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Youngstown committee OKs designs for downtown YMCA, soup kitchen
YOUNGSTOWN
The city’s Design Review Committee approved exterior designs for a proposed $5 million renovation of the Central YMCA and for construction of a $750,000 soup kitchen, both downtown.
The YMCA, located at 17 N. Champion St., will start its renovation work in the spring with the project taking nine to 12 months to complete, Patrick Lankey, project architect with Strollo Architects, which is designing the project, told the committee Tuesday.
The DRC has authority over exterior work done to structures in the city’s downtown and nearby areas.
The Y plans to split its main gymnasium in two with one half being a cardio exercise area, Lankey said. The Y would replace the bricks on that part of the building with glass windows, he said.
Besides the windows, the other exterior work includes replacing the wall to its concrete ramp at its front entrance with a metal railing.
The Y will have a statement next Wednesday updating its fundraising efforts and providing more details about the improvement work at the 102-year-old building, Lankey said.
The committee also approved a project at 551 Mahoning Ave. to construct Skip’s Cafe, a soup kitchen.
Brice Jackson, project manager for Cocca Development Ltd., said the work would hopefully start in the spring and take about three to four months to complete if everything goes according to plan.
A 16,000-square-foot, long-vacant warehouse structure at the 1-acre site was demolished about a month ago with debris still being hauled away.
An anonymous donor gave $750,000 to the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley to construct the new facility to be run by Ralph “Skip” Barone. He resigned in November as the kitchen manager at the St. Vincent de Paul Society kitchen after a falling out with St. Vincent officials.
After Barone left, the kitchen closed for lunch for five days. The kitchen primarily provides food to the working poor and homeless.
The problems led to the resignations of the society’s president, vice president, secretary and treasurer a month later.
The donation will be used to build a 6,560-square-foot food pantry that will serve lunch daily, Jackson said.
The new facility will have seating for 200 and 33 parking spots, mostly for volunteers, he said.