Completion of Mahoning Courthouse restoration delayed

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The $6 million, two-year restoration of the 1911-vintage Mahoning County Courthouse likely will be completed by Oct. 31, a month later than planned, an architect told the county commissioners.

That’s because three more shipments of terra cotta, which is fired clay masonry, are due, with the last one expected to arrive here in mid-September, explained Architect Paul Ricciuti, a consultant to the county.

The replacement terra cotta is coming from Boston Valley Terra Cotta of Orchard Park, N.Y., near Buffalo, one of only two terra cotta makers in the nation.

“The product we’re getting from Boston Valley is unbelievable. It is world class terra cotta,” Ricciuti said Thursday.

“We have done this project with no change orders,” he told the commissioners.

“I think that’s exceptional,” in the case of a 105-year-old building, observed Commissioner Anthony Traficanti.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com