Banquet-hall operator discusses use for food-service facilities at Oakhill

YOUNGSTOWN — A local banquet-hall operator proposes to use the food-service facilities at Oakhill Renaissance Place as a central kitchen to prepare lunches for area schoolchildren and as a cafeteria to serve breakfast and lunch to Oakhill workers and visitors.

Ross Scianna, president of Antone’s Banquet Center in Boardman, where the school food is now prepared, made the proposal today to the Mahoning County Building Commission.

Scianna said his operation served more than 1,000 children daily in the 2010-2011 school year ending this month and expects that to grow to 5,000 next school year. “We need a larger facility than what we have,” he told the commission.

The operation would bring 50 jobs to Oakhill in its first year there, growing to at least 100 jobs in its second and third years, he said.

“It’s all local. All the money stays in the [Mahoning] Valley. The money that stays in the Valley is spent in the Valley,” he said of his operation.

The commission took his proposal under advisement and voted to prepare specifications to advertise for bids for the use of Oakhill’s food service area.

For the complete story, read Friday's Vindicator and Vindy.com