YOUNGSTOWN — Mayor Jamael Tito Brown will meet with various groups — from business owners to neighborhood groups — today and Friday to discuss how the city will spend $82,775,370 it’s receiving in federal COVID-19 funding.

Brown will have the meetings in the 12th-floor ballroom of the downtown DoubleTree by Hilton hotel.

All of the meetings are in-person except with business owners, which will be a hybrid of in-person and by Zoom because the list of participants is larger, said Nick Chretien, program manager for Economic Action Group, which has a $75,000 contract to assist the city with planning and economic development.

“I want to ensure that we utilize these funds to positively affect the quality of life for the citizens of Youngstown and future generations,” Brown said. “I want our community to survive and thrive as we come out of this global pandemic. I do not believe we will see another opportunity of this magnitude in our lifetime, and we must capture the moment.”

The sessions start at 9 a.m. today with members of city council, followed at 10 a.m. by city department administrators and at 2 p.m. with community partners.

The Friday meetings begin at 9 a.m. with business officials, 11 a.m. with neighborhood groups and at 1 p.m. with anchor institutions and city partners.

“Our goal is to be fiscally responsible and ensure that all ideas are considered so everyone can have a chance to participate in this legacy opportunity for our community,” Brown said.

The mayor’s office also will have meetings on each side of the city with other citizens. The dates and times will be announced later.

Among Brown’s priorities are eliminating 500 blighted properties in the city, improving housing quality, cleaning up the corridors, developing a youth employment program, investing in parks, bringing in a full-scale grocery store, improving transit accessibility and stabilizing the city budget.

The money comes from a $1.9 trillion federal COVID-19 stimulus passed in March with $350 billion for state and local governments. Of that amount, $10.66 billion is coming to Ohio.

The money is paid in two equal amounts: one this month and the other in May 2022.

When the original estimates were given in March, Youngstown was to get $88,629,500.

That amount was lowered to $82,775,370 when the final figures were released last week by the U.S. Department of Treasury.

The initial numbers were estimates by the Congressional Research Service, and the numbers changed because the Treasury used the most recent state and local demographic numbers, according to U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan’s office.

Most Ohio cities are receiving less money than the estimate.