Press Coverage

A portion of Youngstown’s south side that has gone through a number of changes over the years is getting a new look thanks to an artist with ties to the Valley.

A federal grant of at least $10 million would go a long way toward rehabilitating the U.S. Route 422 corridor from Youngstown into Girard.

A group that is involved in a study to do just that is working toward applying for a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant, said Girard Mayor Jim Melfi, who sat in at a meeting about the grant Aug. 6 at the Trumbull County commissioners’ office.

Also at the meeting were Trumbull County and Youngstown representatives.

A Youngstown neighborhood came together Saturday for Idorafest.

Now in its 4th year, the annual gathering is put on by the Idora Neighborhood Association as a way to celebrate community pride. Held at Glenwood Community Park, the day-long event featured games, prizes, clowns, food, face painting and more.

Over the years, the group and its partners have installed a pavilion and a playground, making the park usable for the community on a daily basis.

The stretch of U.S. Route 422 between Youngstown and Girard once represented one of the busiest sections of a growing Mahoning Valley. Companies like Ohio Leather Works, Unger Brothers Packing and the massive Youngstown Sheet and Tube Brier Hill Works, lined the heavily traveled route. Deindustrialization in the 1970s ended a long era of both economic growth and pollution in the corridor, but left behind all varieties of blight.

What once was a dingy beige building at 2905 Glenwood Ave. that nearly blended in with those surrounding it now stands out. You can’t miss it.