062226...R WRTA BUS 3...Youngstown...06-22-26...Dean Harris, CEO of Western Reserve Transit Authority (WRTA), center, talks about the new Bus Barn to be constructed in place of the old garage as Ray Jaminet, President of Olsavsky-Jaminet Architects of Youngstown, left, and Anthony Stratis, President of the WRTA Board, listen during the Monday morning ceremony...by R. Michael Semple

YOUNGSTOWN — Buses that serve the Valley will soon have a new home base.

On Monday, WRTA announced its plans for a new “bus barn” at its Mahoning Avenue facility. The new building will be twice the size of the existing 100-year-old annex building.

“We are growing, we are moving, we are getting people where they need to be, we are providing an environment that can house a growing economy. Bring your companies here, invest in jobs here,” said WRTA board President Anthony Stratis. “This bus barn is not just another place where we’re going to house our buses — it’s where we are going to continue to grow; it is where we are going to continue to thrive. And it is just a testimony that the Mahoning Valley’s best days are just ahead of it.”

The new building will cost anywhere from $6.6 million to $7 million, said external affairs director Jordan Pennell. He said $5.5 million of that comes from two separate grants through the Federal Transit Administration Buses and Bus Facilities program, with a $1.1 million local match. Pennell said about $200,000 to $250,000 of that match will come from state support.

The rest of the cost, he said, will come from WRTA’s coffers with no additional cost to county taxpayers or WRTA riders.

He said strong fiscal responsibility over the past several years has allowed WRTA to move forward with the project.

“(Chief Executive Officer) Dean (Harris) has been here for roughly eight years and looked at all the infrastructure we have on campus, and we were able to work toward saving for these projects with good stewardship from our finance department, good maintenance of our vehicles and leveraging ARP funding,” Pennell said. “We didn’t spend it down quickly, and the finance department was thoughtful with how to leverage it to do these projects that will be around a lot longer than those ARP dollars.”

The new bus barn project will also bring a face-lift to the adjoining building, including facade work, new garage doors and concrete pad upgrades. Later this summer, Pennell said, WRTA expects to make announcements about fleet replacement and improvements to its administration building.

At Monday’s event, Harris thanked Youngstown State University President and former U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson for his contributions to the county’s transit system.

“When he was in Congress, he did a wonderful job giving us grants. In fact — and I don’t know if you remember this, Bill — he called me twice in one day because we got two different grants from two different organizations on the same day, and he actually told me to play the lottery,” Harris said. “I did not. I’m still here, so I didn’t take your advice.”

The project was designed by Olsavsky Jaminet Architects of Youngstown and work will be completed by Murphy Contracting.

Olsavsky Jaminet has been WRTA’s preferred architecture firm for more than 50 years, involved in the construction of its bus barn, the administration building and its subsequent additions and the truck dock. News releases issued by WRTA state that the project should be completed by early spring 2027.

Harris and Stratis said the new building will largely be designed to accommodate electric vehicles, which are the planned future of WRTA’s fleet.

“This building will be able to charge 20 buses at one time. Our goal is to move from diesel to battery-electric buses,” Harris said. “That provides many benefits, the biggest being they’re cleaner, they’re cheaper to run, they’re better for our passengers, they’re quieter.”

Harris said the project will include running a conduit into the adjoining building so that charging units can be added there as needed, as WRTA’s fleet grows.

Ray Jaminet, the project architect for the new building, explained more of the details.

“There is more happening underground in this building than is actually happening above ground. There is a mile of electrical conduit. We’re building a new substation on the east end of the property to accommodate the new buses and future buses when we start to renovate the bus barn,” he said. Jaminet noted that new electric buses are already on order, and the hope is to have the building ready to house them when they arrive.

“This building is going to be a brick structure with new overhead doors and the ability to house a solar canopy on the roof. That will also be coupled with the new solar canopy project also on the east end in the future,” Jaminet said.

Harris said WRTA also hopes the new building will spur more economic investment along the lower Mahoning Avenue corridor.

Projects are already in progress nearby, including more than $913,000 in upgrades to the B&O Station and Spring Commons Park, as well as the incoming LOOP Youngstown arts and cultural center at the 11,400-square-foot former Comfort Keepers building.

“So, we’re hoping that with all this new activity going on, that some of the other companies that are along the corridor will also improve their properties to just make this part of Mahoning really, really nice,” Harris said.