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Changes planned for ex-arsenal in Ravenna
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Congressman Tim Ryan
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Maj. Gen. Gregory W. Wayt of the Ohio National Guard
By Ed Runyan
Water and sewer, more barracks and more training facilities are planned.
NEWTON FALLS — Nearly $2.5 million from Congress will help the Ohio National Guard continue to expand training facilities near Newton Falls and throughout the 20,000-acre former Ravenna Arsenal.
U.S. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, who secured the federal money, and Maj. Gen. Gregory W. Wayt of the Ohio National Guard say the expansion will enable the former U.S. munitions plant to provide training to more than 70,000 soldiers from various branches of the military per year.
“It’s going to have a huge economic impact” on the communities surrounding the facility, Wayt said Wednesday while standing in a carpentry and masonry training shop being built toward the center of the former arsenal.
Wayt said he believes the facility could become one of the nation’s premier joint training sites for use by the various military branches.
Ryan said he believed the site could be part of a technology belt that includes the universities in Akron and Kent, as well as the city of Youngstown.
“The only way we are going to build our community up is to build on the assets we have,” Ryan said.
The facility, now known as the Ravenna Training and Logistical Site, has new National Guard facilities just northwest of Newton Falls at state routes 5 and 534 in western Trumbull County and vast acres westward toward Ravenna in Portage County.
Among the improvements planned are water and sewer to be brought south from the village of Windham. Of the $1.3 million to be spent to engineer the water and sewer project, $984,000 is coming from the federal government, with $328,000 from Portage County commissioners.
Portage County’s contribution will come back to the county through water and sewer user fees paid by the National Guard, said Portage County Commissioner Chris Smeiles.
The federal money also will help with the ongoing renovation of a 41,000-square-foot former munitions building for the carpentry and masonry shop.
The building had to have asbestos, polychloride biphenyls (PCBs) and lead-based paint removed and needed a new heating/ventilation system, removal of interior walls, replacement of windows, and electrical service upgrade.
Wayt said the school will provide training to 840 soldiers from across the country this year.
The former arsenal, built in 1940, sat vacant for about 20 years after the Vietnam War ended. The Ohio National Guard began to assume control in the late 1990s after it closed in 1992.
Soldiers have received carpentry/masonry and military police training there for about a year. Tactical training for soldiers about to be deployed in combat zones has been under way for about two years, said Lt. Col. Scott Evans of the Ohio National Guard.
The National Guard is renovating four buildings toward the center of the complex for training, Evans said. Plans call for renovating an additional 13.
The federal money will help provide barracks for 100 additional soldiers near the barracks at the Route 534 location — just a part of the barracks expansion planned.
In all, the National Guard is likely to expand its barracks from a capacity of 100 soldiers to more than 600 later this year, Evans said.
runyan@vindy.com