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Youngstown receives award for housing-deconstruction program
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
An organization that promotes government climate protection honored Youngstown with an award for the city’s housing- deconstruction program.
The program is scheduled to cease at the end of the year unless grant money is obtained to keep it going.
The ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, formerly known as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, awarded Youngstown its runner-up honor for midsized cities in its planning process innovation category. The city received the award at the organization’s summit in Washington, D.C., over the weekend.
“We’re honored to be recognized as an example of leadership in government sustainability,” said Steve Novotny, the city’s deconstruction-program coordinator. “Our program is innovative, and it’s good for the community. This award says, ‘We’re doing something right and making progress.’”
But with funding for the program set to expire at the end of the year, deconstruction in Youngstown is in jeopardy.
The city received a $39,000 grant last year from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for deconstruction. Additional money to pay for some of the deconstruction costs came from money the city received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The city submitted another grant request to the EPA and should hear from the agency in October or November, Novotny said. Also, the city is looking at other ways to provide funding for this program, he said.
Deconstruction systematically takes apart a dilapidated house by removing portions of the structure, such as entire wooden floors or chunks of brick, rather than using a traditional wrecking ball.
The city hired US Green Building Materials of Youngstown to deconstruct 16 houses with seven of them already done, Novotny said.
Also, the city hired Premiere Demolition Group of Youngstown to do partial deconstruction of eight other houses with items such as lumber and metal not going to landfill, Novotny said.
So far, the city’s deconstruction plan has struggled to find markets for the items saved using that method.