Home Savings Begins $1.2M Project at Boardman Office

BOARDMAN, Ohio – Workers from Roger Kreps Drywall & Plastering Co. Inc. carried sheets of drywall inside the Boardman office of the Home Savings and Loan Co. late Tuesday afternoon as bank officers and township trustees got ready to have their pictures taken outside tossing shovelfuls of dirt toward the parking lot.

Inside, tellers were still serving customers as the drywall workers stacked the sheets to west side of the lobby.

Just east of the old sidewalk – the concrete was drying on the temporary new one — President and CEO Gary Small, commercial lender Diana Hogg and branch manager Frank Constantino joined township Trustee Tom Costello as, to applause, they took hold of the four shovels as they tried to coordinate (without success) shoveling the loosened dirt and pitching it in unison.

It was the official kickoff of the $1.2 million renovation of Home Savings’ office on Market Street just south of the Southern Park Mall. As Small noted, it is the busiest in the 31-branch network and has seen only cosmetic improvements since it opened in 1971. Some 15,000 customers a month visit the branch, either parking their cars and walking inside or using one of the three drive-thru lanes, one of which offers an ATM.

Customers who walk inside will use the new sidewalk to enter the temporary entrance.

Inside the drywall will be set up to reroute foot traffic as the renovation progresses.

Home Savings engaged PWCampbell of Pittsburgh, recognized for its expertise in the design of bank offices, to design and oversee the renovation. Lou Joseph, Home Savings director of facilities, called the appearance of the building when it’s completed in January “industrial contemporary.”

He, Constantino and other Home Savings staff spent four to five months working with PWCampbell on the new look for the office including selecting the furniture.

It will continue to have six teller windows – that remains unchanged – but the renovated lobby will offer customers a self-service kiosk, more offices so they can meet with Home Savings officers in greater privacy and security, Small said.

The office will continue to have safe deposit boxes and, during the renovation, remain compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Home Savings is making every effort to keep the office as close to business-as-normal as before, said Executive Vice President Barbara J. Radis, who oversees Home Savings retail operations. The hours of the Boardman office remain the same. Customers who transact business from their cars should find the drive-thru access the same. As many as three spaces in the parking lot might be occupied by construction workers, but that should be it.

“The whole idea is to improve the customer experience,” Radis said.

While work on the project should be completed sometime in January, Home Savings will wait until the weather breaks next spring to celebrate the renovated office.

Pictured: Gary Small, president and CEO of Home Savings, and Frank Hierro, Mahoning Valley Regional president, show how remodeled bank office will look.

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