Pastor Joe buys Eastwood YMCA
By Jordan Cohen
Pastor Joe’s plans for the facility have not been disclosed.
WARREN — The Warren/Trumbull YMCA has finally found a buyer for its Eastwood Branch in Niles nearly one year to the day it closed the facility. The purchaser: Believers’ Christian Fellowship of Howland.
According to records filed with the Trumbull County auditor, the Schenley Avenue Northeast church paid the YMCA $391,000 for the Youngstown-Warren Road site of nearly 11 acres. The sale was completed last Friday.
“These are tough economic times, and we are very grateful to the church,” said Bill Beinecke, chairman of the YMCA board of trustees. Beinecke said that the money from the sale will help pay off outstanding bank loans, and the balance will be placed in a contingency fund.
Believers’ Christian Fellowship has not yet disclosed its plans for the site. Multiple messages left for its director and senior pastor, the Rev. Joseph A. Cameneti, were not returned.
Cameneti is well-known locally as Pastor Joe, the host of an hourlong television ministry broadcast Sundays on WFMJ-TV.
The YMCA board closed Eastwood on Oct. 1, 2008, after determining that repair costs for the swimming pool were prohibitive. Beinecke said at the time the board believed the 30-year-old Eastwood facility could not compete with the Ralph Infante Wellness Center at Waddell Park in Niles. The center opened earlier this year.
The sale comes at a crucial time for the financially strapped Warren YMCA. It will be launching a fund- raising campaign Oct. 12 after raising $60,000 in its previous campaign last spring. Beinecke disclosed that the board has authorized an engineering study of its remaining facility on High Street in downtown Warren, which was built in 1928.
“The study will determine the direction we will go — whether we should stay where we are or look for another location,” Beinecke said.
Believers’ Christian Fellowship, a nondenominational church, has occupied its current site, a former Howland school, since 1987. Under Cameneti’s direction, the church built a 950-seat sanctuary in 2000. Published reports list its congregational membership at 1,800.