick Building and Erie Terminal projects. Construction on the projects began in January.
Realty Towers, one of the largest buildings downtown, will benefit from about $3.1 million in grants. The 12-story building, which had been vacant for several years prior, will become apartments for professionals who wish to live downtown.
“It’s a significant investment in the central business district,” said city Finance Director David Bozanich of the Realty Towers project. “It will improve the quality of life there, and it helps a building in need of significant repair.”
The federal government also provided roughly $1.9 million for the Wick project, also converting to apartments.
Frangos made the news again, later in the year in May, for his Stambaugh building.
Two windows, which fell from the historic 13-story structure, prompted Frangos to remove remaining windows and replace them with plywood. City officials said Frangos, who co-owns the building, violated several city laws and codes with the plywood.
“Plywood would create a blight condition,” said Brenda Williams, the city’s chief building official.
Frangos said he was trying to ensure safety and made a mistake in his haste to board up the windows. “Unfortunately, in our zealousness to prevent anyone from getting hurt, we started the window removal” without city approval, he said. “... It was an honest oversight.”
Another failure to follow procedure, this time by the Liberty Township Police Department, was under scrutiny in April after the accidental death of Mary Rush.
Rush, 87, was found unconscious on the porch of her home with severe lacerations. Then-Police Chief Anthony Slifka said Rush had locked herself out and was cut attempting to regain entry to her home. Officers received calls from neighbors about crying coming from the property. They arrived on two separate occasions, but did not exit the vehicle.
A committee’s probe of the incident noted the department was partially at fault.
“The evidence gathered by the committee revealed significant errors made by the dispatcher as well as errors in judgment made by the individual officers. More importantly, the exploration of this incident has revealed significant problems with supervision and training within the Liberty Township Police Department,” the report said. Slifka resigned.
Another tragedy occurred in September, but ended on a positive note.
A house at 824 Washington Ave. in Girard had exploded. A home next door caught fire and burned to the ground.
People immediately came to the aid of their neighbors.
Kenny Moran, a Washington Avenue resident and street department superintendent, abandoned his shopping cart in the middle of the aisle when he heard of the explosion, which could be heard from a mile away.
“My house I wasn’t worried about. I was more worried about the neighbor kids because we had a lot of kids who would play ball in the street and stuff around here every day,” he said.
Moran was just one of many neighbors to assist firefighters, gas company representatives and the state fire marshal.
See the complete list here.