Business Journal Classic: When Lake Milton Was Drained, Became a State Park

LAKE MILTON – To Megan Magnetta, executive director of Mahoning County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Lake Milton State Park is a “hidden gem” that not enough people – potential visitors or locals – know about.
Though known for boating, it also offers fishing, hiking, archery, hiking and other recreational options.
Today a popular recreational resource for the Mahoning Valley, the future of what is now Lake Milton State Park was far less certain in early 1986, when area politicians were scrambling to secure funding to prevent the breaching of Milton dam. READ MORE

Drawing Jim Traficant, the Legend

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – If there were a single political figure that defined the post-industrial era of the Mahoning Valley, it was the late James A. Traficant Jr. 
The son of a truck driver, Traficant personified the angry, anti-establishment sentiment that gripped much of the region in the wake of the steel shutdowns.
As sheriff of Mahoning County, he elected to go to jail for contempt of court rather than execute court orders to evict unemployed steelworkers from their homes (He would soon serve those orders anyway but you get the symbolism). To further enhance his image of a tough guy from a struggling steel town, he beat a federal indictment – acting as his own attorney, no less – that charged him with accepting bribes from local mobsters to help fund his 1980 run for sheriff. READ MORE

Business Journal Classic: How Haber’s Store Became Downtown Gem

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The downtown landmark today known as the Commerce Building was at the heart of one of the most unusual real estate transactions in local business history – after it nearly became the site of a federal building.
Repurposed from a furniture store, the building today houses accounting firms, law offices, marketing and video production companies, a high-end clothier, nonprofit organizations and the showroom of a worldwide distributor of tableware for the hospitality industry in a room that was once a social club for the region’s elite. READ MORE

Business Journal Classic: Politics Nearly Derailed Girard Travel Center

GIRARD, Ohio – The Petro Travel Center in Girard has served motorists from over-the-road truckers to drivers of passenger vehicles since it opened in May 1990 and now is surrounded by similar fueling stations serving commercial and noncommercial customers.
But it almost didn’t happen as parochial politics nearly derailed what was in 1988 described as a $6.5 million project.
The site, at Interstate 80 and Salt Springs Road, is part of TravelCenters of America, which purchased Petro in 2007. It is one of more than 300 such centers that TravelCenters – purchased by BP last year – operates in 44 states. Today it employs 100 area residents. READ MORE

Technology Changes Education, Career Choices

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – When Mahoning County Career and Technical Center Superintendent John Zehentbauer started as an instructor at the center in 1991, the equipment students used in classes lasted and remained industry-relevant for 20 years.
Now technology changes mean a much shorter useful life for equipment. And that’s just one of the changes across both K-12 and higher education over the last 40 years. Open enrollment and student debt weren’t major considerations then either. But they’re significant factors today.
Mahoning and Shenango Valley educators report shifts in focus, technological advances and new opportunities over the past four decades. READ MORE

Business Journal Classic: The Pentagon Payroll Center That Wasn’t

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The effort to secure a federal Defense Finance and Accounting Service center was one of the first large-scale efforts by Mahoning Valley leaders to achieve a regional goal.
The objective was to land one of up to seven payroll processing centers, each of which was expected to create 4,000 to 7,000 jobs, according to a story in the MidApril 1992 Business Journal.
Then-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. asked the Western Reserve Port Authority, the new two-county entity formed to assume operation of what was then Youngstown Municipal Airport, to serve as the bidding agent for the $100 million project. READ MORE

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