Local

A $3.4M state grant will go toward demolition of Warren’s long-vacant St. Joseph Riverside Hospital

By Mahoning Matters staff
Gov. Mike DeWine announced Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program grant awards Tuesday at the vacant Westinghouse Electric Products buildings in Mansfield.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program grant awards Tuesday at the vacant Westinghouse Electric Products buildings in Mansfield. (Office of Gov. Mike DeWine)
COLUMBUS

Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted on Tuesday announced grant awards totaling more than $60 million to help communities in 35 Ohio counties clean up contaminated properties for economic development, according to a Tuesday news release.

That includes $4.6 million for projects in Columbiana and Trumbull counties.

More than $3.4 million has been awarded through the new Ohio Brownfield Remediation Program for the county’s land bank to clean up St. Joseph Riverside Hospital in Warren — including petroleum or other underground hazards — and demolish the long-abandoned property.

For years, Warren city officials have wanted to demolish the deteriorating building, which has sat unused since 1996 and become a site for scrappers, vandals, vagrants and pests, the Tribune Chronicle reported in 2020.

The site will be revitalized for residential or commercial and industrial development, according to the release.

In Columbiana County, a $1.8 million grant was awarded to the county’s land bank for revitalization of the Maryland School, a junior high school built in 1954, according to the governor’s office.

Trumbull County’s land bank received $3,878 to assess hazardous substances or petroleum at the former Van Huffel Tube Company, a 135-acre warehouse and manufacturing site, which operated from the 1930s to 1985.

The Ohio Department of Development gave $54.8 million to 37 clean-up projects and $5.5 million to 41 assessment projects as part of the program, the release states.

The brownfield grant program is part of BUILDS Initiative, which supports solutions for water infrastructure improvements, broadband expansion, brownfield redevelopment, the demolition of blighted buildings and more, the release states.

“These hazardous, decaying sites — some of which have been vacant for decades —are barriers to economic growth and community revitalization, but now, we’re going to help breathe new life into these areas,” DeWine is quoted in the release.

In the coming months, nearly $350 million will be invested in total across the state, according to the release.

“More businesses are looking to expand in Ohio, but they need sites that are ready to go immediately,” Husted is quoted in the release.

Properties can be redeveloped to revitalize neighborhoods and attract new economic development in the future, according to the release.

“These grants will have a positive impact in our communities, helping them remove blighted properties and prepare sites for redevelopment., Lydia Mihalik, director of the Ohio Department of Development, is quoted in the release.

This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 2:53 PM.