SitemapThe U.S. Senate early Saturday passed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan government funding package, which includes more than $2 million for Mahoning County. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, voted to approve the package that invests in Ohio, increases resources for border security, supports Ohio military installations and helps combat the addiction crisis. U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Cincinnati, was one of 24 senators who voted against the spending package in a session that ended around 2 a.m.
“This bipartisan package supports Ohio military installations, helps get border agents the support they need, and invests in communities across Ohio – from the Great Lakes to Piketon,” Brown said in a news release. “These critical investments will deliver on community projects proposed by Ohioans across the state, and help to do everything from cleaning up Lake Erie to making our communities safer.”
This is the second of two bipartisan funding packages needed to keep the government open. The first bipartisan bill to fund half the government was signed into law on March 9. This new package builds on that work and funds the remainder of the federal government through the rest of the fiscal year. Among the funds coming to Mahoning County is $1.45 million to the OH WOW! Center for Science and Technology in downtown Youngstown to provide advanced project-based learning for training and education in various STEM fields.
Also receiving a large financial boost is the COMPASS Family and Community Services COMPASS Campus of Care on the border of Austintown and Weathersfield townships. The money will be used for the renovation of a building to provide a behavioral health care / adult care / assisted living facilities for individuals living with severe and persistent mental illnesses.
The third recipient of funds from the government spending package is Direction Home of Eastern Ohio in Austintown, which received $239,000 for its Kinship Summer Camp in partnership with Easterseals. The camp’s intent is to provide respite for family members and caregivers, learning opportunities for the elderly and family stabilization.
PREVIOUS FUNDING
Earlier this month, it was announced that more than $22 million in federal funds will be coming to Mahoning and Trumbull counties — as part of another government spending agreement between the U.S. House and Senate — including $6.16 million to resurface the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport’s primary runway and $4.2 million for a waterline in Lordstown. The package, which had more than 6,500 earmarks totaling $12.7 billion, includes several other big-ticket items for Mahoning and Trumbull counties. The Youngstown Air Reserve Station, adjacent to the airport, is receiving $2.5 million from this package for planning and design work for a new fire station. The station is estimated to cost $25 million. The village of Lordstown will get $4.2 million to make improvements to its water distribution system by replacing the Pritchard Ohltown Road water station and installing a redundant 24-inch waterline from Meander Reservoir. The projects at the airport, YARS and Lordstown were the three funded in Trumbull County at a total of $12.86 million. Eight projects in Mahoning County would receive a total of $9.80 million from Congress.
That includes $2.5 million each for Flying HIGH Inc., a Youngstown-based nonprofit, to help with infrastructure needed for housing development in the county, and for the Mahoning Valley Community School in Youngstown for a community learning center on the city’s South Side. The school purchased the former Job and Family Services building at 2026 South Ave. to turn it into a community learning center with plans to include a gymnasium, cafeteria, additional workforce development classrooms, a wellness center, a media center and a child-care facility. Youngstown received $1,284,652 for an interceptor sewer replacement and combined sewer overflow elimination project, $1.2 million to replace waterlines with lead in them and $400,000 for a transportation study for the East Side with a focus on looking at ways to connect it to an Interstate 80 interchange at state Route 304.
Also, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. would get $1.02 million for its ongoing effort to renovate the former Foster Theater on the city’s South Side into housing and businesses.
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