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Heritage study targets Western Reserve
By Denise Dick
By DENISE DICK
youngstowN
Designation as a National Heritage Area would help preserve the stories, cultures and natural resources of the Western Reserve.
In 2006, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17th, of Niles, sponsored legislation authorizing a study to designate northern Ohio’s 14 counties as a National Heritage Area.
A feasibility study of such a designation for the Western Reserve is under way with a draft expected to be presented to Congress this winter.
One of the elements to be considered in determining whether an area earns a national-heritage designation is if the story is “important enough to have played a role in the national story,” said Rory Robinson of the National Park Service.
Robinson gave a presentation about the designation this week to the technical advisory committee of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
Other benefits are providing economic stimulus, enhancing opportunities for education and inspiration and fostering community pride, Robinson said.
Such an effort must be locally managed and driven, he said.
“We’ll be reporting back to Congress on how much support is out there,” Robinson said.
Representatives from several organizations throughout the region sit on a feasibility steering committee. Eastgate, the Mahoning Valley Historical Society and Trubull County Tourism and Information are among them.
Bill Lawson, director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, said such a designation would draw the area closer together as a region.
There are many stories in the region including its architecture, its river watersheds that connect the counties, villages and towns and types of industry, Lawson said.
“The heritage area concept is about making sure a region’s past becomes part of its future plans,” he said.
Mahoning County was assembled from the top five townships in Columbiana County and the bottom 10 in Trumbull.
Youngstown and Poland are where people from other parts of the country would come to buy and take over land to the west, he said.
Stephanie Sferra, executive director of the Trumbull County Tourism and Information Center, said a designation could bring economic-development opportunities too.
She pointed to Akron as an example. In the mid-1990s, the Ohio & Erie Canalway earned a National Heritage Area designation.
Akron is part of that area and, since the designation, has developed bike trails along the river and a baseball stadium.
“They’ve reinvented downtown Akron since they’ve been part of the heritage area,” Sferra said.
More information is available at westernreserve.ning.com.
When evaluating a region for National Heritage Area designation, the National Park Service asks “what is the compelling story that the Western Reserve has to share?” says a brochure created by the committee.
Some aspects of that story are the theme of the Western Reserve as the nation’s town square, “a place where people meet for pursuits of pleasure, business and social reform ...,” it says.
Other themes include migration, transportation, industry, land use and architecture, Lake Erie and social reform and education.