Mahoning commissioners eyeing health care, business development in 2020
YOUNGSTOWN — More opportunities for local health care, business development and emergency response are what county officials see on the horizon in 2020.
As 2019 drew to a close, Mahoning County department heads reviewed the past year’s highlights and looked ahead to the new year.
Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti said foremost is a $1.5-million plan to repopulate the Youngstown Developmental Center in Mineral Ridge, a 35-acre campus for mental health and disabled care shuttered by the state in 2017.
The county must assume ownership of the facility by the end of June, or it reverts back to the state. Officials recently got the go-ahead from Austintown Township zoning officials and are now assessing the property’s code-worthiness alongside the Western Reserve Port Authority — which is managing the property — and a wide array of local health care providers that have tentatively agreed to move into the space.
Rimedio-Righetti said Tuesday she’s confident state legislators will come through with the $1.5-million in state capital funding needed to resurrect the facility that was once home to nearly 100 mentally ill or developmentally disabled patients who have since had to seek services elsewhere — in some cases, hours away from their families.
She added Gov. Mike DeWine told her that he is “committed to the project.”
Commissioners have yet to review a proposal to designate the Southern Park Mall as a Community Entertainment District, approved Monday by Boardman Township trustees, nor a 15-year, complete tax abatement on redevelopment there.
Paired with a proposal to create a Joint Economic Development District, the agreements offer the mall’s owner, Washington Prime Group of Columbus, and local taxing bodies various economic development tools like the ability to attain liquor licenses or levy income taxes on new employees working in the district.
“We will do our due diligence. We are not rubber-stamping anything,” Rimedio-Righetti said. “We have to meet with them and discuss things in more detail.
“Commissioners are very aware of what we need here to build our tax base, to keep our people and our young people here in Mahoning County,” she said.
At the commissioners’ last meeting of 2019, Jeffrey Uroseva, the county’s chief building official, said the county saw $227 million in new construction in 2019.
Anna DeAscentis, the county’s grant manager, said homeowners received more than $762,000 in federal relief following the May 28 storm and subsequent flooding, which was declared a federal disaster in July. Businesses received more than $3 million in low-interest loans.
More than 995 people registered for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, DeAscentis said.
The storm created weeks of damage assessment work for the county’s Emergency Management Agency, and prompted numerous emergency responses, including from Cardinal Joint Fire District, which fielded boats to rescue residents trapped in their apartments by rising water.
This year, officials intend to boost the county’s fire response by dispatching through the county Sheriff’s Office’s new digital radio system. Under the current system, emergency calls are routed to the local agency, which can delay response.
Coitsville Fire Chief George Brown has said the outdated system endangers residents.
“What we’re trying to avoid is some of the transfers,” Audrey Tillis, commissioners executive director, told Mahoning Matters. “There’s going to be a lot of connectivity between public safety. There’s going to be a lot more reliable information, a lot faster information.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 5:25 AM with the headline "Mahoning commissioners eyeing health care, business development in 2020."