Funds to stabilize neighborhoods with vacant land

Finding new purpose for unkempt and unusable vacant lots is the goal.

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. will be paid $200,000 to help the city with neighborhood-development services.

The city’s Board of Control approved the one-year agreement Thursday.

Mayor Jay Williams said funding for the contract will come from federal stimulus funds channeled through the city’s Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The corporation is a newly formed community development organization that will work closely with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, Williams said.

Ian Beniston, director of policy for the MVOC, is assisting in setting up the corporation, which is conducting a national search for an executive director.

The city contract is only a portion of its financing.

The Wean Foundation has designated $1 million for the project over a two-year period.

Other funding sources, including other federal sources, will be coming on line, Beniston added.

“This is a demonstration project,” he said, explaining that it is designed to stabilize neighborhoods that have vacant land.

There may be some purchasing of property involved, but the key focus will be to clean up unkempt and unusable vacant lots by regrading them, adding topsoil where necessary, clearing brush and debris, installing split-rail type fencing to protect the lots from dumping and develop a lot-maintenance system, Beniston said.

It’s a big job that will focus on a single neighborhood at a time, he said. The first targeted location hasn’t been announced, he said.

A major component of the program will have some residents being paid to help maintain the lots that have been returned to usable space, he said.

In other action, the board approved a $77,424 agreement with MS Consultants Inc. to provide engineering services for the creation of a roadway to serve the new Exal Corp. facility adjacent to Salt Springs Road.

The city already has spent $1.4 million of a $5 million Ohio Job Ready Sites grant received a year ago to purchase nearly 70 acres for the Exal project.

The company, which makes aluminum bottles and other containers, is proposing to build a 600,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and 300,000-square-foot warehouse, creating as many as 450 jobs.

gwin@vindy.com