V&M expansion project needs Youngstown to be at its best

It was not an auspicious beginning for a showcase economic development project that has even attracted the attention of the president of the United States.

When the city of Youngstown opened bids recently for the rail-relocation phase of the $650 million expansion of V&M Star, its estimate of the cost turned out to be so wrong that new bids will have to be solicited. It’s a good thing that national reporters who accompanied President Barack Obama on his visit to V&M’s plant in Youngstown in mid-May are now preoccupied with the Gulf oil spill. Otherwise, there may have been stories about the ineptness of local government in responding to a major commitment by V&M’s French parent, Vallourec, to build a state-of-the-art steel pipe-making plant adjacent to its existing facility.

As it is, the comment from Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public works department, about the hiccup, is a deja vu moment that the administration of Mayor Jay Williams certainly can’t enjoy.

“It looks like the price of rail is more than we expected,” Shasho said, referring to the fact that the $13.5 million cost estimate wasn’t close to the four bids received. The lowest was $18.1 million, while the highest came in at $20.2 million.

Given that the money for the rail-relocation phase is to come out of the $19 million Youngstown received from the federal stimulus initiative, the city is in a real bind. The federal money is to be used for site preparation work. Shasho said that he and his staff were reviewing the bid specifications and the bids that were received, but he acknowledged that seeking new proposals is the most likely course of action.

He also conceded that the scope of work may have to be reduced. City officials were to meet with V&M Star and Ohio Department of Transportation officials to discuss possible solutions to the problem, but the fact remains that the Williams administration dropped the ball — again.

Missed opportunity

It was just six months ago that the city of Youngstown, as the lead in a collaborative of local communities, submitted a flawed proposal to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for federal dollars. The collaborative had sought $32.4 million from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which President Obama has touted as a key initiative for helping economically distressed communities recover, redevelop and create jobs.

The Youngstown-directed application was reviewed by two independent evaluators in HUD who came to the same conclusion: It failed to make the grade.

The “we didn’t think ...” explanation from those involved in developing the proposal that lacked key ingredients has the same feel as Deputy Director Shasho’s “... is more than we expected.”

The admission of a lack of knowledge is not comforting. Taxpayers expect those in government to have a certain level of competency — total competence in government is an oxymoron — when it comes to handling major projects.

Youngstown, which continues to have one the highest unemployment rates in the state of Ohio, can ill-afford to give the impression that it doesn’t know what it’s doing.