Correspondent photo / John Patrick Gatta Youngstown City Councilman Julius Oliver , D-1st Ward, discusses a new proposed power line route through the city with Wendy Zele, FirstEnergy manager of external affairs.

YOUNGSTOWN — After seven years, the process to place a power line that runs from the Riverbend Substation in Youngstown to the Lincoln Park Substation in Campbell took another step toward realization.

Almost a year to the day when the public offered input on the route of the proposed 6-mile, 138-kilovolt power line, a new “preferred route” was presented at Wednesday’s informational meeting at the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center, 325 W. Federal St.

According to FirstEnergy, the project would upgrade Riverbend with a more advanced design to help decrease the frequency and duration of power outages and include upgrades to Lincoln Park as well.

Local residents as well as Youngstown city officials were on hand during the two-hour session to discuss the revised route with members of the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB), First Energy, AECOM, an environmental and infrastructure consulting firm, and Burns & McDonnell. Tables were set up around the room with route maps and details of the project’s effect on real estate, vegetation management, engineering, construction and environment.

For 1st Ward Councilman Julius Oliver, his attendance was a professional and personal matter.

“This runs through quite a bit of my ward,” he said. “The biggest concern with the original line was it running through the amphitheater. The other concern was it running through a residential area where the transmission lines would be very close to housing, which we didn’t want. My house actually sits right in front of the line. I definitely didn’t want it. I have young children. Other people had health concerns as well, and they didn’t want that. We didn’t want it to run in front of the Sacred Heart Church.”

The public’s opposition to the original routing influenced the OPSB to reject it. That version of the project would have had high-tension power lines running north of the Mahoning River in full view of downtown and behind the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheater, Wean Park and Covelli Centre.

The new “preferred route” starts at Riverbend, runs across the Mahoning River to Market Street, south of Woodland Avenue, moves along Poland Avenue, across the Center Street Bridge, to Wilson Avenue, up Keystone Street to McCartney Road and finally ending at Lincoln Park. It includes sections of open, uninhabited areas.

“It’s a much better route,” said Oliver, “much more aesthetically pleasing for the area, especially along the route where it goes right in between the expressways. It basically will blend right into the topography there.

“Altogether. I’m glad that FirstEnergy took what the public was saying, took what the city was saying, went back and reworked its plans.”

“If you follow the new route, the preferred route, there’s really minimal impact to property and existing parks. Everything is built around the perimeter of where people live and play,” said Cortland native and FirstEnergy spokesperson Lauren Siburkis.

“We worked really hard with community leaders and residents over the past couple years to make their concerns heard,” she said. “We took their input, and we went back to the drawing board and put together a preferred route that everybody is really, really happy with.”

With a lack of negative comments from the previous meeting, FirstEnergy will file an application within 90 days for the project with the OPSB. At that point, the 13 OPSB members will pore over the plans, which will be followed by a public hearing and another opportunity for area residents to offer opinions.

James O’Dell of the OPSB pointed out that, overall, the project needs to satisfy specific criteria in order to be fully approved.

“We are going to look at the project and say, ‘Is this considering the weight of all ecological and social cost factors, the absolute best place to put this project?'” he said. “Also, we’re considering the nature of economics of the technology that they have to put it in. So, it has a practical side.”

Siburkis views the power line as a necessary component of the area moving forward as well as to ensure that power outages due to severe weather are minimized.

“It’s been really exciting in the Youngstown area over the past several years,” she said. “We’ve seen a lot of economic growth, and in order to continue that economic growth, we need infrastructure in place to support the needs of large industrial customers. This project is really critical for our region as we try to attract new businesses to the area and also take care of our existing customers.”