Council OKs final payment to vendor
YOUNGSTOWN
City council fulfilled the last financial obligation necessary to dissolve its contract with the former food-and-beverage vendor at the city-owned Covelli Centre.
At its meeting Wednesday, council approved paying Centerplate $58,928 to cover the remaining inventory of food and beverages left at the center.
Centerplate was the center’s food-and-beverage vendor from October 2005 to this year. Now, JAC Management, the center’s day-to-day management company, has the food-and-beverage contract and, under a new agreement, the city receives 29 percent of food-and-beverage profit instead of the 23 percent.
Since the new agreement took effect four weeks ago, the food-and-beverage vendor has grossed about $120,000, said Mayor Charles Sammarone.
Councilwoman Annie Gillam, D-1st, also said the city should consider using casino-tax money toward the center.
“Through the gambling, we’re expected to have about $3 million. We should put that on Covelli so we can pay it off,” Gillam said.
The mayor said that’s a possibility but was cautious.
“They say $3 million. Until I see it, we don’t have anything,” Sammarone said.
The city will pay $920,000 this year for the center, $335,000 toward the loan principal and about $585,000 in interest. In 2005, the city borrowed $11.9 million to help fund the center’s $45 million construction cost.
In other business, the city accepted a yearlong $52,083 Homeless Outreach and Care Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Erin Bishop, acting city health commissioner, said the grant will pay for a full-time nurse to provide medical care for homeless individuals. During a spot-check one day in January, the health department counted 243 homeless people in the city, she said.
The city is expected to provide a $13,000 match, Bishop said.
The city hasn’t had the program since 2009 because the nurse had left and no one filled the position, she added.
Council members also discussed plans to work with Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services, which received a $680,000 Ohio JFS grant for a summer employment program for young people from low- and moderate-income families.
Sammarone said the city would like to hire about 15 people in the parks department through the program. He said he also has spoken with JFS officials to ensure a supervisor is hired to watch the summer help.
City resident Tom Anderson addressed council and urged them to help fund “Kidz Werkz,” a program organized by Minister Robert Reynolds, a member of Bethel Church of God in Christ of Youngstown, that pays teen boys to mow and landscape Mount Hope Veterans Memorial Park Cemetery on the city’s East Side.
“It has to be shared involvement with the city and individual donations,” Anderson said.