Neighborhoods

A partnership between Huntington Bank and the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. scores a triple whammy of wins for the YNDC, the city and homebuyers looking for a sweet deal.

As Vindicator business writer Kalea Hall reported in a Page 1 story last week, a program at Huntington, in conjunction with the city’s premier neighborhood revitalization agency, waives its lender closing costs for customers purchasing or refinancing a home in low- or moderate-income districts. The costs for the processing, underwriting, appraisal, survey and other fees typically range from $1,500 to $2,500.

That’s not chump change for those straddling the fence over whether to continue to lose thousands of dollars per year on rental costs or to gain personal pride and a lucrative long-term financial investment through homeownership.

Just ask Amanda Cresanto, who had grown tired of paying rent for a property she would never own. The added incentive from Huntington provided “tremendous” help in her decision to purchase a YNDC-revitalized home on Glenwood Avenue in the city.

The program validates the slogan of the 149-year-old, 12,000-employee Columbus-based financial institution: “A bank invested in people.” Huntington has invested heavily in the success of YNDC and the people and community it serves for years. In addition to the closing-costs waiver, Huntington and its employees have rolled up their sleeves in various cleanup blitzes at homes and neighborhoods in Youngstown. Huntington also has sponsored its Side Lot incentive program. In it, select property owners are given gift cards to purchase tools, materials and supplies to improve their lots and beautify neighborhoods.

What’s more, Huntington is not alone. Other Mahoning Valley financial institutions or their charitable foundations – including Charter One, Cortland Banks, Home Savings & Loan, JP Morgan Chase, PNC Bank, Talmer Bank and Trust and others – have invested heavily in funding and program support to advance YNDC’s compassionate and civic- minded mission.

Those investments power success for the often under-recognized but overachieving neighborhood improvement agency and underscore yet again the value of cohesive partnerships between our public and private sectors.

In YNDC’s case, some of that value can be gleaned through a passing glance at its second-quarter 2015 performance report. From April through June, YNDC gained more than $1 million in grants and contracts, activated campaigns in the Glenwood Park, Garden District, Brownlee Woods, Powerstown and other neighborhoods yielding amazing results, and it acquired, rehabilitated or completed work on more than a dozen homes to breathe new vigor into neighborhoods that had been teetering between decay and renewal.

Such tireless work ultimately benefits the city and us all. It improves the aesthetic appeal of once-declining neighborhoods and contributes to the overall health, quality of life and well-being of Youngstown.

We therefore salute Huntington Bank, other Valley financial institutions and all other groups and individuals who have invested their dollars and their determination into helping YNDC expand the renaissance of Youngstown.

To read the full story at vindy.com, click here.

A handful of initiatives focusing on health and wellness for at-risk children in Mahoning and Trumbull counties are getting a financial boost from the William Swanston Charitable Fund.

On July 1, the nonprofit organization announced it would award $321,000 in 2015 grants to 10 programs, including those designed to connect more physically challenged children to adaptive sports and an endeavor aimed at improving Youngstown neighborhoods.

“We are very pleased to be providing resources to aid local leaders in carrying out some very creative initiatives that will create greater opportunities for children to lead healthier, safer and more fulfilling lives,” said Paul M. Dutton, chairman of the board of the William Swanston Charitable Fund.

A partner at Harrington, Hoppe & Mitchell, Dutton has been a trustee for over 30 years, but the fund dates back to 1919.

It was established by Canfield farmer William Swanston, whom Dutton said “bequeathed $100,000 and 100 acres of land in Canfield Township to the former Dollar Savings & Trust Co. (now part of PNC Bank) to establish an orphanage for ‘dependent, neglected and abused children’ in Mahoning County.

“The bank recruited five prominent people in Youngstown to carry out the task, but nothing was accomplished by 1980,” said Dutton. “Former Mahoning County Probate Judge Charles P. Henderson dismissed the former trustees and replaced them with five new ones, including myself. It was his last act on the bench.”

Since orphanages no longer existed in 1980 and Mahoning County Children Services was responsible for overseeing the housing and care of such children, Dutton said the trustees purchased and renovated the former Kennedy School in Youngstown.

“We leased the building to children services and put the rest of the money into a charitable fund to be used to help ‘dependent, neglected and abused children.’

“This was around 1983 or 84 and we have been distributing the money annually since that time.”

Dutton said in 2010 the William Swanston Charitable Fund affiliated with the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley and expanded its jurisdiction to include Trumbull County.

There are currently seven trustees, including three from Trumbull County.

“We have become much more proactive,” said Dutton. “We don’t simply react to requests for funding, but as a group decide where to focus our efforts.”

This year the trustees awarded $25,000 to the nonprofit Adaptive Sports Program of Ohio to buy more equipment and expand its outreach activities to Trumbull County.

“Adaptive sports programs are excellent for building physical health and self-esteem, but they are very expensive and many families cannot afford the cost of such equipment,” said Dutton.

Based in Wooster, the organization offers a host of competitive and recreational adaptive sports programs ranging from wheelchair basketball to track in many cities, including Akron, Youngstown and Medina, to promote the health and wellness of kids and adults with physical disabilities.

“We started our programs in Youngstown in 2014 with sled hockey and we have branched out in the Mahoning Valley quite a bit,” said Lisa Followay, executive director and founder of Adaptive Sports Program of Ohio. “We are very unique. No other organization offers these types of programs in the Mahoning/Trumbull county area.

“We rent existing facilities to hold the sporting events to keep costs down but we do provide adaptive equipment which is very expensive.”

Followay said the grant money would cover the cost of expanding its offerings to those in Trumbull County.

“Sports can be so empowering,” said Followay. “Yet our most vulnerable population often does not have the access. We’re so excited that the Swanston fund is helping us to impact the lives of individuals with physical disabilities.”

Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Howland also received a $12,000 grant. The center is expanding its year-old “Investing in Fitness for the Physically Challenged” initiative to include more exercise opportunities at the Howland center and off-site.

Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation Executive Director Ian Beniston said $32,000 in Swanston funding would allow the organization to move forward with plans to set up four test sites for the “Better Block” program.

“Better Block” is already being used in cities around the country, including Cleveland and Akron, to transform streets into more inviting and pedestrian-friendly areas.

“The general idea is to take distressed corridors and breathe new life into them by creating spaces where people want to walk, bike, eat, socialize and activate vacant space,” said Beniston.

Two daylong festivals are expected to take place late this summer or early fall in Youngstown that will temporarily change traffic flow and feature bicycle lanes, larger sidewalks, plantings, outdoor eating, health fair activities, kids’ games, healthy cooking demonstrations and entertainment.

One event is tentatively scheduled for Mahoning Avenue in the area of Steel Street and Milton Avenue. The other is expected to take place at Midlothian Boulevard between Sheridan Road and Irma Street. Two other locations on the north and east sides of the city are being identified for the spring of 2016.

Dutton said the idea for Better Block actually came from last year’s Innovations Conference held in November 2014 at the D.D. and Velma Davis Education & Visitor Center of Mill Creek MetroParks. Sponsored by the William Swanston Charitable Fund, the conference brings in speakers from around the country to discuss best practices for improving the lives of at-risk children.

“Last year, we had a speaker from the Boston area who discussed how to make urban environments more pedestrian friendly, which led to Youngstown’s Better Block idea,” said Dutton.

”We would not be able to do any of these events without the Swanston grant,” said Beniston. “There has been significant work done to restore and improve housing in many neighborhoods. These events should increase the momentum of commercial development, hopefully giving rise to new businesses and a more active and healthy public realm that will replace the empty space.”

In addition, Akron Children’s Hospital received $150,000 to continue its Mahoning Valley Healthy Kids Coalition initiative, which got underway in 2014.

The program began after the hospital received a $150,000 grant from the fund last year.

“The mission of the Mahoning Valley Healthy Kids Coalition is to create healthy lifestyles and thereby healthy futures for children in Mahoning and Trumbull counties through a comprehensive program focusing on prevention, intervention and awareness initiatives with both clinical and behavioral outcomes,” said JoAnn Stock, director of development for Akron Children’s Hospital.

The coalition partners include preschools, school systems and libraries in Mahoning and Trumbull counties as well as the Mahoning and Trumbull boards of health.

“We are grateful for the continued support of the William Swanston Charitable Fund and are honored to carry on the legacy of caring for the children of our community created by Mr. Swanston through his estate plan,” said Stock. “The generosity and foresight of donors such as Mr. Swanston emphasizes the impact that planned giving can have on the quality of life for future generations.”

Mercy Health Foundation Mahoning Valley was given $25,000 to support the second year of its Fresh Start program, the newest component of its Resource Mothers initiative, which works to provide prenatal and early childhood care and to prevent childhood obesity.

“We started our Resource Mothers program twelve years ago,” said Crystal Jones, grant director at Mercy Health Foundation. “We work with low-income at-risk women during the prenatal period to ensure they receive the care they need to deliver a healthy baby,” said Jones. “Once the infant is born we strive to make sure the child leads a healthier life by making sure the child receives the proper immunizations and other needed care.”

In 2014, the foundation began its Fresh Start program after receiving a $40,000 grant from the William Swanston Charitable Fund. The goal of Fresh Start is to teach young mothers how to obtain and prepare healthy food.

“Eating right is a major part of ensuring that a family has a healthy life. Right now Ohio is 50 out of 50 in the number of African Americans who die before their first year of birth,” said Jones. “Our Resource Mothers program will not only help to reverse that trend but will ensure the long-term health of families.”

The grant money is also being used to cover the addition of a part-time mentor and educator.

“This allows us to increase the number of women and children enrolled in the program,” said Jones.

Additionally, $40,000 was presented to Warren City Schools to continue the second part of the Warren Fitness Challenge; Compass Family & Community Services received $20,000 for its Daybreak Youth Crisis Shelter (10-bed, 24-hour emergency shelter for children and teenagers); Children’s Hunger Alliance was awarded $10,000 for its after-school food program at 11 sites in Youngstown and the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership got $2,000 for its Giving Tree Garden (community garden used to educate children in Warren’s Garden District Neighborhood).

“Each of these programs addresses the harsh challenges confronting many at-risk children in our community,” said Dutton. “We love what we are doing and hopefully are making a difference in the lives of at-risk children in the Mahoning Valley.”

To read the full story from Akron Legal News, click here.

The city’s Board of Control this morning will approve an agreement with the Air Force Reserve’s 910th Civil Engineer Squadron to collaborate on a blight removal project in the city.

Members of the engineering squadron, based at Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna Township, will kick off the project in the Taft Elementary School neighborhood. As many as 12 vacant, deteriorating structures are to be demolished through the project.

City officials and leadership of the 910th Airlift Wing are expected to sign the project memorandum of understanding following the Board of Control meeting today.

The project has been in the works since it was identified as one of the first goals during meetings of the Air Force Community Partnership Program. Begun in June 2013, the program is designed to develop mutually beneficial partnerships between Air Force installations and surrounding communities.

The authority for the 910th to complete the demolition work in Youngstown is granted by a section of the U.S. Code and the Department of Defense Instruction outlining Realistic Military Training Off Federal Real Property. The project required meetings and required extensive efforts between the Air Force Reserve and city officials to coordinate details such as associated costs and project liability.

Col. James Dignan, 910th Airlift Wing commander, called the project a “win-win” for the city and the 910th.

“Our citizen airmen will receive real-world training they require to do their jobs anywhere in the world right here in our own backyard,” Dignan said. “And the city is able to have access to Air Force Reserve resources to help them battle blight in Youngstown by demolishing these properties.”

To read the full story from the Business Journal, click here.

The city of Youngstown is going to get some help with its demolition program and soon other local communities may be getting help with their own projects.

On Tuesday morning, Youngstown Mayor John McNally signed a new “memorandum of understanding” with Col. James Dignan, commander of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, to allow reservists with the base in Vienna to help with public works efforts.

Their first mission will be to tear down a dozen blighted homes near Taft Elementary on the city’s south side.

“About 85 to 90 percent of those students walk to school on a daily basis. This will help clean up their neighborhoods a little bit,” McNally said.

“Not only do we get the training benefit of getting out there but it also puts my airmen out in their homes in their areas. They are from Youngstown. They are from Warren. They are from Cleveland. Get them out there working, getting folks to see that this is an asset to have an air reserve station out here,” Dignan said.

The demolition work should begin later this week and take about a month to complete. But Youngtown officials said other local projects are in the works for the months to come and that similar agreements could be put together in other local communities.

“We think it is a unique collaboration. It is, as far as we know, the first in the country where a municipality is working with a local armed forces base or station on some quality of life issues,” McNally said.

While the airmen will use city machinery and equipment, the work will be done without labor costs to local taxpayers. Both sides said the hardest part was proving to the federal government that the city had the authority to tear down the homes and no local civilians would be losing their jobs in the process.

“It took a little bit of time to get the lawyers on both sides of the fence to understand what we were trying to do and why it was so important,” McNally said.

For those pushing to keep the Youngstown Air Reserve Station operational, the new agreement could help keep the station off the radar whenever Congress calls together future Base Realignment Commissions.

“It is going to come. It is just a question of when. And we need to be prepared. That base is so important to this area. And we have to keep fighting for it,” State Rep. Sean O’Brien, D-Hubbard, said.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

The city finalized an agreement with the Youngstown Air Reserve Station that will start with the demolition of 12 vacant structures and could evolve into an effort to have reservists do much more in Youngstown.

About a half-dozen reservists will demolish one of the houses around Taft Elementary School on Thursday, and do the rest next month, said Col. James Dignan, commander of the 910th Airlift Wing at the reserve station in Vienna.

The city is providing the materials, tools, equipment and supervision for the reservists.

“This is something quite unique,” Dignan said. “It’s a win-win as our reservists get real-world training while helping the city demolish these structures.”

Taft is on the South Side with the demolition work done around the school on Boston and Avondale avenues.

“There are more than 90 children who walk to Taft,” said Mayor John A. McNally, chairman of the board of control. “It will be good to remove the blight.”

The commander and the city board of control signed an agreement Tuesday to have reservists do various neighborhood blight-removal projects in Youngstown.

“We’d like to be able to expand the program in the city,” McNally said. “Certainly the South Side area has a lot of demolition needs.”

McNally said he would next like the reservists to install stop signs and street signs, particularly on the North Side. There are about 600 street signs that need to be installed, he said.

“These small projects are important to citizens,” McNally said. “This is a good program and it will help the community.”

To read the full story at Vindy.com, click here.

Air Force Col. James Dignan already is fielding calls from around the country about a soon-to-be-launched initiative that would Air Force reservists to work by helping tear down blighted houses in a city neighborhood.

About a dozen blighted properties will be razed through the program that involves members of the Air Force Reserve 910th Civil Engineer Squadron and the city, said Abigail Beniston, code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent for Youngstown.

Representatives of the city and Youngtown Air Reserve Station, where the airlift wing is based, signed a memorandum of understanding with the city Board of Control at its special meeting Tuesday morning.

Through the program, the reservist civil engineers will work with the city public works department to demolish the 12 blighted properties on East Avondale and East Boston avenues near Taft Elementary School. The initiative is part of the Air Force Community Partnership Program, an effort to identify collaborations between Air Force installations and their surrounding communities.

“Nothing quite like this” had been done or attempted, said Dignan, commander of the 910th Airlift Wing. “We have folks that have approached us about how we got this approval through. We’ve heard from folks as far away as Alabama and Arkansas.”

“[Dignan] wants the Air Reserve Station to be more involved in the community, not only in Youngstown but in Warren, so he’s been leading this community effort,” Mayor John McNally said. Most people aren’t aware of air base activities because the Air Force isn’t part of their daily lives, he said.

The city benefits by having additional manpower to take down nuisance properties and the reservists get training on demolition equipment the city demolition department has. Otherwise they likely wouldn’t have access to it.

Following a kickoff scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday, the program will get underway in August, Beniston said.

The Taft school neighborhood was selected because “a large number” of its students walk to it. “So it was very important to the mayor to make sure that we clean up the area around the school so that it’s safe when those children are going to and from the building,” she said.

State Reps. Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-58 Youngstown, and Sean O’Brien, D-63 Bazetta Township, both at the meeting, hailed the project as being the first of its kind.

“I’m happy to see this collaboration. It’s exciting that we’re first in the nation. It’s groundbreaking,” Lepore-Hagan remarked.

“It’s a great opportunity,” O’Brien said.

The demolition project is just one initiative that has emerged from the community partnerships program, Dignan said. The program was launched in June 2014 locally.

First responders from more than 20 communities have participated in a training exercise at the air base that included a simulated rescue from a grain bin, Dignan said. The base is also working on an agreement to allow medical readiness training for reservists in hospitals in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, he said. “So they get realistic training that directly applies to their reserve skill sets,” he remarked.

Youngstown officials envision further projects involving 910th airmen and the public works department, such as hanging street signs.

“We all want to see how this first one goes,” McNally said.

To read the full story from the Business Journal, click here.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

On Saturday, July 18th, volunteers from Victory Christian Center, Idora Neighborhood Association, Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, and AmeriCorps VISTA boarded up 22 vacant homes in the Fosterville neighborhood.

Volunteers also assisted with a YNDC vacant home rehabilitation project by demolishing kitchen and bathrooms walls and floors to be replaced during the rehabilitation. REVITALIZE.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Since the creation of the Taft Elementary School Micro Plan in October 2014, much work has been accomplished in a short time.

The plan identified priorities for improving conditions for both residents and students, including addressing blighted homes, deteriorated infrastructure, and safety concerns. Soon after the plan's completion, nearby residents and volunteers came together on Martin Luther King Day in January 2015, to clean up and secure 13 vacant properties immediately around the school. Throughout the winter, YNDC staff collaborated with the Youngstown City School District, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, and City of Youngstown departments to prepare a grant application to ODOT's Safe Routes to School program, which funds infrastructure improvements near schools to increase safety and encourage students to walk and bike to school. The city's application was approved for $200,000 and improvements will be made in 2018. As part of the program, the City's Health Department gave a safety presentation to students and bicycle helmets, provided by ODOT, were distributed to students on National Walk and Bike to School Day. The school operates a 4H program, which received funding from the Raymond John Wean Foundation's Neighborhood SUCCESS Grant program to transform a vacant lot across from the school into a community garden and during the spring, YNDC's AmeriCorps VISTA members worked with the 4H club to get the garden ready for planting. In order to address blighted homes around the school, the City formed an innovative partnership with the 910 Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve to demolish 12 abandoned structures. This partnership is not only the first of its kind in Youngstown, but likely the first in the nation.

Call it a military fight against blight.

Members of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station’s (YARS) Civil Engineering squadron are tearing down blighted homes on the south side of Youngstown as part of training exercises.

“There’s nothing quite like this in the Air Force Community Partnership Program,” said Col. James Dignan of the YARS. “We get to train qualified airmen comfortable operating heavy machinery. The city gets free labor. They provide the equipment and supervision. And together we’re taking houses down.”

The City of Youngstown and YARS are teaming up to remove 17 homes in the area around Taft Elementary School.

“It’s very important to the mayor and the city to make sure that all of the children are safe on their route to school,” said Abigail Beniston of Youngstown’s Code Enforcement & Blight Remediation.

At least one resident said the abandoned properties have attracted criminals.

“They would come through there and hang out on these corners instead of going home like they are supposed to,” said resident Jerry Hughes, who has lived in the area for more than 15 years. “They would come through here and hang out on these corners instead of going home like they are supposed to. We’ve caught them throwing rocks at the house.”

The city, YARS and The Pentagon worked for more than a year to get this program in place.

“Getting rid of slum property like this is going to make this a safer area,” said Youngstown 7th Ward Councilman member John R. Swierz.

Swierz stood in front of a home which had a front and back foundation starting to crumble.

“It’s sad to see this house go,” Hughes said. “But I like the idea of them tearing down the abandoned houses.”

Jerry Hughes has lived in the neighborhood around Taft Elementary for more than 15 years.

He’ll be the first to tell you… Vacant homes are a big problem around here.

To see the full story from WKBN, click here.

Jerry Hughes has lived in his East Lucius Avenue home for about 16 years.

Thursday morning he sat in a lawn chair watching as an excavator rendered the vacant house a few doors down to rubble.

“It’s good that they’re tearing down abandoned houses, but it’s sad because that was a beautiful house,” Hughes said.

He was last in it when its last renters lived there about eight years ago,

The house at 585 E. Lucius is the first of 12 in the Taft Elementary School neighborhood that will be demolished through a partnership between the city and the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna.

Patty Wilson, who lives across the street, agreed that the house being demolished Thursday used to be a nice one.

“I hoped someone would fix it up and move in,” she said.

But Councilman John R. Swierz, D-7th, said the inside of the house was in bad shape and the windows had been boarded up.

All of the houses slated for demolition are between East Boston and East Avondale avenues on the city’s South Side.

“Taft Elementary School is in this neighborhood, and probably 90 percent of them walk to school,” Swierz said.

Demolishing the houses will make that journey safer, he said.

The reservists, members of the 910th’s Civil Engineer Squadron, benefit from the training, said Col. James Dignan, the airlift wing’s commander.

City employees provide guidance as the reservists operate the equipment.

The colonel said reservists benefit from the real-life experience.

“It’s a lot better than what we call moving dirt,” he said.

Both Dignan and Abigail Beniston, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent, said the agreement between the two entities took a long time to finalize because of all of the levels of government that needed to approve it. Dignan said the agreement had to be approved by the Pentagon.

Swierz hopes the neighborhood block watch puts the lot to use.

“I’d love to see it turned into a community garden,” he said.

To read the full story at Vindy.com, click here.