Mayor’s vision for Mahoning River in Warren flowing freely
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WARREN -- More than a decade ago, Warren Mayor Doug Franklin decided to make the Mahoning River "one of the defining priorities of my administration," by joining with the Mahoning River Mayors Association and Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, he said during remarks at Tuesday's Good Morning Warren event.
"Why? Because we know something many successful communities have already learned -- water is one of the greatest development assets your community can have," he said at the Warren City Schools Student Recreation and Wellness Center at Warren G. Harding High School. The event is organized each year by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
Franklin said the work that has been done to develop the river and adjacent properties "will spur economic development while attracting visitors interested in experiencing the natural beauty of a free-flowing river and engaging activities, such as fishing, kayaking, hiking and cycling."
Such activities can be an economic stimulus, he said, adding, "That's why these investments matter."
He said Warren's river of opportunity "perfectly exemplifies how rivers shape communities. Our early growth was fueled entirely by the Mahoning River, and it can once again become an economic and recreational backbone for our city."
When Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine came to Warren this summer to kayak on the Mahoning River after the Summit Street dam had been removed, the trip began at Burbank Park, near North River Road, the northernmost part of the Warren Waterway Trail. Landscaping, fencing, concession stand and batting-cage improvements were made at the park, he said.
South of there, the kayakers went past the Packard Park Pedestrian Bridge, which was closed a couple years ago but is being replaced at a cost of $1.2 million in grant funds, Franklin said. Nearby is the newly constructed trail at Bullhead Park that leads to the bridge.
On the Mahoning Avenue side of the river is the National Packard Museum, which broke ground last month on a 7,400-square foot, $1 million expansion, Franklin said.
Upon approaching the Summit Street Bridge, the former St. Joseph Riverside hospital site can be seen on the right. The building was demolished, and a park was created on the site. A $3 million project to remove the dam near Summit Street was completed last year, allowing the river to "begin to restore itself," Franklin said. The dam removal "increases activity along the whole river," he said.
Near the Summit Street Bridge is the former Mahoningside power plant, which was demolished and cleaned up in a $6 million project. Soon, thanks to grant funding, the Mahoningside area will have parking, seating, lighting and "one of the easiest canoe launches anywhere in the Valley," the mayor said.
Last month, the "Sleeping Giant" mural at Mahoningside was replaced by the "Mo' Musky" mural by local artist Aaron Chine. Franklin said a video of the mural being painted received 350,000 views.
Continuing down the river into Perkins Park, the recently restored award-winning Warren City Hall renovation and Kinsman House renovation can be seen, as well as the 25-year-old Warren Community Amphitheater.
The Peninsula Project downtown, on the other side of the river from the amphitheater, is "one of the most exciting redevelopment opportunities in Warren's history," Franklin said. A pedestrian bridge is being built to connect Perkins Park and amphitheater to the Peninsula Project, he noted. The bridge is expected to be done by the end of next month.
Another project is on the Mahoning River south of the peninsula -- the site of a former gasification plant, which was cleaned with a $1.7 million grant. Near that is the home of the future Museum of Science Fiction and Fantasy Arts, which is expected to open in 2028, Franklin said. It will house movie and television props donated by Warren native and Modern Props founder John Zabrucky.
MERCY HEALTH
St. Joseph Warren Hospital President Char Gardiner talked about the construction of Mercy Health's 32,000-square-foot Champion Emergency Care Center scheduled to open in the spring, but also mentioned other Mercy Health facilities.
Mercy Health also has the Howland Surgery Center, Tod Minor Emergency Room, Howland Urgent Care and Warren Primary Care facility inside the Warren City Schools Recreation and Wellness Center.
The Champion facility will have a "25- bed freestanding ER, full service imaging and lab services," she said. Throughout the Mahoning Valley, Mercy Health employs 6,259 people in four counties, she said.
WARREN CITY SCHOOLS
Warren City Schools Superintendent and CEO Steve Chiaro talked about the growth of preschool programming in the school district since he became superintendent 13 years ago. It began with 20 children.
He said today the school district has between 330 and 350 children ages 3 and 4 who get half-day and full-day preschool programming.
"This programming makes a foundation that is necessary for children," he said. "Live, learn and play every day is one of the themes of our program. It is essential for children."
He said the Warren G. Harding High School graduation rate is 92 to 93%, which he said exceeds what is seen in "other mid-size urban districts. And we continue to grow and improve in our student attendance."
He said a team led by Associate Superintendent Dante Capers continues to focus on the reasons why some students chronically miss school.
Chiaro said state report card results in the Warren City School District are not all improving, but when quantifying the data in all areas, the improved numbers are "three times the amount of gains than any area of loss." He got applause when he mentioned this from the nearly 200 people in attendance.
Chiaro said he expects the school district to reach a "three-star rating" as an overall school district score when the results are finalized in September.
A three-star-rated district is one in which "on average, your district, your students, your children are making yearly adequate progress .. they have met the standards for the grade level," Chiaro said.
It means Warren students "did not exceed it. They were not below. But we are at the point now where we are keeping up, getting to the line, crossing the line," he said.
If the district reaches an overall three-star level, "it's going to be like a Friday football game around here. There will be fireworks going off at Warren City Schools. All of the neighbors will be complaining," Chiaro said. "It will be a celebration like none other."
He said for the past 20 years, the school district has improved its preschool offerings and the way it looks at "the whole child, which is a phrase used in education for a long time." It means looking at whether a child is experiencing trauma and "What is it like? Where is it coming from?"
Chiaro said it is "so critically important that we look at everything. And then we dive into the academics. Because once you build those relationships, once we build that trust, it's then when the child is able to sit in the classroom and learn from the good things going on."
He said the school district is making an investment in the company Kimberly-Clark because Kimberly-Clark is making an $800 million investment in its manufacturing facility under construction south of the city. The company makes consumer hygiene paper products.
Chiaro said the school district became a "fully Kimberly-Clark District" over the summer. It will use only Kimberly Clark products in every case where possible.
"We believe if an organization like Kimberly-Clark is going to invest in our community, we can take the step and do the same," he said.
INSPIRING MINDS
Inspiring Minds founder and CEO Derryck Toles also provided an update on his organization, which he started in 2006 in Warren, his hometown, "with a dream, working with four kids," he said.
Toles, who played football in the NFL, said his organization has now served 10,000 kids since 2006. It serves 2,500 annually.
In addition to Warren, the organization now has chapters in Youngstown, Philadelphia, New York City, Durham, Dayton, Columbus and Detroit. There are plans to add Camden and Las Vegas, he said.
The goal of the organization is to "engage and inspire young people to reach their full potential." He said in his own life, "I had people who came into my life at the right time to help me get to where I was, and it was because of the exposure just to different things that spoke to my mind to realize there was a huge world," he said.
He showed slides emphasizing important components of the nonprofit program, such as understanding the "Danger Zone" -- from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. when "over 20% of America's youth are home alone during the school year."
Toles said that is the time of day "when things are going on that shouldn't be going on. This is when young people get into trouble. This is where parents are working."
Additionally, the same children are home alone for an average of 10 hours per day during the summer, he said.
He said his organization "turned the danger zone into the impact zone. Because that time frame is so important, we run our after-school program Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and in the summer time from Monday through Friday from 8 to 4," he said.
He showed a graphic indicating that 83% of Inspiring Minds graduates enroll in college, 12% join the workforce and 5% enlist in the military.
He said an important statistic is that a child exposed to a college campus in elementary or middle school enrolled in college up to four times as often as peers without that exposure. So Inspiring Minds exposes its students to college campuses.
Likewise, statistics show that 57% of students in the Inspiring Minds program who traveled between ages 12 and 18 earned a college degree. He said what he has learned is that many of the students in his program "don't even leave the neighborhood." The Inspiring Minds program has taken its students to visit more than 100 cities in 25 states and taken eight "international exposure" trips.