Staff photo / Ashley Fox Chatting at the Good Morning, Mahoning County! event, sponsored by the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber, are from left: Jim Kinnick, executive director of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments; Dan Segool, assistant vice president of Chemical Bank; Michael Shrock, regional president of Chemical Bank; and Stephen Kristan, retired employee of AT&T.

YOUNGSTOWN — The newspaper held in your hand is being watched nationwide and is the subject of an upcoming documentary — as detailed Friday to Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber membership.

The Chamber’s members met for breakfast for the Good Morning, Mahoning County! series, at the B&O Station banquet hall. Among several featured speakers was Charles Jarvis, publisher of The Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.

Jarvis, who has been named a 2020 recipient of the chamber’s Spirit of the Chamber Award next month, recapped how the newspaper merger came to be, and how the move has proven to be sustainable.

“The Vindicator that we’re producing now is the result of a lot of hard work and a lot of support from this community,” Jarvis said.

The Tribune Chronicle took over production of The Vindicator as a daily newspaper serving Mahoning County effective Sept. 1, weeks after former owners of The Vindicator announced it would cease production on Aug. 31.

The merger has put the new team on the radar. “We are watched by the entire newspaper industry right now,” Jarvis said.

Where many papers are closing, the Youngstown-Warren merger “has proven to be sustainable for the foreseeable future,” Jarvis said.

The new partnership has put a new focus on production here. In recent weeks members of the newspapers’ management team participated in a panel discussion during the Ohio News Media Association conference in Columbus about taking on production of The Vindicator; and “this week, we had a team doing a documentary on the process,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis concluded by reminding the group: “We need the support of the community.”

SERIES

Good Morning, Mahoning County! is part of a networking series the chamber hosts, said Kim Calvert, vice president of marketing and member services.

Typically held at the end of the year, the event was moved to the beginning of 2020 due to scheduling conflicts.

Held in towns and cities, but not limited to Austintown, Canfield and Niles, Calvert said the “Good Morning” series is held at “unique” venues, such as the B&O Station.

About 150 people attended Friday’s breakfast event, one of the largest crowds for the Mahoning County update, Calvert said, probably due to the interest in the location, which is used for various events.

In fact, throughout the presentations, trains used the tracks behind the building, prompting Jarvis to joke: “The westbound train is boarding,” which was met with chuckles from the crowd.

VISIONS

Other speakers included: David Ditzler, Mahoning County commissioner; Art Daly, vice president of Eastern Gateway Community College; Erin O’Donnell, director of partnerships and community relations at America Makes; Danielle Russo of Continuing Healthcare Solutions; and Lauren Johnson, U.S. 422 Corridor Redevelopment Plan project manager for the Chamber.

Daly shared a vision for the future of Eastern Gateway’s downtown Youngstown campus.

“We’re building a college campus” by changing the feel of downtown Youngstown near Champion and Boardman streets, he said.

To continue with that vision, Daly said three buildings are being looked at for purchase, and there are preliminary talks of closing of East Boardman Street in the downtown.

“Our goal is to build that campus downtown,” which Daly said can only be done by creating green space for people to utilize.

“This is my vision for downtown Youngstown,” he reiterated. “We want to modernize, we want to create, and we want to innovate” the downtown area, Daly said.

Also part of that vision are course offerings.

While enrollment for the engineering classes was down, Daly said the coming addition of Lordstown Motors Corp. and the LG-Chem battery plant are anticipated to contribute to an increase.

“We’re on the cutting edge,” Daly said, adding that school and elected officials have been working together to ensure different certification classes will be offered, aligning the school with needs of the potential workforce.

Johnson recapped happenings in the Valley:

• Lordstown Motors Corp. expects to be set up by the end of the year. An electric pickup truck will be manufactured at the General Motors facility.

• General Motors has a purchase agreement for 158 acres near the facility for a $2.3 billion battery-cell manufacturing plant, partnering with the South Korea-based LG Chem. A working title for the project is Giga Power LLC.

• There is currently $4.1 billion in pending investment for 2020 and 2021, Johnson said. In addition to the battery and vehicle facilities coming to Lordstown, Johnson said the chamber is managing 15 to 20 more projects.

“There’s a great number of jobs that are expected to be created,” she said.