Correspondent photo / John Patrick Gatta This is the Niles sign and flags at Niles Public Square that greet visitors when they come downtown. The area was officially opened during a ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday.

NILES — The city’s new public square opened Saturday afternoon following the 4th of July festivities.

The ribbon cutting came about a month after the ribbon cutting for Riverside Park, which features a canoe and kayak launch, amphitheater, nature playground and stamped concrete pathways. The project broke ground in August.

The $3.5 million Downtown Riverfront Revitalization Project, which includes both Niles Public Square and Riverside Park, was fully funded by the Appalachian Community Grant Program through the Governor’s Office of Appalachia and the Ohio Department of Development.

The project was a partnership between Niles and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments (which applied for the grant), with MS Consultants serving as designers and Integra Excavating as general contractor.

Niles Mayor Steve Mientkiewicz said the project’s journey started in 2018 with a planning meeting, where officials discussed ways to drive up water recreation by opening and utilizing the Mahoning River and establishing parks and recreation along it.

He also called it a catalyst for economic development.

“In 2018, the Mahoning River Mayors Corridor Association, along with the (Western Reserve) Port Authority, Eastgate (Regional Council of Governments), the Regional Chamber — all came together to figure out how Trumbull and Mahoning counties come together as one,” Mientkiewicz said at the park’s ribbon cutting. “And to establish these types of recreational areas on the Mahoning River in our downtown areas again to drive that quality of life and recreation aspect.”

On Saturday, the mayor said, “We’re very proud of Niles Public Square. I hope that the community is proud, first and foremost, of what we have here, a major transformation on the corner of State Street and Main Street from what this was. Previously, this had been an issue in downtown Niles. It was a long-standing issue, and to see what it is now is truly transformative, and it’s something that, again, I believe that the entire community should be proud of.

“We’re not done yet. In 2018, we set a goal to revitalize downtown. This is one piece to that project. Coming up, you’re going to notice even more down here — $4.5 million in two separate grants that’s going to be conducted to transform all of our signalization from Main Street all the way to North Road. That’s a $2 million CMAQ grant and another $2.5 million in the transportation alternate program grant that’s going to take care of all of our lighting, decorative crosswalks, and really help with the streetscape in downtown Niles. Plenty of investment, plenty of priority to our downtown area, and, again, this is all for you, the Niles community.”

Kathy Zook, Appalachian Regional Commission program manager for Eastgate, said the Niles project was exactly the transformational project the program sought.

“You nailed it. This whole process has taken a couple of years, and it would not have been possible without the collaboration of the mayor and his team, the governor’s office, Eastgate and MS Consultants. It’s been a privilege to work to accomplish the call to make our community a place for folks who really want to come and enjoy what we have to offer and raise their family,” Zook said.

“I’m very excited to see what possibilities this unlocks for our city, having a public meeting place like this, having live music, food trucks, a place to come back to downtown and give people a purpose to be down here, and a recreational sense of it. I’m very, very excited to see where this could go. I hope this is the first of a snowball effect, and we can end up having a lot more events like this,” said Niles Councilman Aaron Johnstone, D-2nd Ward.

Mientkiewicz said previously the park area in 2018 was fully overgrown and seeing the Mahoning River wasn’t possible, noting the city was storing telephone poles for the light department at the park site.

“There was probably 40 feet of spoiled dirt that was dumped over the years that just created a barrier along the Mahoning River,” Mientkiewicz said. “This property was actually owned by FirstEnergy — the city of Niles didn’t even own the property — so it was a long process to acquire the property, to plan for all of this, to make sure the funding aligned.”

Eastgate Director Jim Kinnick said Riverside Park was just one of 10 projects the organization was an administrator for, noting a lot of them align with the Mahoning River.

“We have been spearheading the effort to get the dams out of the river. We have three more coming out this year, early next year,” Kinnick said. “And you really will be able to kayak the entire length from northern Trumbull to southern Mahoning.”