Staff photo / R. Michael Semple From left, Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber; Emil Liszniansky, consultant with the firm Envision of Cleveland; and Jim Kinnick, executive director of the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, toast with champagne the submission of a $159 million Appalachian Community Grant application Friday. The celebration took place at America Makes in downtown Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — A group of regional partners is asking for a nearly $159 million state grant to fund what are being called transformational projects that span Trumbull, Mahoning, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties.

From downtown development and infrastructure improvements to financial support for business incubators and health care to riverfront revitalization and workforce development, the request to the Appalachian Community Grant Program would, if fully funded, benefit nearly 30 communities across the four-county region.

On Friday at America Makes in downtown Youngstown, the partners met to mark a year’s worth of work to develop the application and submit it to the state.

Forty-one projects were submitted in one application Friday.

“We wanted to rally to express our gratitude for the support we received from all of the communities in our three counties, plus in Ashtabula County,” said Jim Kinnick, executive director of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, the lead applicant.

“It’s unique when you get regional partners to come together with a unified vision, working together and then understanding the priorities to make that vision work, and then continue to move toward projects that will help that priority be successful,” Kinnick said.

Eastgate also has offered to manage the projects once the money is allocated.

The grant program is funded with $500 million in American Rescue Plan money given to Ohio to invest in transformational projects across the 32-county Appalachian region in Ohio. The priorities are workforce, infrastructure and health care.

Awards are expected to be announced in February. The projects must be delivered by October 2026.

Some of the local projects included in the request are:

* $4 million for the Trumbull County Historical Society to stand up a science fiction and fantasy museum in Warren.

The idea of the museum came to be when Warren native and renowned props designer, John Zabrucky, earlier this year donated about 500 props to the historical society. His southern California company, Modern Props, created pieces used in hundreds of movies, television series and commercials.

The funding, Meghan Reed, historical society executive director said, would be used to restore the building that will house the museum and for architectural renderings.

It’s expected a contract to buy 410 Main Ave. SW, formerly the Artisan Cafe just south of the intersection on Main Avenue SW and South Street, will be finalized by the end of this month.

“The building is almost acquired,” Reed said, adding the historical society already has shipped 10 truckloads of props to Warren, where they are being stored in an undisclosed warehouse. An 11th truckload also is planned.

Phase one of the project, to get the museum open to the public, will cost about $12 million, “so this will be a big chunk of that first piece,” Reed said.

* $10 million for the Youngstown Business Incubator to expand.

Barb Ewing, YBI chief executive, said at least two of the incubator’s portfolio companies are ready to move into a larger space, “so we need to get space they can grow into.”

The funds would be used to renovate the building to accommodate the companies, which Ewing did not want to identify.

There are several building options, but two are concrete, including the building previously owned by The Vindicator newspaper in Youngstown. That site, Ewing said, is the preferred site.

* $6 million for BRITE Energy Innovators in Warren to reconfigure its downtown facility.

“Going through COVID and having all of the Ultium (Cells) employees in downtown Warren, we realized there is a lot of work that needs to be done on our facility. We only have one bathroom in the entire 37,000-square feet, but more importantly, we need workforce training space because we see all of the supply chain coming around Ultium (Cells) and Foxconn,” Rick Stockburger, president / CEO of the clean-energy startup incubator.

“We really want to be a beacon for, not only clean energy energy companies to come and locate here, but manufacturing firms that are part of that to be able to do workforce training as they are setting up and getting ready to go,” Stockburger said.

Kinnick said Eastgate plans to release a detailed list of project descriptions and costs Monday.

Other money in the hopper, Kinnick said, includes investments in the Warren peninsula project “to make a difference in downtown Warren” and money for revitalization for all the communities along the Mahoning River.

Still, other funding would go to Mercy Health-Youngstown for a thrombectomy capable stroke center to help underserved people, and a project in Youngstown for street improvements.

Thrombectomy is treatment to remove blood clots.

A team of regional partners, from the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber to the Western Reserve Port Authority and business and philanthropy, helped vet the projects.

“What is transformation to the city of Girard may be a $3 million enhancement project. What’s transformation to the region could be investing in YBI,” Kinnick said. “We tried to balance that. We wanted to make sure we helped our communities with an eye on the bigger picture, too, for regional prosperity.”

rselak@tribtoday.com