YOUNGSTOWN — After touring a long-vacant grocery store on the city’s South Side, David Betras, chairman of the Mahoning County Board of Elections, said it is the ideal location for the board’s offices.

Betras said Thursday after walking through the former Bottom Dollar store: “It’s on the city to make this happen. If we can get the right price, we can go from there. If I can get the city to donate the building then it’s a no-brainer. I’m very impressed with it. I’d like to stay in the city. It comes down to dollar bills and what the (county) commissioners will approve.”

Joining Betras on the tour of the 18,285-square-foot building were board Vice Chairwoman Sandra Barger, Director Tom McCabe and Deputy Director Melissa Wasko.

Elections officials said last week they were leaning toward the Patriot Building in Austintown, a former call center off state Route 46.

After the tour, Barger said Thursday: “Bottom Dollar is No. 1. It’s taken over from the Patriot Building. We need to know from the commissioners what our monthly lease payment can be.”

Two members of Youngstown City Council — Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, and Cynthia McWilson, D-6th Ward — wanted to join the tour, but were initially refused entry to the building by Mike Drummond, the city’s buildings and grounds commissioner.

Oliver said he then spoke to Drummond who let him and McWilson in, but wouldn’t let others inside the city-owned building until Oliver insisted that everyone else be allowed inside.

While people were touring the inside of the building, two Youngstown police patrol cars came to the building. Oliver said an officer told him it was done at the request of the city administration.

Oliver blamed the situation on Mayor Derrick McDowell. McDowell didn’t respond Thursday to a request to comment.

Oliver said: “The mayor said I can’t go in and then calls the police. Who the (expletive) do you think you is? This ain’t no dictatorship. Who calls the police on city council for going into a building the city owns?”

McDowell told the county commissioners last week that the city “is prepared to roll out the red carpet if necessary to ensure that we play a role in keeping (the elections board) in the city,” and suggested the Bottom Dollar location as an option.

Betras said the Bottom Dollar building is a good size with open space usable for other purposes such as storage and for early voting.

Barger said she likes the size of the Bottom Dollar location and that the board would only need about half of the Patriot Building if it moved there.

LEAVING OAKHILL

Election board officials have vocally complained for the past two years about the conditions at the county-owned Oakhill Renaissance Place, 345 Oak Hill Ave., where the board offices are located.

A board resolution, passed March 3, states Oakhill “is in materially deficient and hazardous condition, including but not limited to the lack of potable water for employees and unsafe building conditions, and such conditions materially impair the board’s ability to safely and effectively conduct elections and fulfill its statutory obligations.”

In a controversial move in 2006, county commissioners purchased the former Southside Hospital, renamed it Oakhill Renaissance Place and moved various agencies there, including the board of elections, which was located at the old South Side Annex in Youngstown.

While election officials had previously discussed needing at least 22,000 square feet for its new offices, Betras and Barger said the 18,285-square-foot Bottom Dollar location is a good size.

“It’s everything we need,” Betras said. “It needs some work. Also, we would be helping to stabilize that corridor of the city and we want to remain in Youngstown. It’s a benefit for the city to have an anchor tenant to help them out.”

Betras said the elections board would work with the Western Reserve Port Authority on its relocation effort. The WRPA owns the Patriot Building and has an agreement in place with Youngstown to assist it in the sale of city-owned properties though Bottom Dollar isn’t on that list.

While Anthony Trevena, WRPA’s executive director, couldn’t be reached Thursday by The Vindicator, Betras said he spoke to him, and Trevena is enthusiastic about the board’s potential move to Bottom Dollar.

Election board officials on Thursday also toured the former Red Zone location at 420 Oak Hill Ave., across the street from its current offices.

Betras said that building won’t work because it doesn’t have an elevator.

There was an offer by the owner of the Cobbin Building on Fifth Avenue in Youngstown for the elections board to consider. Betras also ruled out Cobbin because it doesn’t have an elevator.

“I want to limit it to Bottom Dollar and Patriot, get an architect and make a decision,” Betras said. “I want to stay in the city and prefer Bottom Dollar.”

The elections board would sign a 15-year lease, Betras said.

County commissioners recently wrote a letter to McCabe stating under Ohio law it is the board’s responsibility to select a building and the commissioners’ job to review the cost.

The letter, signed by the three commissioners, states: “Once the board of elections selects a location and proposes a lease, the commissioners are required to review that lease within 30 days. The commissioners may approve or reject a proposed location based on budgetary” reasons.

The commissioners wrote: “We strongly urge and implore the board of elections to remain within the city of Youngstown, particularly in or near downtown Youngstown.”

One possibility offered by commissioners and already ruled out by election officials is a proposed $60 million county government facility at the former Eastern Gateway Community College location in downtown Youngstown. Board officials say the downtown location wouldn’t have adequate space for voting machines and for voters as well as inadequate parking.

Bottom Dollar is on the city’s South Side.

BOTTOM DOLLAR CONTROVERSY

Under former Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, the city initially set aside $1.5 million in ARP funding to renovate the 18,285-square-foot building, vacant since January 2015, with the Village of Healing operating an infant mortality clinic as the main tenant. About $300,000 of that $1.5 million was redirected.

City council agreed in 2024 to use $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan funds to turn the store, vacant since January 2015, into a community hub. But the ARP funds took care of only one-third of the building’s interior improvement work without touching the rest of it or much-needed repairs to its roof.

DeMaine Kitchen, the city’s community planning and economic development department director, told The Vindicator last week that no more money would be spent on the property, the previous administration did a poor job with the remodeling plans and the city would likely seek to “unload the building.”

Kitchen said the Brown administration never signed a lease with the Village of Healing and the $1.2 million in ARP funding spent to renovate the location took care of only one-third of the structure.

The Village of Healing is looking at a site on the Glenwood Avenue corridor near the Bottom Dollar building, Kitchen said.

Council redirected $200,000 of the Village of Healing’s original $1.5 million to International Development Group for start-up costs, planning and expansion for the Cornerstone Food Co-op, which was also supposed to go into the Bottom Dollar building.

Oliver on Thursday disputed Kitchen’s recent statements saying the McDowell administration was supposed to sign the lease with the Village of Healing in February.

Also, Oliver said the Youngstown Restoration & Opportunity Center, created with a $400,000 ARP allocation from his share of the federal funding, was going to be the final tenant at the former grocery store.

“We were doing our own build-out and then we had to find another place to go because the new administration didn’t sign the lease,” Oliver said. “I don’t know why they’re blaming the old administration when they didn’t do anything.”

Oliver said YoROC has two potential locations for its home.

YoROC is being developed to help younger city residents who are unemployed or underemployed with focuses on training in health care and the culinary arts.

Bottom Dollar went out of business and closed its three stores in Youngstown in January 2015 after the company was sold to Aldi Inc.

The city acquired the Glenwood Avenue property — the former Cleveland Elementary School and a playground — from Aldi.

ONE (Ohio North East) Health Ohio announced in April 2016 that it wanted to buy the building and turn it into a health facility as well as a food distribution site and possibly a pharmacy. The city sold the building to ONE for $150,000 in March 2018. But after a lengthy delay, ONE eventually decided not to do the project and the city refunded the $150,000 in June 2023.