City, county highlight upgrades in Brier Hill

By Peter H. Milliken

V&M Star officials were instrumental in the neighborhood effort.

YOUNGSTOWN — Local officials have unveiled a blight removal and neighborhood-improvement effort in Brier Hill and along the U.S. Route 422 business corridor.

Improvements showcased Wednesday by city, Mahoning County and Lien Forward Ohio officials included removal of an unsightly fence and the results of multiple neighborhood trash cleanups and of the ongoing transfer by Lien Forward of almost 40 vacant lots to about 20 individuals and churches, who have pledged to clean up and maintain them.

The initiative began this spring when V&M Star Steel officials suggested to Lien Forward board members a revitalized neighborhood would be significant in the steel-pipe maker’s proposed investment of nearly $1 billion and about 400 new jobs in an expansion of its Youngstown operation.

Lien Forward helps its residential, business, nonprofit and government clients gain clear title to vacant, long-abandoned, tax-delinquent land through the county treasurer’s property-tax lien sales.

Lien Forward is a regional council of governments formed by the county treasurer’s office and Youngstown, whose mission is to return vacant, tax-delinquent property to productive use.

Lien Forward officials met several times with residents, church officials and V&M Star officials to develop a Brier Hill Neighborhood-U.S. Route 422 Corridor Action Plan for improvement of the historic area.

Future action-plan activities include additional transfers of vacant lots to Antioch and Zionhill Baptist churches in Brier Hill and to neighborhood residents who will keep them clean, said Debora Flora, Lien Forward executive director.

The city plans to demolish a former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. office building along Route 422 later this year, said Kim Stefanski, V&M Star’s legal counsel.

V&M operates in part of the former Brier Hill Works of Sheet & Tube. V&M has not made a definite commitment to move forward with its proposed expansion here and is considering other sites for its project.

Stefanski declined to comment on the likelihood of the company expansion’s taking place in Youngstown.

“What you see here is the commitment of a corporation to its neighborhood and to the city in which it operates. That commitment would be here whether or not the project comes,” he said.

“We’re all a part of the community. We want to be good neighbors, and it’s the right thing to do. Our intent is to work with Lien Forward in funding and accelerating the demolition of vacant housing and creating green space,” said Ken Johnson, general manager of Youngstown operations for V&M.

The company wants to improve public safety, reduce crime and improve the appearance of the Route 422 corridor, he said.

“Regardless of the decision that V&M makes in the future regarding that expansion, this action plan and our cooperation will continue. It is not hinging upon V&M’s final decision,” Flora said.

“I would just like to see one older neighborhood that’s really clean and that you would be proud to walk or drive up and down our streets,” said Rollen Smith, a deacon at Zionhill Baptist Church.

“This is just another prime example of what a true partnership is about,” said Youngstown Councilman Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd. “It’s about the several little pieces coming together for the bigger goal, which is to improve the neighborhood.”

County Commissioner John A. McNally IV, a Lien Forward board member, thanked the city street department for its swift removal of the “blighted and haphazard” chain-link fence separating Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (U.S. Route 422) from Oakland Avenue.

In another neighborhood improvement project, Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority recently was awarded a grant of almost $10 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for substantial rehabilitation of the authority’s Brier Hill Annex.

Youngstown and Girard recently reached an agreement under which 191 acres of Girard land needed for the proposed V&M expansion will be annexed to Youngstown. The two cities will share income-tax revenue from V&M workers’ wages and corporate-profit taxes.

milliken@vindy.com

revitalization

Here are some of the successes of the action plan in place to improve the city’s Brier Hill neighborhood:

Transfers in progress of 40 vacant lots to 20 neighborhood stakeholders.

Demolition of abandoned buildings.

Removal of a dilapidated chain-link fence between U.S. Route 422 and Oakland Avenue.

Volunteer litter collections in April and September this year along U.S. Route 422, the 711 Expressway and Oakland Avenue.

Paving of Oakland Avenue from Funston Street to Superior Street.

Source: Lien Forward Ohio