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YOUNGSTOWN - The Western Reserve Port Authority is paying $900,000 to purchase the former Williamson Elementary School and then make improvements for what will be the new home of the Mahoning County Board of Elections.
The Vindicator reported Sept. 9 that county commissioners, the WRPA and the Youngstown City School District were finalizing plans for the board of elections to relocate to the former school at 58 Williamson Ave. on the city's South Side. The official announcement came Thursday.
David Betras, board of elections' chairman, said: "Our move to Williamson represents a significant victory for the people of Mahoning County, the residents of Youngstown and our democracy."
Betras has spent more than two years fighting to get the elections board out of its current location: Oakhill Renaissance Place, a former hospital on Oak Hill Avenue on the city's South Side where it has been for about 20 years.
Between water leaks, possible health risks and the condition of the 125-year-old building, Betras has clamored for a relocation of the board office. That has led to arguments and disputes with county commissioners who have to approve the relocation.
Betras called Oakhill's conditions "inadequate at best and deplorable at worst."
Some work to Williamson, which closed a few years ago, is needed with the goal it of being done in time for the November 2027 election, Betras said.
County commissioners stood with Betras and other elections officials Thursday to hail the deal.
Commissioner Geno DiFabio said: "We're going to a place that's going to be very good."
Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti said: "This is a positive thing for Mahoning County," and she's proud of how the deal came together.
Anthony Trevena, WRPA executive director, said the authority is paying $900,000 to buy the former school from the Youngstown school district and will make improvements to the structure.
Asked about the potential cost of improvements, Trevena said, "It would be a lot more to be in a new facility."
After the improvement work is finished, Trevena said the WRPA would sell the building to the county for the sale price and the cost of renovations.
The property doesn't have enough existing parking spaces, but has plenty of land to accommodate the 200 spots that the board requires when there is early voting and hundreds of poll workers are hired, Betras said.
Trevena said the WRPA looked at about 10 buildings before deciding the former Williamson School was the ideal choice for the board of elections.
"Without a doubt, this building checked the most boxes," Trevena said.
The building is in sound condition, can be retrofitted to accommodate the board of elections and is centrally located as 80.4% of voters live within a 20-minute drive from the location, Trevena said. Also, the property is located on a Western Reserve Transit Authority bus route.
The building is about 50,000 square feet with the board of elections planning to occupy about 28,000 square feet, Trevena said. The board uses about 24,000 square feet of space at Oakhill.
The rest of the building would eventually be developed for other purposes, but right now, the sole focus is on the board of elections, Trevena said.
Betras said he wanted to move the board's voting equipment into Williamson as soon as possible. First, security cameras and fire suppression equipment would need to be installed and then a determination would be needed to make sure that work being done to improve the building wouldn't cause damage to the voting equipment.
Betras said: "I am so happy our machines will no longer be subject to us worrying whether a pipe broke at 3 o'clock in the morning and ruined millions of dollars of voting equipment."
There's been several water leaks at Oakhill, but they have been during work hours and even the worst of them caused minimal damage at the board of elections.
Elections board officials toured the former Bottom Dollar grocery store on the city's South Side location on April 9 with Betras declaring it was the ideal location to relocate its office. Elections board officials wanted the city to either give the building away for nothing or sell it for $1 to the WRPA and then have the WRPA lease the structure to them for 20 years.
But neither officials from the board of elections or the WRPA sat down with the city for formal negotiations.
The elections board voted 4-0 on July 7 to move ahead with relocating its warehouse from Oakhill to the former Bottom Dollar location. The plan would have also moved the early-voting center from Oakhill to Bottom Dollar next year with other board staff going to a county administration building that will be erected downtown at the former Eastern Gateway Community College building and garage.
Only a few weeks after the board's vote, it moved on from Bottom Dollar on Glenwood Avenue with officials saying they were considering another building in the city for its offices. That turns out to be Williamson.