43
NEO regional consortium exec to talk to Mahoning commissioners
YOUNGSTOWN
An executive with a 12-county Northeast Ohio regional consortium will brief the Mahoning County commissioners during their 10 a.m. public meeting today in the county courthouse basement.
The commissioners will hear Hunter Morrison, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium, discuss the Vibrant NEO 2040 Plan.
“The county has been a strong partner in this effort since its inception and, I think, shares our concern to develop a broad framework to understand the dynamics of what’s affecting us all as communities across Northeast Ohio into the future,” Morrison said of Mahoning County and its officials.
The goal of the 2040 plan is to advance the interests of the region by improving the quality of life, improving the connections between communities, welcoming diversity and restoring and protecting the region’s natural resources.
“The goal is to have the information necessary to create a vibrant, sustainable community in the future for Northeast Ohio,” said Anna DeAscentis, a Mahoning County grant application writer, who invited Morrison. “They want to make sure that every county is getting the big picture of what this plan is for,” she said of consortium officials.
NEOSCC, which is a three-year planning effort to revitalize the 12-county region, is largely funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of a new, federal sustainable- communities initiative.
The consortium has 33 members, including the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, which is the Mahoning Valley’s transportation planning agency, Youngstown State University, city of Youngstown, the Trumbull and Mahoning County governments, and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Youngstown.