YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Some 15 volunteers from Enbridge Gas Ohio joined employees from the city’s streets and parks and recreation departments and Youngstown CityScape personnel Friday to plant an assortment of dogwood trees and flowers, including pansies, mums and hydrangeas, in the east garden bunker wall facing South Champion Street.
Over the past three weeks, the existing plants were removed from the bunker.
Friday’s planting event and a $25,000 check presentation to Youngstown CityScape served as a local launch for Fueling Futures, Enbridge Gas Ohio’s corporate giving and volunteer initiative, according to Steven Rogers, director of utility operations. That $25,000 gift, combined with the collective volunteer effort taking place, “continues to underscore our commitment to this community,” he added.
“When I look at what we’ve accomplished in a short three weeks, it is amazing,” said Sharon Letson, Youngstown CityScape executive director. “This is what public-private partnerships should look like.” Three weeks ago, 25-year-old trees “with 50-year-old roots” were pushing the beds apart, she said.
Enbridge has operated locally for nearly 130 years, first as East Ohio Gas and most recently as Dominion, Rogers said. Ohio is the only state where all four of Enbridge’s business units – renewables, liquids, pipelines and gas distribution – operate, he added.
“Despite the name change, our commitment to the Valley does remain unchanged,” he said.
“We’ve been through a lot downtown, but we continue to rise and move forward,” Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said. “We want to continue to improve our city, improve our lifestyle, our quality of life for our downtown.
Councilman Julius Oliver, 1st Ward, acknowledged he had received several calls over the past few weeks from people alarmed at the removal of the trees and plants from the garden wall.
“Sometimes you just got to trust the process, because nobody knew what was going on until it was announced,” he said. “We’re planting new things. That took ripping out the old things, so now we’ve got to go through the growing pains of something new that’s going to be beautiful in the future.”
All downtowns have faced challenges since the Covid-19 pandemic, but the public-private-nonprofit partnerships that that have come together in downtown Youngstown “are planting the seeds for a long time,” said Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
Coviello pointed to the Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense, which was announced in February, and the agreement among area arts and cultural institutions that was announced recently, as well as Friday’s announcement of Enbridge’s donation to CityScape. He also alluded to the long-term strategy that is being developed for downtown that is being funded by the Regional Chamber Foundation, JobsOhio and the city.
Left unaddressed during the presentation was the fact that the work was taking place only yards away from a natural gas explosion caused when an Enbridge natural gas line that had been labeled as inactive was cut, causing the death of a Chase Bank employee and the eventual demolition of the Realty Building.
“Safety is our No. 1 core value,” Rogers said. He also expressed sympathy for those affected by the May 2024 event. Friday’s event was about continuing Enbridge’s partnerships with organizations like CityScape and with the city, “and really focusing on our investments into this community,” he said.
Pictured at top: Enbridge Gas Ohio employees Tony Bragg and Jennifer Schaaf plant flowers Friday.