YOUNGSTOWN — With little of the $10.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds city council set aside more than two years ago for parks and recreation projects having been spent, that department’s director said he is confident all of it will be used for those efforts.

“For sure,” said Clemate Franklin, the city’s parks and recreation director, when asked if there is time by the Dec. 31 deadline to enter into contracts to spend the $10.5 million.

Franklin added: “It’s definitely a way we can build a foundation. To be honest with you, that $10.5 million could go to one of our parks with all the groundwork, the underground work. I’m definitely looking forward to having completed parks and not just spreading it out to here and there. I want to have completed parks for our city.”

City council agreed in June 2022 to allocate $10.5 million of Youngstown’s $82.7 million ARP allocation to improve parks.

As of June 30, only $192,000 of that $10.5 million was paid to vendors.

Less than $2 million has been allocated for parks projects by city council — and that includes about $800,000 approved by the board of control for design services.

Under federal guidelines, the city has until the end of this year to enter into contracts that use its ARP allocation. If not, the funding has to be returned to the federal government.

The city has until the end of 2026 to actually spend all of the ARP money.

City council voted July 29 to put $10 million of its ARP money into the general fund to give Youngstown more time to use it while it collects interest.

Council on April 6, 2022, appropriated $3.93 million in ARP funds into the general fund to replace revenue lost in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Department of Treasury updated its formula for lost revenue during the pandemic and now allows municipalities to presume that up to $10 million in revenue was lost.

Also, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said in December that some of the parks’ ARP funds could possibly be reallocated, though that hasn’t happened to date.

‘TAKING A WHILE’

Franklin expects to have design work for the parks done by the end of October and then quickly move into signing contracts for actual improvement work.

The board of control approved a $410,720 design services contract Monday with Strollo Architects for multiple park sites.

“It’s taking a while,” Franklin said. “We had to do the ground work with the architectural firms. We’ve been doing our due diligence. When you’re bringing something to the community, you want to make sure it’s done the correct way. Once we have the designs, we can do the work.”

City council’s plan in June 2022 included $5.7 million for “significant” improvements to 10 city park properties, including the Henry Stambaugh Golf Course, McKelvey Lake, the Northside Pool, Borts Park, Wick Park and a new park in the 6th Ward.

It also included $3.3 million for playground upgrades to 11 existing parks and $1.5 million for improvements to 10 city fields and to close fields at MacDonnell, Oak and Evergreen parks.

One of the initial — and lengthy — holdups was a dispute between the administration and council over who would sponsor legislation related to parks projects.

Council agreed in May 2023 to let the administration vet and sponsor the parks and recreation projects legislation.

But except for the design services contracts — something council vehemently opposed using the money for when it created the parks ARP fund in June 2022 — the other parks allocations have been modest.

The board of control on Monday approved ARP funding for three park projects previously authorized by city council. They are $48,608 for a dock and kayak launch at McKelvey Lake, $46,000 for a storage building at the golf course, and $54,587 to buy life vests, lifeguard chairs and other supplies for the Northside Pool.

Have an interesting story? Contact David Skolnick by email at dskolnick@vindy.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dskolnick.