New Mahoning County elections home base eyed
Board finds ‘better’ site for HQ; Bottom Dollar relegated to ‘backup’
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YOUNGSTOWN -- After saying for more than three months that the former Bottom Dollar grocery store was the top choice for its new home, Mahoning County Board of Elections officials no longer see it that way and are considering another building.
Board Chairman David Betras said Friday: "The Bottom Dollar has become a backup plan for what we're currently looking at. We are looking at a better building in the city of Youngstown. (The other location) is a perfect building for us. We'll see what happens."
Elections board officials did not want to say what building has now moved into the top choice for its offices, but it's in Youngstown with enough space and parking to accommodate in-person early voters, equipment and parking.
Board Director Tom McCabe said of Bottom Dollar: "It's not out, but we're considering other options. The board is continuing to look. We have time. We're looking at some different options. We're keeping our power dry. We have one particular location in mind."
McCabe said of the Bottom Dollar location on Glenwood Avenue on the city's South Side: "It's always been a safety concern with my staff and random voters who come up to me. Two people were killed in the middle of the afternoon right near it. It's not a safe neighborhood. I have no problem working in Youngstown. I've worked here for 28 years."
Kelvin Crenshaw was killed Wednesday in a shooting on Glenwood Avenue while Terrance Simms Jr. was killed March 20 on Canfield Road, near Glenwood Avenue.
The board won't move to the W.J. Cobbin Office Tower on Fifth Avenue as it's not a good fit, McCabe and Betras said. The building's owner has offered the space.
The elections board voted 4-0 on July 7 to move ahead with relocating its warehouse from Oakhill Renaissance Place, a former hospital on the city's South Side where it has been located for about 20 years, to the former Bottom Dollar location. The plan would also move the early-voting center from Oakhill to Bottom Dollar next year.
The plan would have required an agreement for the city to sell the former grocery store to the Western Reserve Port Authority in order for the board to lease it as well as approval by the county commissioners to pay for the needed upgrades.
But unlike previous conversations, the board voted July 7 to have its operations, excluding the warehouse and early-voting center, at a planned county government center to be built by 2028 or possibly 2029 at the site of the former Eastern Gateway Community College building and parking deck downtown.
Elections officials had dismissed relocating to that proposed facility almost immediately after county commissioners in January signed an agreement with the Western Reserve Port Authority for the project.
But that changed as part of a compromise to relocate to the former Bottom Dollar. Subsequent to that, the board's plan to occupy two buildings wasn't warmly received.
Asked about the former Bottom Dollar no longer being the board's top choice to relocate, Betras said: "Right now, we have another building in mind. Bottom Dollar is a backup plan until we can figure out if the better building is workable."
As for what changed, Betras said: "We found another building that's better. We're in negotiations for that now. If we can figure that out, it will be our top choice."
After touring the long-vacant grocery store building April 9, Betras and other county elections officials touted it as the ideal location for the board to relocate. Until the July 7 meeting, the board had said it wanted to have its entire operations out of Oakhill and at Bottom Dollar as soon as possible.
DeMaine Kitchen, the city's community planning and economic development director, who has been skeptical of the board of elections' talk, said Friday he wasn't surprised by the change.
Kitchen said there hasn't been any formal negotiations initiated by the board of elections or WRPA, which was supposed to buy the former Bottom Dollar and rent it to the board for at least 20 years.
Kitchen said after the board of elections' July 7 decision: "They're taking a vote without getting any concrete directions. Their process seems backwards. Our process hasn't started. Until it's official, it's all speculation."
At the request of the administration, city council voted July 15 to seek formal proposals for the building with an Aug. 12 deadline for submissions.
Kitchen said Friday, after learning about the board's change: "That's the whole reason to have requests for proposals. We don't have time as a city to wait for people to figure out what to do. After Aug. 12, we'll choose from whatever is the best proposal. If there's no proposal, we'll reevaluate. No harm, no foul if we don't get anything. Maybe (the board of elections) will reconsider. As of right now, the process is still open. A lot can change between now and Aug. 12. We'll see what happens when the deadline hits, and we'll evaluate what we get."
Betras and McCabe wouldn't rule out submitting a proposal for Bottom Dollar, but both were noncommittal.
Betras said after the board's July 7 vote he hoped the city and the WRPA could "work out the deal quickly" for the former Bottom Dollar store so the relocation of the millions of dollars of voting equipment could move there from Oakhill, where there's been five water leaks since Sept. 29, including May 29 and June 2. There's been minor damage, but elections officials say it's only a matter of time before something serious happens at the 125-year-old building.
With that vote, the board had decided to wait to move its staff, excluding those at the warehouse, to the downtown government center until it is ready in about two or more years.
But Betras said he's concerned Oakhill isn't safe for board of elections employees and they would have to be moved sooner.
The city used $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan funds in 2024 to renovate the 18,285-square-foot former Bottom Dollar building with plans for the Village of Healing to operate an infant mortality clinic as the main tenant.
Renovations weren't made to the rest of the building, but the Village of Healing is not moving there.
Bottom Dollar closed in January 2015 after the grocery store company was sold to Aldi Inc. It's been vacant ever since.