YOUNGSTOWN — City council on Wednesday will consider multiple pieces of legislation to spend and reprogram more than $6 million in American Rescue Plan funds — much of it first introduced last month.

Council could give only a first reading May 17, the last time it met, because two of its seven members were absent.

Council will seek to approve the ARP spending by emergency measure when it meets again Wednesday. Six votes in support are needed to approve legislation by emergency.

It will consider voting to reprogram $5 million in ARP funds from an allocation to abate and remediate vacant, abandoned and / or blighted properties, with $3 million going to a citywide roof replacement program and $2 million toward land acquisition for community and economic development projects.

A new roof costs about $12,000 so the program would cover the price of about 250 roofs, city officials said.

The $2 million for land acquisition would allow the city to purchase properties for various development projects.

Council had approved using $8 million on Dec. 15, 2021, for the abatement and demolition of properties throughout the city.

The city kept the money for that work in an account, but didn’t do any demolitions as it awaited word on an application for a grant through the Ohio Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program. The Mahoning County Land Bank last Dec. 6 was awarded $6.9 million for demolition work including $5.3 million to take down about 500 houses in Youngstown.

The remaining $3 million in ARP demolition money is remaining in that fund so the city can abate and demolish about 200 houses, said Michael Durkin, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent.

Council will consider an ordinance Wednesday to spend $75,000 from that $3 million ARP demolition fund for asbestos testing on some properties to be demolished.

Council will vote on separate legislation to transfer $53,825 from Councilman Julius Oliver’s ARP allocation for the 1st Ward to the parks and recreation department’s ARP fund to pay for lot clearing, cleanup and beautification in the Falls Avenue and Hillman Street areas. Council inadvertently approved the money from the park’s ARP fund last July.

ARP SPENDING

Also on Wednesday’s agenda is various legislation to spend $1,148,035 in ARP funds. All but $250,000 was given a first reading last month.

That includes $430,685 for improvements to the playground and outdoor recreation facilities at Lynn Park on Lynn Avenue in the 7th Ward.

Of that amount, $300,000 is coming from the $10.5 million in ARP funding council approved last July for parks and recreation projects. The remaining $130,685 is coming from the $2 million in ARP funding council gave to each of its seven members in April 2022 to spend in the wards for a total of $14 million.

Also up for a vote is $300,000 from the parks and recreation ARP fund for improvements to the play area and outdoor recreational facilities at Hillman Park, also called Falls Playground, on Falls Avenue in the 1st Ward.

There is an ordinance to spend $42,350 in ARP funds to install surveillance cameras at 10 city park locations.

There are three ARP funding requests from the $14 million council gave its members:

∫ $75,000 from Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward, to the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. for a cleanup project in her ward;

∫ $20,000 from Davis for the Boston Avenue Neighborhood Association to stabilize and restore the Happy Place Sanctuary on Almyra Avenue;

∫ $30,000 from Adamczak for the police department to buy an emotional support / therapy / research and rescue dog.

The lone new ARP funding request on Wednesday’s agenda is sponsored by Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward, to pay $250,000 to the Western Reserve Port Authority to oversee the removal and remediation of environmental contaminants at the former McGuffey Plaza site near the intersection of McGuffey Road and North Garland Avenue.

The plaza was the pre-eminent shopping center on the city’s East Side for decades, but fell on hard times and was empty by 2007. It was demolished in 2014.

Council will consider Wednesday rescinding $300,000 in funding it approved last August to assist with the redevelopment of the east end of Federal Street.

Oliver had sponsored the legislation, but none of the money was spent.

Businesses in that area are eligible for some of the $3 million in ARP money set aside for businesses through two programs — $1 million for facade grants and $2 million for small business revolving loans.

Penguin City Brewing Co. LLC, 460 E. Federal St., already has been approved for a $150,000 small business loan from the city.

The city received $82,775,370 in total ARP funding and has allocated about half of that amount.

PIPE PROJECT

Also on council’s Wednesday meeting agenda is an ordinance for a $142,000 contract for engineering work on a proposed project to replace waterlines, several which contain lead, to about 300 homes on the West Side as well as a water mainline with a history of breaks on Mahoning Avenue between Belle Vista and Lakeview avenues.

If council approves the legislation, it would permit the board of control to sign the contract with Arcadis U.S. Inc.’s Cleveland office, which has done previous work for the city related to water and sewerlines, to design the project for up to $129,500 and administer the bidding process for up to $12,500.

The actual project would cost about $4 million, said city Water Commissioner Harry L. Johnson III.

Water service lines on the south side of Mahoning Avenue are connected to this 8-inch pipe, which will be replaced with a 12-inch line.

About 300 service lines to homes on the streets on the south side of Mahoning Avenue would also be replaced, Johnson said. Based on the age of the homes and the water lines, about 200 to 250 of them contain lead, though a definitive number won’t be known until they are dug up, Johnson said.

The streets getting new lines under this proposal are South Maryland, South Portland, South Lakeview, South Evanston, Milton, Halls Heights, Eleanor, South Whitney, Mayfield, McKinley and Olson avenues and Hampton Court.