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Landscaping at downtown Youngstown location could start as early as today
YOUNGSTOWN
Landscaping work in front of a downtown parking lot where the Paramount Theatre once stood may finally get started today.
The city’s board of control voted Thursday to pay $19,292 to Executive Landscaping, a Vienna company, to do the work. The project’s designs need to be approved by the city’s design-review committee, which will meet Tuesday and already has reviewed the proposal.
The work was supposed to be done months ago, but the project to demolish the former theater and turn it into a 24-vehicle parking lot has been plagued by delays. The work originally was to be done in September 2013, but a contractor took longer than anticipated and then had to stop work because of the weather. The lot wasn’t striped until May.
The lot cannot be opened until the landscaping on West Federal Street is finished.
The company may start preparation work as soon as today and no later than Tuesday, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department.
The project should be finished a week or two after it starts, Shasho said.
The work includes concrete bricks, mulch, plants and installation of a fence.
What’s left to be decided is seating, but whatever the decision, it won’t impact the opening of the parking lot, said Shasho, a DRC member.
The city originally had asked for two metal, six-seat tables with umbrellas, but they were too expensive, and DRC members didn’t like them.
There was a consensus among DRC members last month to consider a couple of benches. A final decision is likely at its Tuesday meeting.
The Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corp., a downtown property-development agency, was to start a 20-year lease for $100 a year on or before June 1 to operate the parking lot. The agency is ready, but can’t open the lot until the city’s landscaping work is done.