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YOUNGSTOWN -- A $350,000 grant to help keep the Sparkle Market in Cornersburg and the $350,000 sale of the former Bottom Dollar grocery store building are on Youngstown City Council's Wednesday agenda, but passage at the meeting is very uncertain.
That's because both ordinances were supposed to first be discussed at a Monday community planning and economic development (CPED) committee meeting that was canceled.
The CPED committee last met July 13 with members expressing skepticism over the Sparkle economic stabilization grant.
Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward and CPED committee chairman, said Friday that work is being done to schedule a committee meeting next week. But if it doesn't happen Tuesday, Oliver said he will ask council to move the requests for the Sparkle funding and the Bottom Dollar building sale to the CPED committee for further discussions instead of put them up for votes Wednesday.
Oliver said at the July 13 CPED meeting that he didn't "have a problem with supporting or maintaining this one store on the West Side," but he then spent much more time questioning the funding and asked "what makes Sparkle any different than any other struggling business in the city that needs those funds?"
Oliver said Friday that the city shouldn't "risk $350,000 on something that's not a good investment. It's a risk and a bad investment. The $350,000 can be used for other businesses that need capital and support from the city."
Oliver also pointed out that the owners of the Cornersburg Sparkle sold their former store on Western Reserve Road in Beaver Township for $2.2 million in August.
"I'm not sure the city's money is still needed," Oliver said. "They've got money from the sale."
Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th Ward, said he agrees that a CPED meeting is first needed, and also questioned if giving the money to Sparkle is in the city's best interests.
"In these times where everyone is stretching pennies, we need to do a complete and thorough review. I'm very concerned about this. I support my colleagues in saying we need to have additional discussions."
DeMaine Kitchen, CPED director, said the administration was prepared to talk about the Sparkle grant at Monday's committee meeting, which was canceled, as well as during an August CPED committee meeting that also was canceled.
"We were ready to discuss all of this, but we didn't get a chance so we put it on council's agenda," Kitchen said. "We still need them to consider it. It's their purview to put it to CPED (committee). But they've had information about Sparkle for one-and-a-half or two months and its impact on the neighborhood."
Sparkle, 3623 S. Meridian Road, is the only "full-service" supermarket left in the city with three Save-A-Lot grocery stores in Youngstown, Kitchen said.
Kitchen pointed out that Councilman Pat Kelly, D-5th Ward, requested help for Sparkle.
Kitchen said: "It's worth trying to save it. If council doesn't think it's worth saving then the administration won't fight it."
At the July 13 CPED meeting, Vince Furrie Jr. and Joe Vitullo, Sparkle's owners, said the Cornersburg store is struggling and is in danger of closing.
The Sparkle grant proposal, sponsored by Mayor Derrick McDowell, states: "The closing of the store will create a food desert, which will have a very serious impact to the health and welfare of city citizens, and the economic stability grant program will provide a financially sustainable long-term solution to provide necessary grocery services."
The grant includes a "clawback provision if certain standards are not met," such as requiring Sparkle to stay open for at least five years after it receives the city funding. That clawback amount is reduced by $70,000 annually until the five-year mark is reached.
The city funding can only be used to purchase grocery inventory, food and household products and other merchandise to be sold at the location.
As a safeguard for the grant, the city would be given "a second-priority open-end mortgage and security agreement encumbering the property," according to the proposed agreement.
BOTTOM DOLLAR
The Bottom Dollar legislation would authorize the board of control to sell the long-vacant building on Glenwood Avenue for $350,000 to Potential Development, a pre-K through grade 12 school system for students with autism.
Potential Development submitted the lone proposal to buy the building by the Aug. 12 deadline.
The proposal states Potential Development plans to invest $1,066,067 into the building for a K-3 school.
The Bottom Dollar building is within two miles of Potential Development's three other locations.
Kitchen said he supports the proposal and the building would be in good hands with Potential Development.
The Bottom Dollar building has been vacant since January 2015 when the grocery store chain was sold to Aldi Inc., which closed it and all Bottom Dollar locations, including two others in the city.
The city used $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan funds in 2024 to renovate the 18,285-square-foot building with plans for the Village of Healing to operate an infant mortality clinic as the main tenant. That didn't work out.
Oliver said Friday that he wants to make sure the city is able to sell the building because it used the ARP funding for a different purpose.
Oliver said: "If the original intent of ARP money isn't used are we responsible for the project payment? I want to make sure we're able to sell it after using ARP money."
JOB CREATION GRANT
Council is being asked Wednesday to permit the board of control to finalize a job creation grant agreement with BBM Railway Equipment to relocate its business operations from 5211 Mahoning Ave. in Austintown to 101 Andrews Ave. in the city.
A railway engineering and testing equipment supply company, BBM is a subsidiary of Brilex Industries. Brilex renovated its Andrews Avenue location to house BBM, Kitchen said.
The incentive would provide partial payments of the city's 2.75% income tax paid by BBM employees to the company in the following year.
The company plans to have 13 employees in 2027, the first year of the incentive. It currently has nine, Kitchen said.
In that first year, BBM would get a 75% payment of the income taxes paid by its employees. The legislation states with 13 employees and an annual payroll of $1.15 million, BBM would receive $23,719 in the first year.
In the second year, the payment drops to 50% with 14 employees and a $1.35 million annual payroll. BBM would get a $18,563 payment.
In the third year, the payment declines to 25% with 15 workers and a $1.55 million annual payroll. BBM would get a $10,656 payment in the final year of the agreement.
If the employment benchmarks are met, BBM would receive $52,938 for the three years.
Kitchen said: "It's a minimal incentive to get them to relocate. We'll get that payroll back in the next three years."
UNION AGREEMENT
Council will consider Wednesday ratifying a three-year contract with its wastewater department union. The contract calls for a 5.75% raise, retroactive to Jan. 1, and then 4% starting with the Dec. 26 payroll and 2.5% in 2028.
The city does pattern bargaining, meaning the highest pay raises given to one union in a particular year are then given to all other unions.
The city's fire, police patrol and police ranking officers unions received 4% raises for 2025 and 2026 with the latter two unions set to get 4% in 2027.
The wastewater department union members received a 2.25% raise in 2025 so the 5.75% raise for 2026 is the 4% raise given to all city unions with an additional 1.75% to make up for the difference in 2025.
Wastewater union members are also getting $1,000 annually in "exposure pay," up from the $805 they receive each year, and an increase from $125 to $225 in annual work boots-safety shoes reimbursements.
The contract allows the city to implement a six-month trial period for 12-hour shifts for plant operators, who are at the wastewater plant around the clock, with an additional 80 cents paid per hour for those on the midnight shift and overtime increased from 1.5 times regular pay to 1.75 times regular pay for those working extra hours from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. After the trial period ends, it can be extended or the two sides can revert back to eight-hour shifts.
PARKING ORDINANCE
Council will vote Wednesday to defeat another ordinance amendment to ban the parking of vehicles on the front yards of residential properties.
Council voted Aug. 17 to amend the city's general ordinances on the ban with an amendment to the city's parking ordinance proposed.
At a Sept. 1 council parking committee meeting, most members spoke in opposition to changing the ordinance, saying it was unnecessary and the current language is clear. Council members said city police should enforce the current ordinance, which bans vehicles from parking on front lawns.