Full slate of improvement projects planned for YSU this summer
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
When the majority of Youngstown State University students are away from campus for the summer, workers are busy on multiple projects involving repairing, replacing or upgrading university facilities.
“We’ve got another busy summer,” Rich White, associate director of planning and construction, said at a university trustees committee meeting last week.
Projects underway total $2.87 million with another $7 million in projects being developed.
Those underway include $1.6 million elevator safety repairs and replacements. Elevators in DeBartolo, Tod and Ward Beecher halls and the Maag Library will be replaced, and the freight elevators in Moser and Bliss halls will be modified as part of the project. It’s part of a project started last year.
Work is underway to replace the roof on Moser Hall. That and the replacements already completed on Tod and Fedor halls total $1.2 million. The $70,000 work to renovate the fourth floor of Meshel Hall nears completion.
Of the projects in development, the M1 parking deck lighting upgrades and the building-system upgrade each total $1.5 million.
The M1, or Wick Avenue, parking deck also will get new elevators, a $600,000 project.
White said the lighting upgrades include installation of LED fixtures which are more energy efficient.
The building upgrades project involves repair and replacement of heating, air conditioning and ventilation, and building automation or mechanical systems across several campus buildings including Moser and Ward Beecher halls.
Classrooms in Cushwa, DeBartolo, Ward Beecher and Moser halls will be upgraded with new flooring, ceilings, lighting, whiteboards in a $1 million project.
Deteriorating steam lines between Meshel and Bliss halls are being replaced, a $900,000 project.
Most of the projects are being completed with state capital funds, although the Meshel Hall renovations and the M1 Parking Deck work is being paid for with local funds and parking-maintenance funds, respectively.