YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Central Square organizations are welcoming a long-discussed bus pull-off lane that would improve safety for visitors patronizing their establishments.  

When it meets next week, City Council will consider authorizing the Board of Control to advertise for bids and enter into a contract for a bus pull-off lane on the west side of Market Street, in front of the Oh Wow! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology.

The project, which is estimated to cost $295,000, also would include the installation of two previously purchased bus shelters on Fifth Avenue. Funds for the project will come from collections of auto license fees, according to the ordinance that council members will consider Wednesday. 

The pull-off would be helpful in multiple ways, said Katie Seminara-DeToro, Oh Wow executive director. It would help make drop-offs for school field trips safer and mitigate the ongoing problem of vehicles driving onto Central Square.

In addition, on weekends in particular, when Oh Wow hosts several birthday parties, the new lane would provide a safe drop-off for individuals who would otherwise have to walk several blocks to get there, and for people who need to drop off supplies for an event. 

“It’s beneficial not only for Oh Wow” but for Huntington National Bank and First National Bank, both of which have branches on Central Square, Seminara-DeToro added.

FNB, in a statement from a bank spokesperson, welcomed the addition of the pull-off for its own customers, other downtown businesses and Oh Wow, which it has long supported. That support included assisting with its purchase of the McCrory Building six years ago. 

“In addition to the enrichment it brings to our neighbors, Oh Wow is an important economic driver for downtown,” the spokesperson said. “We applaud efforts to expand safe access to the center, making it so that more people can easily utilize its resources, our financial services and the other businesses and attractions Youngstown has to offer.”

Sharon Letson, executive director of Youngstown CityScape, a nonprofit that focuses on revitalization in the greater downtown Youngstown area, emphasized the improvement to children’s safety that the pull-off would provide.  

“These are the kind of amenities that you have to have in the city,” she said. 

‘Space to Grow’

During Wednesday’s meeting, council members also will consider amending the ordinance it passed in October to contract for renovations to the former clerk of courts space on the second floor of city hall, increasing the maximum amount to $425,587 from $395,000. 

The city hired Brock Builders, North Lima, to convert the space into an office for the city’s department of community planning and economic development.

The move will more than double space for the department, which is now on the fourth floor of City Hall, said DeMaine Kitchen, CPED director. He expects to be in the new space in May.   

“We need the space to grow,” he remarked. Currently, the department lacks the physical capacity to bring on staff, he explained. 

Additionally, the move to the new space will “professionalize” the department, he said. The offices will be more conducive for meeting with business owners, entrepreneurs and community partners. It will be brighter, more inviting and “more appropriate for economic development and community development work,” he said.