Brown to visit Valley today

April 10, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Brown

youngstown

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, will appear at 10 am. today outside a condemned former South Side bakery to promote a bill he said would create jobs, rehabilitate vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses, and stabilize neighborhoods.

Brown will appear with community leaders for a news conference outside 1941 Glenwood Ave. in the city’s Idora Neighborhood.

Brown is promoting the Project Rebuild Act, which he said would expand on the bipartisan Neighborhood Stabilization Program by addressing commercial vacancies and leveraging capacity in the private sector.

The PRA would also increase support for land banks that work with communities to buy, hold and redevelop distressed properties in conjunction with a long-term redevelopment strategy.

The PRA was introduced in the U.S. Senate on March 6 as S.B. 2162 and referred to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, of which Brown is a member. A companion bill, H.R. 3502 was introduced in the U.S. House last November.

The Project Rebuild Act is intended as the “next generation” of NSP, which will sunset Sept. 30, 2013, under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, according to a spokeswoman for Sen. Brown. NSP disbursed nearly $7 billion in three rounds. PRA would allocate $15 billion, split between a formula and competitive grants.

Brown will be joined at the media event by DeMaine Kitchen, administrator in the office of Mayor Charles Sammarone; Presley Gillespie, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.; Tony Paglia, vice president for government affairs of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber; and Mary Ruth Lynn, executive director of the Youngstown Playhouse and a member of the Idora Neighborhood Association.

Gillespie said the former bakery, which has two large ovens visible inside, has been vacant for more than five years.

Brown, a Democrat, is being challenged in the Nov. 6 general election by state Treasurer Josh Mandel, who got 63 percent of the vote in the six-candidate March 6 Republican primary.