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Mahoning commissioners review funding options for YDC
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County commissioners met with the Community Improvement Corp. board to review funding options to revitalize the Youngstown Developmental Center.
That 35-acre Mineral Ridge facility was shuttered in June 2017 due to declining clientele in similar state-operated centers across Ohio.
Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti on Thursday said the corporation has about $81,000 remaining, a portion of which could go toward hiring lobbyists to find grant monies to pour into the estimated $2.8 million needed for capital improvements and operating costs. That includes a pending $500,000 grant, said Marty Loney, Western Reserve Port Authority chairman.
“It’s wraparound services for people not only from Mahoning County – it reaches out to Trumbull, Columbiana,” Rimedio-Righetti said. “The people that will be served are the most underserved. ... You have people who are autistic or who have developmental disabilities that are like 45 and 50 [years old]. Their parents are gone. Who’s going to take care of them?”
Several area nonprofits have already committed to providing services for vulnerable populations such as the disabled or elderly at the center, including Alta Behavioral Healthcare, the Youngstown-area YMCA and Compass Family and Community Services, she said.
“We’re really trying to encompass everybody in the Valley that can help, and if there are services that are needed, we’ll be able to provide them for the people of the Mahoning County,” Loney said. “It’s the first time in the state someone would be trying to do something like this. Hopefully, it would become a model for the rest of the state.”
Rimedio-Righetti estimated the new space for social providers could create 125 new jobs.
Commissioners are readying the plan ahead of June 2020, when the state is set to hand off the property to the county, Rimedio-Righetti said.
During a Thursday commissioners board meeting, county Engineer Pat Ginnetti also discussed an approaching fundraiser for blood cancer donor foundation Be the Match, in honor of his late wife, Missy, who survived Hodgkin’s lymphoma – one type of cancer purported to be curable through bone marrow transplants – but later succumbed to a blood clot.
“My wife was big on trying to educate people. She took on the role of trying to do donor drives and raise money for Be the Match. ... We’re trying to continue her legacy and continue to do that.
“Our goal is to try to help somebody in need and, again, continue Missy’s legacy and take some good out of some bad.”
The inaugural Missy Ginetti Hope Gala fundraiser is set for 6 p.m. March 14 at The Lake Club in Poland, 1140 Paulin Road.
Tickets are $125 and include dinner and an open bar. To purchase tickets, visit bethematch.com/hopegala.