Neighborhoods

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

On Saturday, January 16, more than 50 volunteers from Tabernacle Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Hope for Renewal, Victory Christian Center, CUP Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Henry, residents, community volunteers, and YNDC boarded and cleaned 21 vacant homes in the Newport neighborhood on Parkcliffe, Clearmont, and Ravenwood Avenues.

Special thanks to Joe Maxx and Marco's Pizza for providing coffee and pizza for the event. 

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

On Monday, January 18, YNDC, YSUScape, Huntington National Bank, Upper North Heights Neighborhood Association, Victory Christian Center, residents, and community volunteers fought blight in eight degree weather on Youngstown's north side.

Volunteers cleaned up 23 vacant homes in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Special thanks to Pizza Joe's​ Federal Plaza, Pizza Hut Belmont Avenue, and Mocha House for food and coffee donations to keep volunteers warm at the event.

Fighting blight one house at a time, volunteers helped the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) board up 20 vacant homes on the city’s north side.

The volunteer effort is YNDC’s way of honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

The event’s organizers say that boarding up the homes is an important part of making the neighborhood a safer place.

“We’re boarding up the houses to secure them to protect them for the elements, to protect neighborhood kids from going in and out of them,” said YNDC Neighborhood Stabilization Director Jack Daugherty.

Volunteer Derrick McDowell said getting involved was an easy decision.

“Your heart goes out, because you can still see the idea of a family still living there. When you look at the community that surrounds these homes, it’s still here, staying, sticking around. Our job is to really give hope,” he said.

 YNDC plans on boarding up more abandoned properties. On February 20, the organization is going to have another work day on the south side of Youngstown.

To see the whole story from WKBN please click here. 

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday is a day off for many in the Valley, but for others it's a chance to give back to the community.

Volunteers were busy cutting bushes and cleaning up properties on Youngstown's north side Monday morning.

They are doing it to honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his teachings.

Anika Jacobs from Neighborhood Revitalization Vista said, "We're working together no matter the color, the race or the neighborhood. Everyone is coming together to do one thing and that's to fight blight."

They're doing more than just cleaning up; they are also boarding up vacant houses.

"There's a lot of crime in these, a lot of drug activity, so we're trying to get them boarded up to keep the community safe," Jacobs said.

Temperatures hovering at around 11 degrees didn't keep the 50 volunteers away from getting up early and doing some hard work. Today alone they'll clean up 30 different homes.

Volunteer Derrick McDowell of Struthers said, "The dedication to be out here, especially for this temperature, really sends a message to this community that as an individual it doesn't matter one house or a hundred, you can make a difference."

Another volunteer from Struthers, Jordan Taylor, said, "We really love our city. We want to make Youngstown a better place. Y.N.D.C. does an awesome job just doing a lot of practical things trying to beautify the neighborhood so anything we can do to come out and lend a hand we're all about it."

In Trumbull County, people were working inside. Habitat For Humanity welcomed a dozen volunteers Monday to rehab two homes in Warren. Some are doing some finishing touches on one home while workers in another are doing some demolition work.

Catlynn Midlick from Habitat said, "It gives families in our community an opportunity to have a decent and affordable place to live."

A family will be able to move into the home late next month. Habitat usually rehabs homes when it's cold and then they'll build new in the spring.

To see the whole story from WFMJ please click here.

With the city stepping up its efforts this year to demolish more vacant structures, it must first know what buildings and houses need to come down and their conditions.

So says Abigail Beniston, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent.

That’s why the Youngs-town Neighborhood Development Corp. is counting and rating all the city’s empty structures with a report expected by the end of March, she said.

The city hasn’t had a count of those structures since 2010, Beniston said.

The estimate is there are 3,500 to 4,500 vacant buildings and houses in the city that need to be demolished, she said.

Since 2010, about 2,400 vacant buildings have come down in Youngstown.

An increase in residential sanitation fees – $10 a month when it’s fully implemented by July – is being used to generate about $2.5 million annually for demolition work. It would fund the demolition of about 250 dilapidated structures annually as well as pay for demolition equipment.

The $10 monthly increase in sanitation fees is being offset by a $10-a-month decrease in residential water fees for city residents.

On Wednesday, city council also agreed to pay the salaries and benefits of Beniston and four other city employees – a housing rehabilitation coordinator, estimator housing coordinator, rehabilitation assistant and the accounting clerk for landlord registration – from the sanitation fund.

The total cost, which also includes department supplies and professional service fees, is about $620,000 annually, said Kyle Miasek, the city’s deputy finance director.

Those expenses were coming out of the city’s general fund, but it’s more appropriate to use sanitation money to pay those employees, Miasek said.

The program will allow the city to catch up on all the needed demolitions in the next six to 10 years, said Finance Director David Bozanich.

Also, council voted to allow the board of control to pay the city’s $50,000 deductible to its insurance company to settle a lawsuit.

Samuel Abutair of Washington, D.C., sued the city in 2014 contending police used excessive force and publicly humiliated him in 2013 when officers wrongfully arrested him for a restaurant robbery he didn’t commit.

He is receiving $72,000 in the settlement with the city, which is not admitting any liability.

In the lawsuit, Abutair said police inflicted cuts and bruises on his face and charged him with obstructing official business in a “purely vindictive prosecution.” A jury acquitted him of that charge.

To see the whole story at Vindy.com please click here.

Volunteers from the community, local organizations and colleges helped fix houses, board up homes and install smoke detectors Monday as part of the annual national Martin Luther King Jr. ''Day of Service."

To read the whole story from Trib Today, please click here. 

Wednesday, January, 27, 2016

On Friday, January 22 the mission to rid the Brownlee Woods neighborhood of a major blight on a neighborhood corridor and at a neighborhood entry point was completed.

The Brownlee Woods Action Team, City of Youngstown Law and Code Enforcement Departments, and YNDC completed a receivership action with the demolition of the blighted nuisance property at 4010 Lemoyne Avenue. The demolition is the result of the receivership filed by the City of Youngstown's Law Department which named YNDC as the receiver to abate the nuisance and demolish the property. Another priority property down! Fight Blight!

Wednesday, January, 27, 2016

In 2016, ten neighborhood action teams will continue work to execute neighborhood action plans with the City of Youngstown, Mahoning County Land Bank, YNDC, and other community partners.

The neighborhood action teams are currently working in the Greater McGuffey, Garden District, Upper West Side, Crandall Park, Pleasant Grove, Powerstown, Rocky Ridge, Brownlee Woods, and Lincoln Knolls neighborhoods. Additionally, a Wick Park action team will begin soon.

In 2015, seven neighborhood action teams worked to execute neighborhood action plans. Some of the highlights of their work include the rehabilitation of 45 properties, 41 homes achieving compliance through code enforcement, 220 homes demolished, 228 houses boarded and cleaned, 99 vacant lots improved, $518,246 in competitive grant funds raised for action plan projects, 3 better block projects held and many other accomplishments. REVITALIZE.

The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley Monday announced the award of more than $1.4 million in grants and distributions for the second half of 2015.

The funds include $167,400 in grants to 24 nonprofit organizations in Mahoning and Trumbull counties that made requests to the philanthropic funds the Community Foundation manages. The remaining $1.3 million was distributed by fund advisers apart from the grant process.

“We are fortunate in the Mahoning Valley to have philanthropists who are committed to making an impact,” said Shari Harrell, president of the Community Foundation. “These individuals, families and businesses enable local organizations to do more to enhance health, education, the arts and many other aspects of our community.”

The Community Foundation and its affiliates hold more than $56 million in assets and distributed more than $1 million in grants during its most recent fiscal year.

The largest grant announced Monday is $35,000 for Hospice of the Valley to expand service it provides under a new Medicare program that pays for both hospice and curative care for qualifying beneficiaries. HOTV recently hired a nurse to coordinate care for 100 beneficiaries this year. These funds were provided by the Hospice Trust of Trumbull County.

A grant of $15,000 was approved for Hope House Visitation Center Inc. in Youngstown, which provides safe areas for supervised visitation, exchange programs, support groups and therapeutic parenting programs. The safe areas support healthy parent-child relationships in situations of divorce, domestic violence, child abuse and substance abuse. These funds were provided by the Kennedy Family Fund and the Delfin Gilbert Fund.

The foundation approved $14,000 for the Struthers City School District to retain a resource officer to provide safety in and around school buildings during school hours and work with outside safety agencies. These funds from the SJK Fund replace funding that was once provided by a federal government grant.

Other grants include:

• $12,750 for Senior Independence to support light therapy, aromatherapy, music and other therapies it provides to late-stage dementia patients (Hospice Trust of Trumbull County).
• $10,000 for SMARTS (Students Motivated by the Arts) to cover costs for building renovation, occupancy and programming leadership for the local arts school relocating to a new building in Youngstown. (John S. and Doris M. Andrews Memorial Fund).
• $10,000 for Mahoning Valley College Access Program Inc. to provide part-time college advisers to Youngstown and Warren high school students. (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $10,000 to Meridian Community Care to pilot a new drug abuse prevention program in Boardman. (Kennedy Family Fund).
• These organizations also received grants from one or a combination of the funds the Community Foundation manages:
• $6,000.00 to Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. for materials and equipment used by AmeriCorps volunteers to board up blighted houses, clean up vacant lots and repair homes (Kennedy Family Fund and First Place Community Fund).
• $5,000.00 to Girl Scouts of North East Ohio for installing Wi-Fi access and landline telephones at Camp Sugarbush in Kinsman (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $5,000.00 to the Greater Western Reserve Council of Boy Scouts of America to support facility operations, scholarships, events and camps (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $5,000.00 to the Youngstown Business Incubator to support renovations to its building at 252 West Boardman St. in Youngstown (First Place Community Fund).
• $5,000.00 for East Side Organizing Project, Inc. to expand a Warren office and offer financial workshops and counseling for senior citizens (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $5,000.00 to the Salvation Army for emergency services for low-income individuals (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $5,000.00 to the Young Women’s Christian Association of Warren for housing it provides in association with Beatitude House for disabled homeless women (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $5,000 to the Millcreek Children’s Center in Youngstown to support the food and nutrition program (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $3,500.00 to Opera Western Reserve for expenses of “The Elixir of Love” in November 2015 (Kennedy Family Fund and Ralph E. & Esther K. Meacham Memorial Fund).
• $3,500 to Big Brothers-Big Sisters of the Mahoning Valley to expand its mentoring program in local schools (First Place Community Fund and Kennedy Family Fund).
• $3,000.00 to the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership for technical assistance and support for beautification projects in Warren neighborhoods (Kennedy Family Fund and First Place Community Fund).
• $2,500.00 to the Children’s Rehabilitation Center in Howland for a new transportation program for infant children in emergency situations (First Place Community Fund).
• $2,500.00 to the Youngstown State University Foundation for the Northeastern Ohio Regional Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $2,500.00 to Millcreek Children’s Center in Youngstown for tutoring fine motor skills, critical thinking, math, language/literacy, science, social studies and social-emotional skills for at-risk children (First Place Community Fund).
• $2,150.00 to Making Kids Count to provide children entering the foster care system with toys, books, toiletries and blankets (Jeff & Tina Wilkins Family Fund).
• $1,500.00 to Altrusa International Foundation of Youngstown to support its “Plant the Seed to Read Book Festival” (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $1,000.00 to the Alzheimer’s Association to support the 36-Hour Day Resource Guide (Kennedy Family Fund).
• $1,000.00 to the Easter Seal Society of Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana Counties to help pay for hearing aids (First Place Community Fund).
• $500 to the Warren Civic Chorus to defray expenses of its annual performances of Handel’s “Messiah” in Warren (Ralph E. & Esther K. Meacham Memorial Fund).

The beneficiaries of the $1.3 million in distributions are listed below.

• Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley
• Angels for Animals, Inc.
• Beaver Creek Wildlife Center
• Blessed Sacrament Parish
• Boardman Local Schools
• Boardman Township Park
• Cardinal Mooney High School
• Children’s Rehabilitation Center
• Columbiana Area Meals on Wheels
• Cortland Community Foundation
• Crown Theatre Productions
• Diabetes Partnership of the Mahoning Valley
• Heartland Christian School
• Henry H. Stambaugh Auditorium Association
• John F. Kennedy High School
• Lamppost Farm
• Mahoning Valley Chorale
• Mahoning Valley College Access Program, Inc.
• Mahoning Valley Historical Society
• Making Kids Count
• Mercy Health Development Foundation
• Midlothian Free Health Clinic
• Mill Creek MetroParks Foundation
• OH WOW! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology
• Philanthropy Ohio
• Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County
• Shepherd’s Foundation
• Sisters of Notre Dame
• Christine Parish School
• The Catholic University of America
• The Penguin Club
• The Youngstown Business Incubator
• The Youngstown Connection
• Jerome’s Poor
• Walsh University
• Youngstown State University
• Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way

To view the whole story from The Business Journal, please click here.

Wednesday, January, 27, 2016

On Monday, January 25, NYO Property Group made a $1,000 donation to YNDC.