Soap Box board envisions new track

By David Skolnick

A public meeting on the proposal is set for Friday.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Greater Youngstown Area Soap Box Derby is looking for a new place to call home.

The derby’s board is asking city officials to allow it to spend about $250,000 to take the largely vacant Gibson Field and turn it into a Soap Box Derby track by 2010 if all goes according to plan, said Andy Bowell Jr, the board’s president.

The proposal has received positive response from the city’s park and recreation commission and council members Janet Tarpley, D-6th, and John R. Swierz, D-7th. Swierz also is vice president of the local derby board.

The field is in both wards on the city’s South Side.

There is one hitch for now.

The board doesn’t have the money to build the track.

Once city officials give the go-ahead, the board will work to raise the money needed, Bowell said.

The board has people interested in donating money to the effort and will seek grant money, he said.

“Finances are a challenge, especially with the economy,” Bowell said. “But we’ve received favorable word from organizations” offering financial contributions.

Tarpley and Swierz will have a meeting at 5 p.m. Friday to receive public input on the Soap Box Derby proposal. The meeting is to be held at the field on Gibson Street.

There are baseball fields at the park that are rarely used, Tarpley said.

The derby board’s proposal includes a playground as well as a derby pit area and a return road that could be used as a running track or for sledding, Bowell said.

The Youngstown derby is held annually on Fifth Avenue between Grant and Wood streets. The city has to close the street during the derby.

Also, the board holds two “rally races” a year in Mineral Ridge on Seaborn Street. Those wanting to make it to the All-American Soap Box Derby Championship in Akron compete in rally races and can qualify for the national event by compiling enough points at these races, Bowell said.

If all goes well, Gibson Field would be the home of the Greater Youngstown Area event as well as about seven rally races a year, Bowell said. Also, other Soap Box Derby organizations could use the track, he said.

The city would retain ownership of the park.

“We’d make improvements to a park that’s slowly going dormant,” Bowell said.

skolnick@vindy.com