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Groups cooperate to improve Youngstown's Truesdale Avenue
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CLEANING UP: Hope Hrabowy, 17, of Youngstown, pulls weeds in a garden at a house of South Truesdale Avenue. Members of the Give the Children a Chance Choir and the Mahoning Columbiana Training Association cleared trees, removed tires and debris, mowed grass and planted gardens Tuesday in the 100 block of South Truesdale.
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City workers remove tires collected and stacked as the Give the Children a Chance Choir and people from MCTA cleared trees removed tires and debris mowed and planted gardens on Truesdale Avenue.
The effort also allows many participants to learn job skills and become more marketable.
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN — When a group of people get together to transform a neighborhood, the effort often has the added benefit of being contagious.
Often, residents see others pitching in for the betterment of their block, then decide to make improvements to their own property.
Before long, homeowners feel empowered as the positive changes become noticeable. Crime, litter and blight diminish. Neat lawns and homes — not to mention a stronger sense of community — become the norm.
This is the process you likely will see at work if you visit a portion of South Truesdale Avenue on the city’s East Side.
Working to make a difference in the 100 block of South Truesdale are people such as Kathryn Hawks Haney and members of the Mahoning Columbiana Training Association, some of whom were working Tuesday to maintain two gardens and spruce up the area.
Hawks Haney, who runs Give the Children a Chance, noted that her organization has “adopted” the block of South Truesdale between Shehy and Rigby streets. It’s collaborating with MCTA, the Youngstown Police Department, Treez Please and Mayor Jay Williams’ office, she explained.
The 15-year-old Give the Children a Chance organization provides scholarships to youngsters, offers reading and computer-training courses, makes available age-appropriate books on disaster preparedness and works with youngsters’ parents. It also joined forces with the Mahoning Youngstown Community Action Partnership to offer a four-week free breakfast and lunch program for young people, noted Sandra McClain, who’s also with Give the Children a Chance.
Helping to tend the gardens were MCTA members Hope Hrabowy, 17, and 18-year-old Randy McElroy, both of Liberty.
“My mom told me about it, and it’s been a good experience for me,” said Hrabowy, adding that she’s learned to use a rotary tiller and other garden tools.
Participating in the neighborhood project also has made Hrabowy feel less shy around other people, she said.
Gardening is nothing new for McElroy, but this time he was able to see the fruits of his labor. The 2009 Liberty High School graduate dug columns for the gardens, pulled weeds and performed other similar work.
“It sets a good example for everyone else who’s watching,” he said.
Around 400 young people age 16 to 24 make up MCTA, where they learn a variety of work skills to become more marketable. They get paid to work with numerous agencies in the two counties, and duties include cutting grass, removing weeds, painting fire hydrants and working with entities such as the city water and street departments, noted Tia Taylor, a site supervisor.
This summer’s program began June 22 and wraps up Aug. 14, she added.
While Hope and Randy were in the garden, other youngsters working with Youngstown Litter Control & Recycling were across the street loading more than 50 discarded tires onto a truck.
The gardens were planted in early July and feature jalapeno and bell peppers, collard, turnip and mustard greens, cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant, broccoli, sprouts and tomatoes, explained Paul Jones, a music producer and office manager for H&R Block in Boardman. Jones said he volunteered to maintain the gardens and works with MCTA members.
Officer Ronnie L. Jones, a member of the YPD’s Community Oriented Policing Services unit, said he’s seeing improvements in the neighborhood since his arrival more than a month ago. Residents are trimming their foliage more regularly and people go through the area a few times a week to pick up trash, for example, he said, noting that volunteers recently cleared one piece of property of poison ivy and overgrowth.
Frank Bishop, vice president of the three-year-old nonprofit Treez Please group, said he recently found three dead trees in the area.
A goal of the organization is to replace dead or dying trees with new ones. Beforehand, however, the city forester has to give permission for digging, and residents have to agree to take care of any trees before they’re planted, Bishop explained.
Hawks Haney said that other goals for the neighborhood are to raze more dilapidated homes, add new lighting and clean area sewers. Also, it is hoped more residents will have emergency lights and help will be provided to senior citizens who are no longer able to perform certain tasks, Hawks Haney continued, adding that she wants to see the effort expand.