CASTLO News!

"Ohio EPA Covenant Energizes CASTLO"

~ January 15, 2009, Hometown Journal

 
STRUTHERS – When William D. DeCicco, executive director of CASTLO Community Improvement Corporation, reflects on 2008, what pleases him most is the clean bill of health the CASTLO Industrial Park received from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in November.  The 120-acre park, located in downtown Struthers, received a Covenant Not to Sue (CNS) for a vacant 43-acre parcel that was once the former Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company’s (YS&T) materials storage yard located at the eastern portion of CASTLO’s property, thus eliminating the final environmental hurdle to that parcel’s full development.

 

The timing is ideal because “the 12 buildings on the park’s western acreage are essentially full,” DeCicco explains, so this opens a new avenue for future jobs and economic growth.  Per CASTLO’s master plan, the materials yard space can support either one large building or the possible construction of up to six modest-sized structures, and the site has existing railroad access.

  

A nationally recognized example of successful brownfield (under-utilized industrial property) reclamation, the park has only a few suspect areas remaining.  Those will be identified by a Phase II environmental study in progress and recently funded by a Clean Ohio Assistance Fund grant nearing completion that DeCicco acknowledges will identify additional remediation work necessary on the former steel mill property.  Also, a decision from the United States Environmental Protection Agency is expected late this spring on a $200,000 grant application recently submitted by the city of Struthers on CASTLO’s behalf to remove five abandoned tanks from the site’s steel-making days and also abate any soil contamination issues the tanks may have caused.  If the grant is awarded, that remediation would be conducted in late 2009, clear the way to pursue a CNS for its remaining acreage in 2010, and result in an environmentally clean bill of health for the entire Industrial Park.  Such an outcome has been a priority for CASTLO since the park was purchased from the former YS&T in 1980.  

Interestingly, during the process of the on-going environmental analysis, CASTLO mistakenly created a ¼-acre wetland in the middle of its materials yard.  Various possibilities from whether to incorporate the wetland into the park’s master plan or fill it in and create an additional wetland elsewhere for the benefit of the broader community are under consideration.

 

Also on the grant front, CASTLO experienced a bittersweet moment this past fall when it was ranked tenth out of 57 applicants under the Ohio Job Ready Sites Program (designed to rebuild urban areas and stem job loss) but unfortunately did not make the funding cut.  Even so, DeCicco points to the silver lining that “Finally, projects in the Mahoning Valley are receiving consideration, and a project in the City of Youngstown did get funded.”  He is hopeful that CASTLO will receive OJRS funding next year to extend the park’s roadway and utility infrastructure to the materials yard, making the space divisible into saleable and/or leasable parcels for potential employers, and thus maximizing the current CNS status.

 

Such on-going annual progress flows naturally from CASTLO’s mission to advance, encourage and promote industrial, economic, commercial and civic development, especially critical in light of the current national economic crisis.  This is accomplished not only by generating long-term employment growth and sustainability opportunities within the Industrial Park, but also throughout the five CASTLO communities:  Campbell, Struthers, Lowellville, and Poland and Coitsville townships, and by networking on a regional level, actively coordinating with other neighboring communities and working to further brownfield initiatives all over the Mahoning Valley.

 

For example, CASTLO continues as an active partner in the 13-year-old Mahoning River Corridor of Opportunity (MRCO), a multi-jurisdictional public/private partnership that champions sustainable redevelopment of 1,470+ acres of industrial brownfield along a five-mile stretch of the Mahoning River in Youngstown, Campbell and Struthers (and of which CASTLO is a founding member).  In 2008 the MRCO pursued two projects to open additional land for development in the Campbell and Struthers portions of the corridor.  The first, which will allow for the extension of Bob Cene Way into the 40-acre former YS&T coke plant site to benefit the city’s largest employer, Astro Shapes, was made possible when the MRCO helped the City of Struthers receive a CNS for that acreage from the Ohio EPA in early 2008.  The second was the securing of funds to construct another bridge over the Mahoning River; the new structure will supplement the Walton Avenue Steelworkers Bridge, opened in 2005, enhancing the accessibility and thus the marketability of various Campbell industrial sites that are currently undergoing Phase II environmental assessments. 

 

CASTLO is also an active member of the Mahoning River Consortium (MRC), which is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ecologically restore a 31-mile stretch of the Mahoning River from Warren to Lowellville.

 

In 2008, CASTLO partnered with the cities of Campbell and Youngstown, Coitsville Township, Mahoning County, Youngstown State University, the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, and the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber to create the U.S. 422 Strategy Development Group.  The new entity is focused on regulating growth and ensuring its positive impact should a casino/horse-racing (“racino”) facility be built in nearby Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, which could bring a consequent boost to local tourism. 

 

DeCicco points out that if the racino goes forward, it would provide an opportunity to market the area’s cultural, educational and recreational amenities, such as the Butler Institute of American Art, Mill Creek Park, the Powers and Stambaugh Auditoriums, the Chevrolet Centre and YSU.

 

“The development group’s hope is that Mahoning County’s easternmost communities will be able to reap some of the economic advantages while minimizing potential negative impacts,” DeCicco explains.  “Whether or not the racino comes, the proposed extension of water and sewer lines will benefit Coitsville Township.  We want to do what we can to improve development along the entire U.S. 422 corridor from downtown Youngstown to the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line.”

 

Additionally, CASTLO got involved with “Grow Mahoning Valley (GMV),” a group of business, government and community leaders from Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties working together to back various future development projects to benefit the area.  GMV’s current list includes five CASTLO area projects:  the extension of the Industrial Park’s infrastructure into the 43-acre materials yard, a sanitary sewer line extension along U.S. 422 in Coitsville Township, a federal appropriations request through Congressman Tim Ryan to upgrade the sanitary sewers in Campbell’s industrial area, additional roadway improvements in Campbell’s portion of the MRCO, and the re-engineering of the I-680/Shirley Road interchange for better access to the entire MRCO area.

 

Too, CASTLO is a player in the recently formed Mahoning River Corridor Initiative, working with several other entities including the MRC and the nine communities that line the Mahoning River from Newton Falls to Lowellville to identify and promote present and future economic development opportunities and recreational possibilities along the river bank.  Last fall, the Ohio Department of Development approved an $80,000 grant to be administered through YSU’s Urban & Regional Studies program to support the initiative’s start-up through its first two years.  CASTLO contributed $5,000 and hopes additional monies will eventually be found to sustain the effort long-term.

 

And finally, CASTLO established a recognition program to thank those companies and individuals whose efforts made the CASTLO communities a better place to work and reside and the Industrial Park possible.  Honorees (by category) at the CASTLO Recognition Ceremony held in October included Aqua Ohio, Inc. (company); Struthers Rotary Club (organization); and Frank DiVito and Alan Donatelli of DonaVito’s Italian Grille, Jon Jacubec and Eric Ryan of Fat E’s Attic Bar & Grille, and Brian Palumbo of Selah Café (individuals).  Also at that ceremony, the East Liberty Street entrance into the Industrial Park was renamed “Meshel Way” in recognition of former Ohio State Senator Harry Meshel’s tireless efforts championing the Park’s creation.

 

Although the Industrial Park lost three-year model tenant L&M Supply, Inc., in 2008, CASTLO is optimistic that the 4,464 square foot light industrial building vacated by the steel-making equipment repair company, complete with all amenities and a five-ton overhead crane, will soon be leased again.  As for the park’s other tenants, leases were extended by anchor tenant Aqua Ohio Inc., Youngstown Class “B” Baseball, Inc. (which signed on for an additional three years), and Argon Steel.  In addition, G-Force Contracting and StateLine Paving, LLC, enlarged their respective premises.

 

Other Industrial Park tenants include anchors the Industrial Timber & Lumber Company and The Drywall Barn; plus Allied Erecting & Dismantling Company, Inc.; American Tower Corporation; A-Zar Construction Company, LLC; Fast-Cast, LLC; Garden Scapes of Ohio, Inc.; JPI Painting; Mahoning Valley Electric Service, Inc.; Mahoning Valley Railroad Heritage Association, Inc.; Marblehead Equipment, LLC; Mobilitie, Inc.; T-Mobile USA, Inc.; and  CASTLO continues to provide space gratis for use by the Campbell, Struthers and Lowellville street departments.

  

The park spent $122,000 on capital improvements in 2008, enhancing the overall aesthetics of its buildings and site for appearance and marketability, painting, repairing roofs and siding, re-glazing and replacing windows, and most significantly, repairing and upgrading the sprinkler system in its nearly 54,000 square foot Building “C”.

CASTLO’s website, www.castlo.com, was also updated to include fact sheets providing information on 50 potential buildings and development sites in the CASTLO communities.  Also, a profile containing detailed information about each CASTLO community was prepared.

  

The following officers were re-elected at CASTLO’s 2008 annual meeting:  Dr. William C. Binning, chairman; Marion Creed, president; Jean McBride, secretary/treasurer; Frank Galletta, vice-president of Finance; Sarah Lown, vice-president of Industrial Park Management; William Livosky, vice-president of Nominations & Personnel; and Randy Partika, vice-president of Program. 

  

Additional trustees serving on CASTLO’s all-volunteer board include Coitsville Township trustee Walter Avdey; Kelly Becker; Ray Calcagni, Jr.; Campbell Mayor Jack Dill; George Garchar; Walter Good; Struthers first ward councilperson Sherri Hartzell; Carol Hirt; Atty. Michael Hoza; Lowellville Mayor James Iudiciani; Mary Kropinak; Michael Kusalaba, P.E.; Poland Township trustee Robert Lidle (James Scharville, alternate); Richard Melvin; Vivian Powers; Ed Reese; Paul Stebelton; and Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker (Edward Wildes, alternate).

  

A good neighbor, the economically self-sufficient CASTLO continues to support the surrounding community with its own real estate taxes as well as the state, municipal and school taxes paid on the combined annual $5,000,000 payroll of its tenants’ approximately 140 employees.