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Valley Foods funding gets nod
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
The city will spend up to $120,000 to replace water and wastewater lines for a company expanding its operations to a vacant building on East Federal Street.
City council approved legislation Wednesday to provide the money to Valley Foods Inc. for improvement work at the former Weatherbee Coat Factory location.
The city’s board of control is expected to give its approval shortly, said city Finance Director David Bozanich, a board member.
Valley Foods wants to have the Weatherbee location, vacant for about 10 years, ready for business as soon as possible, Bozanich said.
The Weatherbee location would be used for food packaging.
Valley Foods will keep its location on East Boardman Street.
The company provides fresh-frozen foods to customers such as school systems and the military.
Valley Foods purchased the property for $226,000 and has made about $300,000 in improvements.
The rear building on the Weatherbee property needs to be demolished, Bozanich said.
The city will seek state funding for that work, he said, and a study will be done to determine the cost.
Also Wednesday, council agreed to pay $75,000 to the PFM Group of Cleveland, in addition to the $92,000 the company is already receiving, for an unfinished study of Youngstown’s water-distribution system and its rates.
The city hired PFM almost two years ago for that study.
The additional money will be used to prioritize the city’s water capital- improvement projects.
The long-awaited study should be done in two to three months, Bozanich said.
The original study, approved by city council in June 2008, was supposed to take three to four months to complete, Bozanich said when PFM was hired.