YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Mayor Derrick McDowell emphasized the importance of the role that collaboration will play during the four years of his term during remarks to the Rotary Club of Youngstown.
McDowell shared insights from his first 60 days in office in what was billed as a State of the City Address during the club’s weekly meeting Wednesday at Wick Park Pavilion. He shared what he described as “a blueprint” for the city during a roughly 15-minute speech, followed by a question-and-answer period.
“In the last 60 days, there have been some wonderful beginnings, and what that leads to is a coming together and a fight to stay together so that we can produce the results that we’re all looking for as a community,” the mayor said.
McDowell told the club’s members and guests he has standing meetings with organizations that include the Mahoning County Board of Commissioners, Lake to River Economic Development, Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber and the city’s municipal court judges.
Those are “partners that are going to help us deliver from a state level, a county level. We’ve invited them into economic development to take a posture that says we want to be coached up from the city to the county to the state to the federal level and all the way back down,” he said.
“This administration absolutely is a collaborative one,” he said.
“This new administration is just very open, and they are ready to work,” said Councilwoman Samantha Turner, 3rd Ward, a past club president. “They are meeting with community stakeholders; they are meeting with partners; and they’re meeting with neighbors. And that’s very important.”
McDowell pointed to the importance of economic development in his administration, connecting it to the ability of the city to achieve its other objectives. He said he has tasked DeMaine Kitchen, director of community planning and economic development, with “the responsibility of delivering on projects” for the city.
“I’ve made promises to my community, and those promises can only be kept with one thing, quite honestly, and it’s money,” he remarked.
McDowell alluded to the importance of collaboration as he addressed the fate of the site of the ill-fated Chill Can campus on the East Side, insisting that whatever happens with the property “must delight our community. That is the standard.”
Following the event, he did not offer a particular vision for the property and said he would not talk about what the site could be “before a community gets to dream about what they’d like it to be.” The property is among several included in an agreement with the Western Reserve Port Authority, which empowers the organization to work on the city’s behalf with potential developers.
“That gives us another avenue to pursue economic development opportunities,” he said. “But that’s just one avenue to explore.”
In his remarks during the meeting, McDowell emphasized the push to address the downtown steam heating issues caused by disruptions to SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC’s downtown operations, including during major temperature downturns over his first two months in office. “I can task a new CPED director all I want,” but when the temperature in City Hall is just 57 degrees and Huntington Bank has to close, “we’ve got a problem that I won’t ignore,” he remarked.
He also emphasized the importance of maintaining the city’s parks and talked about the city fire chief’s efforts to ensure agreements with ambulance companies to ensure the city knows what it is getting. He said morale has “completely shifted” within the fire department, and that less mandated overtime is being imposed under the new police chief.
In addition, he praised the city’s response to one of the worst winters the city has experienced in several years, with road crews using every vehicle that was available.
“We knew that if our response to that weather wasn’t immediate, wasn’t effective, that your jobs were at risk. Your ability to get out to work, your ability to get your children to where they needed to go was impacted,” he said.
Additionally, McDowell stressed the importance of education and the need to have a “united front” with all of the organizations in the community that are trying to educate the city’s children. He said he had spoken the day before with representatives of the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County about the five existing branches in the city and “the deeper commitment they’re willing to make, and have been willing to make, to this city when it comes to the resources that they have,” he said.
“If we want people to live here, remain here, return here, education has to be at the forefront of that,” he said.
There are opportunities for the library to partner with the city on issues such as public safety and exploring after-school activities and other areas “so that we can make sure that we know that the youth of the community know we care about them,” said Aimee Fifarek, PLYMC director and CEO.
Members of the club also expressed openness to collaborate with McDowell and his administration. Sharon Letson, executive director of Youngstown CityScape and another past club president, noted the club has been invested in the city for a long time. For the club’s centennial in 2015, members raised funds for extensive renovations to Wick Park Pavilion.
“As a club, we want to continue to be a partner for the betterment of our community,” she said. “I hope as our club and as you go into the next 60 days that we find some other ways to collaborate for our community.”
Gerri Jenkins, current club president, said she looks forward to collaborating with McDowell. “He’s already acted on some things that show that he is interested in benefiting the entire city and its residents,” she said.
While American Rescue Plan funds largely have addressed park upgrades, it is going to take “sweat equity” from relationships with organizations like Youngtown Rotary to accomplish “some of the things that we want to see done,” McDowell said.
Pictured at top: Mayor Derrick McDowell speaks during a Rotary Club of Youngstown meeting Wednesday.