Latest news with #YoungstownCityCouncil
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Youngstown committee approves hiring and cruisers
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Youngstown City Council's Safety Committee Thursday approved the hiring of new police officers and the purchasing of new police cruisers. The measure now goes to the full council for approval. For the second time in a month, Youngstown Police Chief Carl Davis and Sergeant Seann Cafolo appeared before city council's safety committee, trying to convince them to accept a federal grant to hire new officers. 'This grant is to assist with paying for new hired officers and cadets,' Cafolo said. The committee approved accepting a $1.6 million federal grant, which, combined with a $537,000 local match, will pay the salaries for 15 new officers for three years — with the city responsible for paying the entire salary in the fourth year. 'We're facing some challenges now with attracting people to come onto the Youngstown Police Department,' Davis said. Davis also said he expects 18% of his 130-person police department to retire over the next several years. 'That would be for the purchase of 11 vehicles,' he said. The committee also approved spending $695,000 of city money to buy 11 new police vehicles — five to frontline marked cars, three marked for K-9 use and three new vehicles for the crime lab. 'A good portion of our police fleet exit the city of Youngstown between three and four o'clock,' Councilwoman Anita Davis said. Davis said she wants GPS tracking systems installed in every vehicle taken home by an officer — or when it's time for the full council to vote — she'll vote no 'If they're only supposed to be used for transportation to and from work when they're not outside the city, we can pinpoint that they are at that person's address and not somewhere else, utilized somewhere else,' Davis said. The full Youngstown City Council is expected to vote on both the hiring grant and the vehicle purchase at its June 4th meeting. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Developers struggle to get financing for First National Bank building downtown
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — The developers looking to renovate downtown Youngstown's tallest building are having trouble getting financing. Tuesday they showed up looking to the city for some help. Three men from New York City sat amongst Youngstown City Council's Community Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting, touting their plan to redevelop the First National Bank building downtown. 'This is a beautiful, beautiful building and it's an important part of Youngstown's history,' said Patrick Ciccone with FNB plan to spend $10 million renovating the 96-year-old building into apartments, condos and office space. They've secured historic tax credits of $2 million which must be used within 18 months but they're having trouble getting a loan. 'There is skepticism in the lending community at large about housing in downtown Youngstown, period, which I think is one of the hurdles we're trying to overcome,' Ciccone developers wanted the council's approval to make the building a Community Reinvestment Area, which would give them 12 to 15 years of no property tax on the increased value of the improvements they plan to make. 'It is very difficult to make it work without some form of support from the city,' said Ciccone. Councilman Julius Oliver was surprised they were having issues with financing. Oliver says downtown has improved. 'A major corporation moving its headquarters in Steelite into downtown Youngstown, securing an innovation center is a $26 million investment already,' Oliver said. Approving a Community Reinvestment Area will not cost Youngstown any money out of pocket which may be one reason no council member spoke against the idea. Councilman Mike Ray asked that the city administration draw up the legislation so the full council could approve it as quickly as possible. It was noted that the First National Bank building is currently only 40 percent occupied and the bank does plan to continue occupying the first floor. The developers could not say when the project would begin or when it would be finished. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
