CANFIELD, Ohio – It’s a part of the Mahoning Valley’s industrial past, and its redevelopment is key to the region’s economic and environmental turnaround.
Redevelopment of the Mahoning Riverfront was the topic of a Business Journal roundtable Feb. 25 at Courtyard by Marriott.
Panelists included Justin Mondok, planning and development director at Eastgate Regional Council of Governments; Gavin Switzer, board chairman of Friends of the Mahoning River; Sarah Lown, public financial manager for the Western Reserve Port Authority; Stephanie Gilchrist, Youngstown Economic Development director; Struthers Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller; and Katie Phillips, urban planner at MS Consultants Inc.
Andrea Wood, president and publisher of The Business Journal, moderated the discussion. Topics included the river’s history, efforts to clean it up, obstacles to the cleanup and progress so far. The full transcript of the roundtable discussion will be printed in the MidMarch edition of The Business Journal and on BusinessJournalDaily.com.
For the past several years, Eastgate has spearheaded the effort to remove “low-head dams that remained from our industrial legacy that no longer serve much of an appreciable purpose,” Mondok explained.
The agency has assisted local communities in pursuing a better future for the Mahoning River in improving the water quality and in dreaming of what comes next, he added.
For a long time, the community turned its back on the river. It was used purely as an industrial outlet.
“With everything that we do in community development, we have to recognize that there’s a risk and a reward for a lot of decisions,” Mondok said. “If we’re making a decision, we need to make sure that the reward we’re receiving in return is beneficial and is something that we’re willing to make the deal on.”
Within the past several years, those proactive community leaders have begun to embrace the river as an asset and recognize there’s a future for it, the Eastgate official said.
Switzer said water quality is an issue with the river’s future. Fifty years ago, it likely was viewed as a dead river because of pollutants. About 20 years ago, people began to understand the need for cleanup efforts.
“Then as recently as five years, people are really focusing on removing the low-head dams and getting the river back to its original floodplain,” Switzer said. “And really focusing on the whole picture of it – that it’s not just a Youngstown issue or a Warren issue, but it’s an issue that encompasses, I think, seven counties. And every little thing we do on the river affects everybody downstream.”
“By removing the low-head dams and restoring the natural stream order on the river, it’s going to clean itself,” he said.
That’s especially true where the river is attached to wetlands, which act as kidneys for the river, Switzer added.
“For me, the importance of the river comes to me two-fold, from the economics standpoint of the city of Youngstown and looking at what our neighboring cities and what other cities in the state are doing …” Gilchrist said.
She mentioned Cleveland and its $3.5 million investment in its riverfront.
“For us, what we would love to see happen is to look at the future of the riverfront,” Gilchrist said. “Yes, 50 years ago, it was polluted. Then 20 years ago we started to see people, ‘Wait, you’re kayaking on the river?’ And then even five years ago, just the interest starting to pique.”
She started to look at how the city can revive the riverfront for families with attractions as more than just a concert venue but also an opportunity to enjoy nature.
The city has one of the largest stretches of the river in downtown’s backyard, Gilchrist added.
“In addition to that, many of you know we’ve really been focused on Crab Creek development, and that creek flows right into the river,” she said.
Issues with that creek affect the Mahoning, Gilchrist added.
“So now we’re looking at how can we clean up – we’re looking at brownfield grants,” she said. “We’re looking forward to seeing a community come back vibrant and not just from one venue or genre but also from our natural resources.”
Miller said the Mahoning River was the main hub of the city of Struthers many years ago. But now, you wouldn’t know it’s there if you were driving by because it’s hidden by trees.
“And we’ve been talking for years now, since I’ve been in office, about how do we uncover that? How do we make that the main hub again of our city?” she said.
A river running through downtown distinguishes Struthers from many other communities, Miller explained. It needs to be connected to residents and be part of the city’s future plans. And as a mother of two, she wants more outdoor recreational opportunities. The city has made progress toward that end, seeking grants and other funding to continue the effort.
“So bringing the kayaking and bringing different activities to the river is something that we’ve been very passionate about,” the mayor said. “We’ve been going after grants and after a lot of money, trying to develop that riverfront, and we were successful.”
Lown has been involved with the river in some capacity since 1996 when she was a member of the Mahoning River Consortium.
“Fifty years ago, there was about 25 million gallons of contaminants being dumped into the river each day …” she said, adding that some of it was raw sewage, some industrial.
The state wanted industry to clean up the river, but the steel mills closed and the river remained contaminated, Lown explained.
In the mid-1990s, the late former U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant led an effort to clean up 33 miles of the Mahoning River, seeking $100 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
About 20 years ago the consortium and the Army Corps secured money for studies and reconnaissance work for the river cleanup. That work included educating school children and building community support.
“So the shift started about 20 years ago, where people began to see and began to understand that the river has potential,” Lown said.
But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency informed the Army Corps of Engineers that per the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation Liability Act, in order to move forward, organizers would have to go back to the 33 river miles, trace who had done the polluting in the past and file legal action against them for recovery.
“That was not a reasonable action,” Lown said.
Three of the nine low-head dams identified have been removed in the effort led by Eastgate.
MS Consultants worked on project management of the dam removals and the combined sewer overflow elimination projects for Youngstown.
“So, recently, we secured nearly $12 million with Eastgate Regional Council of Governments through the Appalachian Community Grant program to develop five parks along the Mahoning River in Trumbull and Mahoning County,” Phillips said. “So those are happening and underway …”
That work is ongoing.
“… [T]he funding that was secured is going to develop further, five different parks along the river, beginning in Lowellville, Struthers, Youngstown, Niles and Warren …,” she said.
They’re slated for completion in October 2026.
Pictured at top: Front row, from left: Stephanie Gilchrist, Katie Phillips and Sarah Lown. Back row, from left: Justin Mondok, Mayor Catherine Cercone Miller and Gavin Switzer.