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CAMPBELL -- If Mayor Bryan Tedesco has his way, a largely vacant portion of land that abuts the Mahoning River will one day be a mecca of shopping centers, entertainment venues, restaurants, apartments and industry.
"This is going to be a lifeline for Campbell. We're going to change the outlook of Campbell," Tedesco said after Wednesday's city council meeting.
Also a key component of the plan is to create good-paying jobs mostly in the information-technology and manufacturing sectors, he noted.
The mayor was referring to 111 acres on and near the river owned by Pittsburgh-based Sherman International Corp., which tore down some of the steel mills that once stood there.
Of the 111 acres, 37 were remediated in October 2013 but have sat unused for nearly a decade. The rest, which the city hopes to buy, needs to be cleaned of petroleum contaminants left after the mills closed in the 1970s and early 1980s, he explained.
The cleanup cost is estimated at $1.8 million, Tedesco noted.
The remaining acreage is largely vacant, but contains mainly remnants of the former steel mills, as well as lined pits, concrete foundations, slabs and walls.
Earlier this week, Tedesco met with U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, who had applied for $800,000 in Community Funding Project dollars for the effort. Additional money could come from grants via Akron-based Brownfield Restoration Group, the mayor said.
Johnson's meeting with him was productive, with the congressman expressing optimism that the property will be used for job creation and will increase the city's tax revenue, Tedesco added.
In addition, a few people have shown an interest in two 5-acre parcels, he continued.
Tedesco is planning to host a town hall meeting to discuss the brownfield property and building a road to where a Sparkle Market will be built in the city. The session is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday in Roosevelt Park.
Also at the meeting, George Levendis, council president, noted that a row of six Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. homes on Andrews Avenue are slated for demolition May 12. Earlier this year, a row of seven such units was razed on Delmar Avenue, Levendis added.
Plans also are underway to demolish a long-vacant store on Robinson Road, the front of which collapsed in a recent windstorm. The city will pay $6,500 next week for the work, he said.
In an effort to continue tearing down vacant and dilapidated company homes, many of which city officials contend are dangerous and uninhabitable, the Mahoning County Land Bank plans to meet with the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus to obtain a waiver to continue razing homes that, in the early 1980s, were designated as historic sites, Levendis noted.