Ungaro honored for political achievement
Three other community leaders also receive awards
Boardman
As much as the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber luncheon Thursday was about present success in the Mahoning Valley, it also was about the past.
The chamber presented its Chairwoman’s Political Achievement Award to former Youngstown mayor and current Liberty Township Administrator Pat Ungaro, linking the Valley’s current success to several decisions he made as the city’s mayor.
“He charted the course for success in the Valley,” said John Gulas, award presenter and CEO and president of Farmers National Bank.
Gulas also highlighted the current uptick in retail business along the Belmont Avenue corridor in Liberty.
Ungaro began his 13-year run as mayor in 1984, only seven years removed from Black Monday when the first closing of a Youngstown Sheet and Tube plant started a three-year run of mill closings.
Ungaro moved aggressively at buying up abandoned commercial properties in downtown Youngstown and industrial properties along the Salt Springs Road corridor on the West Side, which made way for the industrial parks found there today.
The one mill he did not raze is along U.S. Route 422. He kept the mill standing and offered a controversial 10-year tax abatement to a nonunion steel manufacturer named North Star Steel, which is now known as V&M Star.
“I’m glad I’m alive to see, for all the beatings I took, to see what it is today,” Ungaro said during his acceptance speech.
Ungaro noted the contrasts in attitudes among Valley residents between his tenure and the present.
“Those were challenging times,” he said. “It’s incredible. Today, there’s such a positive energy.”
The chamber also awarded Dr. Rashid Abdu the William G. Lyden Jr. Spirit of the Valley Award. Abdu started the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center; it’s named after his late wife, who died of the disease 20 years ago.
And it honored Richard Dearing, president of Dearing Compressor and Pump Co., and Rebecca Wall, vice president, with the Donald Cagigas Spirit of the Chamber Award.
During Dearing’s expansion over 2011 and 2012, the company hired 100 new workers.
“Our roots and commitment to this community run very, very deep,” Wall said. “We are kicking the rust off this rust belt.”