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Youngstown annexes Austintown land
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
City council accepted about 6.4 acres annexed from Austintown for the construction of a B.J. Alan Fireworks Co. store.
The company plans to build a $1.5 million Phantom Fireworks facility on the land, near Meridian and Lanterman roads.
Council members cast their vote Wednesday. Mahoning County commissioners approved the annexation in February, and Austintown trustees don’t oppose the annexation.
The company plans to close a store at the former Greyhound bus station near its downtown Youngstown headquarters.
The new store would employ up to 50 full-time workers during the fireworks peak season. That’s about twice as many employees at the current store.
Also Wednesday, the lawmakers approved a $1 million low-interest loan to MS Consultants.
The architectural, engineering and design firm is building a 6,800-square-foot addition and renovating its 20,000-square-foot building on East Federal Street.
The company, which employs 86, plans to add 10 workers over the next two weeks.
The city provides loans, with a 0.75 percent interest rate, to qualified companies looking to expand or open in Youngstown.
MS would have up to one year to pay off the loan, though the city can require the company to pay the full amount at any time.
The loan needs final approval from the city’s board of control — the mayor, law director and finance director.
Council was supposed to consider legislation to buy the former Paramount Theatre on the corner of West Federal and North Hazel streets for $80,000.
But the finance department didn’t have legislation to the law department in time to place the item on the council agenda.
It will be on the agenda of council’s next meeting, June 16, said city Finance Director David Bozanich.
The city plans to seek about $750,000 from the state to remove asbestos and demolish the building except its facade.
The area will become a parking lot but could be used for outdoor concerts and other entertainment events.
A mural outside the building was vandalized, said Jack Carlton, curator and coordinator of the Murals Project: Museum Without Walls.
Between the vandalism and the city’s plan to buy the 92-year-old building, the murals on the Paramount were removed Wednesday, Carlton said. The city’s connection to Hollywood was the theme of the murals on Paramount that were hung in July 2007.
Members of the organization have hung more than 50 murals downtown.