WRPA Hires Engineer to Review Eastern Gateway Parking Deck

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Western Reserve Port Authority has hired an engineer to review the Eastern Gateway Community College-owned parking deck to determine its condition – and is interested in acquiring it.

The port authority has a structural engineer on staff and previously helped the college assess its parking deck, said Anthony Trevena, port authority executive director.

“We’ve reengaged with that particular company again just to kind of see how it’s progressed, how much more it needs, what it would need to bring it up to speed, what are some of the options with the future of the deck.”

Trevena said the port authority hasn’t ruled out acquiring the building.

“But first you want to assess the structure and look at the situation,” the executive director said.

The port authority board voted in October to buy the Commerce Building, 201 E. Commerce St., for $2.5 million, and City Centre One, 100 E. Federal St., for $3.5 million, next to the deck.

“We’re interested, but that’s a decision for the state, and we want to be a good partner with them and help them come up with what would be the proper assessment with what needs to be done for the future,” Trevena said.

The college owns two buildings downtown, the one that includes the parking deck, also called Thomas Humphries Hall, and the former Harshman building. Much of the parking deck has been closed since August 2023 due to disrepair of its entrance and exit ramps. 

Fred Ransier, Eastern Gateway executive director, pointed out Wednesday at the college’s governance authority meeting that the building is in the center of downtown.

One of the governance authority members asked if the Youngstown buildings were for sale.

“At this point in time, all of the properties are restricted due to the ongoing federal litigation,” said Kimberly Murnieks, governance authority chairwoman and the director of the Ohio Office of Budget and Management. 

That ties the hands of the governance authority, which was appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine, to oversee the college’s dissolution.

“With all of the uncertainty, we can’t plan,” Ransier added. “That’s the impact. But we’ll get there.”

Student Resource Center, the company with which Eastern Gateway contracted for its free college benefit program, sued the college in 2022 in federal court in Columbus, citing breach of contract.

The free college program enabled union members to attend classes and earn degrees from Eastern Gateway at no cost to them. Students from across the country took advantage of the offering, attending classes online, and enrollment swelled from about 4,000 to more than 40,000.

The program, though, contributed to the college’s undoing. 

In August 2022, the U.S. Department of Education placed Eastern Gateway on Heightened Cash Monitoring 2, meaning the college had to use its own resources to credit student accounts and wait for federal student aid reimbursements from the federal department.

Also in 2022, U.S. DOE ordered the college to end the free college program, saying Eastern Gateway was charging students who received Pell grants more than those who didn’t.

The college sued the department, and the two sides settled the case in August 2023. The free college program ended, and enrollment dropped.

“We’re on the judge’s calendar, not our own,” Ransier said. “Criminal matters take precedence over civil matters, so oftentimes when you’re on the civil docket, it’s even more uncertain.”

Things can get delayed indefinitely. That becomes a problem, the executive director said, if June 30 is the wind down date for the college. That’s when money from the state to dissolve the college runs out.

It could be a problem, Ransier said.

“Hopefully, it won’t be a problem, but we have to at least prepare,” he said.

Many employees have left the college, but some remain, including those in the technology department. Technology is essential, and some employees must remain to speak with the state auditor’s office, the executive director explained.

“They don’t expect their audits to be completed on our timeline, and they will want the information we have …,” Ransier said. 

The college also must determine how to close, what happens to its records and how it can continue to cooperate with auditors and investigators.

“That’s something that will have to come to us from some higher level,” he said. “I don’t have any answers. This is the first time. Nobody can give me an answer.”

Eastern Gateway is the first Ohio public higher learning institution to close.

Besides the regular audit, last January the state auditor’s office special investigations unit, along with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Computer Crimes Unit, the U.S. Secret Service, the Columbus Division of Police’s Digital Forensics Unit and the Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center, searched offices at the Steubenville campus related to then-ongoing investigations concerning Eastern Gateway.  

Ransier also encouraged governance authority members to thank employees when they see them. Although they’re not being investigated, they’re being interviewed by investigators because they have access to records.

“I just wanted to give you some idea, at a higher level, what’s going through the minds of people,” the executive director explained. “They’re reading our minutes. They’re reading newspapers, getting information. They’re quite aware of what’s going on. This is their community. This is their livelihood.”

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.