YARS, Youngstown partner to battle blight in the city

YOUNGSTOWN — Members of the Air Force Reserve’s 910th Civil Engineer Squadron, based at nearby Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienn are scheduled to join forces with a city of Youngstown Street Department team to kick off a joint blight removal project in the Taft School neighborhood on the South Side at 9 a.m. Thursday

This kickoff is the start of a larger project between the city and YARS working together to demolish between 10 and 12 vacant, deteriorating structures as part of the Air Force Community Partnership Program, which has been ongoing locally since June 23, 2014.

The AFCPP is designed to identify and develop mutually beneficial partnerships between Air Force installations and surrounding communities.

The joint blight-removal project has been in the works since it was identified as one of the first goals during AFCPP meetings and required extensive efforts between the Air Force Reserve and city officials to coordinate details such as associated costs, project liability and more.

The authority for the 910th to complete the demolition work in Youngstown is granted by a section of the U.S. Code and the Department of Defense Instruction outlining Realistic Military Training Off Federal Real Property.