YOUNGSTOWN — A playground project will get underway soon behind the Mahoning County Board of Developmental Disabilities’ Leonard Kirtz School in Austintown.

Bill Whitacre, the board’s superintendent, thanked the county commissioners recently for the $50,000 in American Rescue Plan funds they allocated to the project.

Whitacre, who attended the recent commissioners’ meeting because March is Mahoning County Board of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, said the organization services more than 1,500 individuals and families, which is up about 400 from when he started in 2014.

He said the Kirtz school “is a little different from most schools. We serve kids from age 5 to 22. Most playgrounds are built for kids up to about sixth grade.”

The playground will provide opportunities for the older students, he said. The playground is expected to be beneficial “not only in play but also might be therapeutic without them realizing they are engaging in therapy while they are playing,” Whitacre said.

It will be for the students of the school, not the public, he said.

The project has received nearly $200,000 in donations from people who heard about it and wanted to help, Whitacre said.

MORE THANKS

Kevin Tarpley, founder, president and executive director of the Youngstown Lifeguard Academy, also thanked the board for the $50,000 the commissioners plan to allocate to the academy.

Tarpley said the academy is training people to be lifeguards, but it also has goals for “20, 30, 40 years from now when they retire. This is a foundation for launching to a career.”

Tarpley said there will be an April 4 meeting to which 45 people have been invited from various park services, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, U.S. departments of Interior, Parks Service, Agriculture and Forestry.

“All of those folks are going to be there because they want to recruit our young people into various jobs that are open, and the launch is from being a lifeguard,” Tarpley said.

“The discipline that’s required to be a lifeguard, the seriousness about job responsibility that comes from being a lifeguard, work ethic. All of these people, particularly the Ohio Department of Natural Resources are begging me, ‘Kevin, can you get people ready to work for us.'”

“First they want them at the pools at the resorts they serve. They don’t have lifeguards at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources anymore because they couldn’t find them. Then after two years of seasonal service, they can laterally move into a state job,” Tarpley said. “There’s a career path waiting.”

erunyan@vindy.com