Courthouse restoration cost a pittance of stimulus fund

To put the $10 million needed to restore the 100-year-old Mahoning County Courthouse in perspective, the amount is 0.0012 percent of the $787 billion economic stimulus fund that was created when President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law in February 2009. Or, the $10 million is 0.0042 percent of the $236.1 billion that will still be unspent after this summer’s construction period.

We offer that perspective because of a comment made this week by J. Kenneth Carano, regional director for the Office of the Governor, regarding the county’s application for stimulus money to pay the tab for restoring the crumbling courthouse: “We were a little late and didn’t really fit all the issues.”

And they wonder why there is such cynicism about government.

We aren’t talking billions, or even hundreds of millions to ensure that the Mahoning Valley’s history is preserved. We’re talking a pittance, a drop in the bucket, a blip on the radar screen of federal government spending.

Yet, county commissioners David Ludt, Anthony Traficanti and John McNally are being forced through a bureaucratic maze to get the money to save this century-old landmark. It is always risky to play the partisan political card, but it seems that’s what this predominantly Democratic county must do to get the attention of Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, whose re-election bid this year is a toss-up against a virtual unknown Republican, former Congressman John Kasich

Playing politics is also necessary to get the attention of Democratic President Obama and the Democratic controlled Congress. With Democrats bracing for a possible loss of the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, every Democratic vote will be needed in November to prevent a bloodbath.

The $10 million would buy a lot of goodwill from a region that has long supported Democratic candidates, specially at the state and national levels.

County’s strained budget

It is not an exaggeration to say that the courthouse is on borrowed time. As each day passes, the situation gets more precarious. On Wednesday, commissioners Ludt, Traficanti and McNally voted to reallocate $177,000 from the county’s already strained budget to remove the 15-foot by 40-foot statue that sits atop the courthouse. The structure is made up of three figures and weighs two tons. The only support it has is a pedestal weakened by corroding steel-support beams.

The removal of the statue follows the removal of loose, overhanging 800-pound granite cornerstones from the rooftop level of the colonnade. Both sides of the colonnade at the front of the courthouse have been cordoned off.

A report from restoration architect Robert Mastriana on an exterior facade analysis conducted last summer by his 4M Co. of Boardman and AmeriSeal Restoration details the extent of the deterioration. 4M Co. was involved in the restoration of the interior of the courthouse more than two decades ago.

Mastriana has identified four phases of exterior work that would be covered by the $10 million.

In the overall scheme of things, it’s a small price to pay for saving a piece of the Valley’s history. Gov. Strickland and President Obama wouldn’t even break a sweat coming up with the money.