Ceremony at new park leads events

Staff report

youngstown

The ribbon will be cut at 11:30 a.m. Saturday on Harrison Common, a new park in the historic Smoky Hollow neighborhood adjacent to Youngstown State University.

The park, which includes a brick-paved plaza, a decorative pergola and a historic plat map of the Hollow, is a cornerstone of the Wick District-Smoky Hollow Redevelopment Plan led by Wick Neighbors Inc.

The grand opening ceremony, led by the Rev. Richard Murphy, a member of the Wick Neighbors’ board, is one of many events on and around the YSU campus this weekend.

Other events include YSU’s 13th annual Summer Festival of the Arts, the Smoky Hollow 5K Run and Family Fun Walk, the Tour of the Valley Bike Race and the Youngstown Jazz Festival, which will be the first event to take place at Harrison Common.

Harrison Common is on Walnut Street near the MVR restaurant and across from YSU’s Wick Avenue parking deck in Smoky Hollow, a neighborhood that in the first half of the 20th century was home to ethnic blue-collar families and businesses.

In 2002, YSU and the religious and cultural institutions along Wick Avenue created Wick Neighbors Inc., which developed a plan to revitalize Smoky Hollow. The plan calls for new streets, sidewalks, curbs and pedestrian pathways, new townhouses, condominiums and homes, commercial and retail space and 10 acres of public green space, including Harrison Common.

The park was designed by Behnke Associates Inc. of Cleveland with design approval and oversight from WNI’s Urban Planning and Design Committee, chaired by Murphy. Construction of the Harrison Common was completed by DSV Builders Inc. in fall 2010. Additional features were added this summer.

The project was funded through a $396,000 grant to WNI from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, with support from former State Rep. John Boccieri. The Common was constructed on property owned by the university, and with oversight of YSU’s facilities department.

The Rotary Club of Youngstown contributed more than $40,000 for the construction and lighting of the pergola and the historic plat map in the park’s the northwest corner. The Andrews Foundation also contributed $20,000.

At 6 p.m. jazz festival at the park is free, and it will feature various performers from throughout the region. Patrons are permitted to bring picnic baskets with food and nonalcoholic beverages.