Former mayor recalls years of struggle, growth in Lowellville

By GRAIG GRAZIOSI

ggraziosi@vindy.com

LOWELLVILLE

At 93 years, former mayor of Lowellville Al Russo is the last living representative of his administration.

During his 16-year tenure as mayor – from 1975 to 1991 – Russo navigated the small riverside village through the steel collapse and contributed to the creation of several still-existing projects, including Lowellville’s senior high-rise public housing project and business development partnership CASTLO.

Long before Russo tried his hand at politics, he joined the Army to fight in World War II. Russo was part of the 1st Cavalry Division, and was one of the last American soldiers to train on horseback before the division restructured to emphasize infantry and light tanks.

His division was to partake in the planned 1945 invasion of Japan, but the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the end of war.

Russo returned to Lowellville and began working at Sharon Steel, where he joined the local union chapter and eventually became the shop president. He stayed in the plant until it closed in the 1960s.

“We actually shut down before Black Monday,” Russo said. “The closures hit us first and before we knew it all the rest of the plants were shutting down.”

Following the collapse of the steel industry, then-state Sen. Harry Meshel approached Russo with the idea to create a partnership between the three communities lining the Mahoning River Valley with the hope of attracting new industries.

“At that time everything was going down in Youngstown. No employment. The mill was dead, Sheet and Tube was dead, Republic was out, Lowellville was dead,” Russo said. “When Harry called me and said, ‘Hey if we can get Campbell and Struthers together and buy the old steel plant between the three of you, it might give us options for future business development.’ We figured what was good for Struthers and Campbell would also be good for Lowellville, so that’s where the idea for CASTLO came from.”

Russo’s eye for development didn’t stop at CASTLO. His ability to endear himself to people who could make things happen and his administration’s frequent success at obtaining state grants provided several opportunities for development.

Still standing on the hill overlooking the Lowellville Rockets’ football field is a white high-rise built in 1979. The tower, Lowellville Park, was created to ensure that the town’s seniors who couldn’t afford to live on their own had decent housing.

“There were a lot of widows in the town back then, and many of them had big, expensive houses. They couldn’t afford to keep them all by themselves. So we knew we needed a place for them to live,” Russo said.

Though the village was initially denied application to the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority for the project in 1968, Russo used his contacts in the state legislature to help him get funding and eventual YMHA approval.

Rita Letourneau, a resident at Lowellville Park, has been there since the towers opened. Originally from New Castle, Pa., she spent much of her adult life in Connecticut until her husband died. She then moved to the Mahoning Valley in search of somewhere to live. When she saw the tower in Lowellville, the village reminded her of the small town living she’d grown accustomed to in Connecticut.

“I would never move from here, it’s been my home. The people have been wonderful, and I’ve had some very good times here,” she said.

Lowellville’s long-running senior bus program also began during Russo’s administration.

“There were a lot of grants available back then, and we found one that would provide us money to buy a minibus,” Russo said. “We immediately thought, ‘Hey that would be a good way of getting our seniors around and getting them out and about,’ so we applied and got the bus. We’ve had one ever since.”

Russo’s administration also oversaw the creation of the Stavich Bike Trail in 1983, a 14-mile paved trail from Struthers to New Castle created through a donation from John Stavich, one of the brothers who began the Calex Corp.

Establishing the trail made Lowellville one of the first communities in Mahoning County to have a dedicated, maintained bike trail.

“Sometimes you get push-back from people when you try something new, but we had a lot of support for that project,” Russo said. “I still walk two or three miles every day on that trail.”

Current Mayor James Iudiciani pointed out that Russo was a mayor of many of the village’s firsts.

“He was the mayor when the village first got cable TV, he oversaw city’s hall’s first renovation since its construction in 1935, and he was the one who built Gazebo Park,” Iudiciani said.

When he isn’t walking the trail, Russo spends his time playing boccie and making his own wine.

“It makes me feel good, seeing so much of what we started back then is still around,” he said. “We’re still going strong here in Lowellville.”