Niles lawmakers give mixed reaction to Regional Chamber's plan to help

NILES

A representative of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber discussed the first steps the organization is taking to try to lure business and industry to the city that has no development plan or outreach in place.

“You don’t have a seat at the table because you’re not organized as a community,” said Sarah Boyarko, chamber senior vice president for economic development, during a council roundtable. “We know what companies are looking for, [and] they won’t come here unless we have properties identified.”

Council approved spending $30,000 last February to contract with the chamber to develop the data on available properties and then conduct an outreach. In her first meeting with council since the contract was signed, Boyarko explained that the chamber has identified 37 properties not listed on a state website and is in the process of mapping them and working on additional information to attract prospective buyers.

“The key to bringing them here is having something to lure them,” Boyarko said. “If you don’t have that information, they won’t waste their time coming here.”

“Nobody’s coming in,” said Michael Lastic, D-at large. “For 10 years, we haven’t gone anywhere.”

One council member, Linda Marchese, D-3rd, was not impressed with Boyarko’s presentation. She said the chamber should be paying more attention to the downtown area and less to the Route 422 corridor, which has Eastwood Mall and the resources of the mall owner, the Cafaro Corp.

But Ryan McNaughton, D-at large, noted “it’s only been two months” since the chamber began working for Niles.

Read more about the meeting in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.