New home, better health

November 2014

By MARY BETH WYKO Tribune Chronicle

Denise Noriega “was born yellow,” said her mother, Maria Alacorn.

Though many newborn babies are afflicted with jaundice, it typically goes away on its own or with minimal treatment. But Noriega’s jaundice did not go away, and she soon went into liver failure.

“Things got worse and worse and worse,” Alacorn said.

Now a 17-year-old who attends Warren G. Harding High School, Noriega has undergone two liver transplants, suffered a brain hemmorhage that left her developmentally disabled, and currently takes 27 different kinds of medication.

Alacorn said that visits to many of Noriega’s doctors required trips to Cleveland, but with the opening of the Warren campus of Akron Children’s Hospital, they don’t have to make the long drive as often.

“I don’t have to leave at 5 a.m.,” Alacorn said. “I think we started coming the first week it opened. We were waiting for them to open.”

Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley began offering specialty services Nov. 17 at the Warren location.

The 5,000-square-foot space at the Market Place, 5000 E. Market St., includes nine exam rooms, three assessment rooms, a lab draw area, radiology room, echocardiogram room, nurses’ stations and physician charting area. Currently, orthopedic services are available on Mondays, cardiology and neurology are offered on Wednesdays and urology services will be starting on Jan. 20. Additionally, ultrasound services are available on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and echocardiograms can be done on Wednesdays. Local health care providers do not have to be affiliated with Akron Children’s Hospital to utilize the services.

“Any provider can send a patient to there for outpatient labs, ultrasound and x-rays,” said Lisa Taafe, clinical administrative director for Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley.

According to Taafe, on days when the speciality services are offered, the entire staff moves from the Beeghly campus in Boardman to the Warren location.

“Every day that orthopedics is up there, I bring the whole orthopedic department from (Boardman) to Warren,” Taafe said.

Families would often have to make appointments with specialists in Akron or other locations a year in advance, but when the Warren site opened, parents were given the option to move their appointments to the new location closer to home.

“The parents have been very receptive,” said Barb Swartz, a radiologic technologist at the Warren site. A parent herself, Swartz said, “We were always going elsewhere for services.”

“The families that live in the Trumbull County area have been thrilled that we have the subspecialties,” Taafe said.

According to Annamarie Sofran, senior public relations specialist for Akron Children’s Hospital, the first goal for the Warren site was to offer primary care services.

“It’s been about two years since we opened that site,” she said.

But the goal was always to expand the offerings to local families.

“We wanted to continue to provide pediatric services close to home for families here,” Sofran said.

Taafe said that for the walk-in services, the Warren site sees an average of 20 patients a day. Since the facility opened in November, more than 400 patients have taken advantage of its services.

Alacorn brings Noriega to the Warren site for orthopedics and bloodwork. She has been nothing but pleased with the care Noriega has received at the site. Alacorn said that they used to get Noriega’s bloodwork done at a facility that wasn’t tailored to children, and Noriega would become frightened and upset. But Noriega is much happier getting her blood drawn at Warren campus.

“She feels comfortable with the technicians,” Alacorn said. “Even though she’s 17, she’s still like a little kid. They understand Denise. They understand her issues. Here, everybody’s very friendly, very helpful.”

Taafe said that Akron Children’s Hospital hopes to offer even more specialty services in Warren in the future.

“We’d just like to continue to expand and provide services for people in that area,” she said. “That’s kind of our goal out there.”

mwyko@tribtoday.com

TNP fights city blight

October 18, 2015

By MARY BETH WYKO, Tribune Chronicle

As the first decade of the 21st century came to a close, Warren was bleeding.

Matt Martin, who in 2010 was brought in to head Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, said he recalls seeing a map of the city’s vacant buildings that highlighted blight – it slashed through the city like an arrow, and it was TNP’s job to do something about it.

“A lot of the first year was spent just dealing with blight,” Martin said.

But that map looks different now. In the five years since TNP has been at work, gardens have sprouted where decrepit buildings once stood, murals add vibrant color throughout the city and people who may have thought they could never set down roots are getting keys to their own homes.

But none of this would have been possible without the vision of The Raymond John Wean Foundation and its board chairman, Gordon Wean.

Getting started

Wean Foundation funding follows the interests of the charitable body, and in 2006, that interest was focused on improving the Mahoning Valley, said Jennifer Roller, president of the Wean Foundation.

Strategic planning sessions led to the creation of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, which handles the lobbying and politics of community development. A partner organization to MVOC, Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, was created in 2009 to deal with the day-to-day tasks of stabilizing and revitalizing neighborhoods in Youngstown.

“YNDC was having great success in Youngstown,” Roller said. “It was the belief that a similar effort could make serious gains in Warren.”

With the example of YNDC in mind, TNP was formed in December 2010.

“Because we came third, a lot of what we were supposed to tackle was preconceived,” Martin said.

Addressing blight

The most pressing problem facing TNP and Warren was vacant and derelict houses. The organization’s first program focused on vacant property stabilization. While concerned neighbors in some communities took it upon themselves to clean up trash and board up houses, TNP took away the barrier of logistics. Workers from TNP came in with supplies and tools, and volunteers only had to show up.

“We spent our first year mostly boarding houses, cutting grass, picking up trash,” Martin said. “A lot of that was trying to earn credibility, respect and a buy-in with residents.”

Next came TNP’s use of a court-ordered community service program. As a sentencing alternative for low-level offenses and untenable fines, judges can order an offender to complete a certain amount of community service, which added to TNP’s ability to do its work.

“This is the labor arm of TNP on a day-to-day basis,” Martin said. “On a daily basis, we have a crew of people in the neighborhoods boarding houses. I can get the crew there in 24 hours. If there’s a ‘blight emergency’ we can react to it.”

As the worst buildings in Warren were coming down, TNP was able to shift its focus to other efforts, like public art projects and food deserts – areas where it is difficult to find affordable, fresh food.

Adding some color

Local artist Briar Rantilla in 2011 painted the first mural in TNP’s Public Art Program – a collaborative effort with the Fine Arts Council of Trumbull County and the Trumbull Art Gallery – at 310 Elm Road NE.

The next year, TNP helped get some of the artwork installed in David Grohl Alley in downtown Warren and in 2013, commissioned local artist Aaron Chine to build a decorative bicycle rack / sculpture outside the Horseshoe Bar, also in downtown Warren. The former Mahoningside Power Plant on Summit Street NW became the home of the Sleeping Giant, a mural by artist Thomas Morgan, in 2014. And this year, Warren native Amy Novelli was picked to paint another mural, this one on a building on Scott Street NE.

For the murals, the public was able to vote on different proposals, but the final selection was made by a jury. This kind of community input is the hallmark of TNP’s work, Martin said.

“We don’t want to sit here with these maps and decide what Warren needs,” Martin said.

That belief is shared with TNP’s parent organization, the Wean Foundation.

“It’s how we do our work,” Roller said. “Folks who are closest to the challenges that exist have the answers.”

GROWing a city

Public garden projects were already sprouting on former school sites in Warren under the leadership of Warren

Development Association. However, not long after TNP got a plot at the Garfield Community Garden – the site of the former Garfield Elementary School – WDA handed the community garden projects off to TNP, according to Sheila Calko, director of Garden Resources of Warren.

Calko was working part-time for WDA and went on to TNP when the changeover happened in 2012.

“TNP had a growing interest to do local food,” Calko said. “This was part of the larger land-reuse strategy, to take vacant land and put it back into productive use for the improvement of community health and quality of life.”

Now, there are more than a dozen gardens dedicated to food production in Warren.

“I think most people, especially the people involved in them, really enjoy what they get out of the gardens, working with their family on a project or their neighbors,” Calko said. “It really empowers our residents to take back ownership of their neighborhood, making sure that these vacant lots don’t become a nuisance. It really builds a sense of community around the garden as well.”

GROW is also in charge of the farmers market on Tuesdays during the summer in downtown Warren. Last year,

GROW received a $96,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promote the market and increase the food supply there.

“We’re going to be offering more products and more variety,” Calko said.

“We’re really looking at getting creative,” Martin said about the GROW program, adding it’s TNP’s goal to link Warren residents to fresh, local food.

A partner project of TNP, Warren SOUP, combines microlending and a bowl of soup to help local projects. PNC Bank agreed to match funds collected at the door of SOUP events to help finance projects proposed by local residents and voted on by SOUP attendees.

Martin said although SOUP is independent of TNP, the group is committed to make it a lasting endeavor.

“Everything we’ve done doesn’t matter if we don’t keep doing it,” Martin said.

Focus on homeownership

At the same time, TNP is refocusing and expanding its efforts in other areas.

In 2013, TNP took over management of the Trumbull County Land Bank. While that facilitated the demolition of blighted properties, TNP continued to work at ways to salvage homes and help the people of Warren become homeowners.

The effort was bolstered by Trumbull 100, a group that works to improve Trumbull County and Bill Casey, a member of Trumbull 100 and owner of Warren Glass and Paint Co., with the Adopt-A-Home program. It uses a combination of private donations and funding from Trumbull 100 to renovate houses for owner occupancy.

The first house in the program is at 453 Vine Ave. NE, which sold to an owner / occupant in December 2014.

TNP hopes to turn around six houses a year this way.

“We’re going to start getting into more rehabilitation and move-in ready houses,” Shawn Carvin, land bank manager, said.

Martin said TNP is partnering with Huntington Bank to offer “creative borrowing opportunities” for people who might not think of themselves as homeowners.

“There’s a lot of opportunity here,” Martin said. “We sell the house for a song as long as you’re willing to put in the blood, sweat and tears.”

In addition, the land bank has a sidelot program. Through it, neighbors can purchase the property for no more than $500. And neighbors who plan to do a project on their sidelot can be eligible for a gift card to complete it from TNP.

“The sidelot program will always be one of our larger programs,” Carvin said. “After demolition, there has to be something done with that green space, and there’s nothing better than the neighbor taking over.”

Martin said neighbors are offered the first opportunity to take over a vacant lot. “If the neighbor wants it, the neighbor gets it,” he said.

Leveraging resources

From partnering with Warren on the Community Challenge and Moving Ohio Forward grants, which helped pay for demolitions, and administering the Hardest Hit fund to the smaller grants that help with neighborhood projects, TNP works to get resources to specific projects that need them.

“TNP serves as a really formidable force in that work,” Roller said. “They’re making tremendous gains attracting federal, state dollars. I can’t stress enough the good partner that TNP is when it comes to leveraging resources, especially in these economic times.”

Roller said when someone approaches the foundation with a proposal to improve a neighborhood, the foundation will often direct that person to TNP.

“We continue to invite the community to come share their ideas with us,” Martin said. “If they have an idea on how to build a better Warren, we want to hear about it.”

TNP also has the Lots to Love program, which makes up to $6,000 in labor and materials to anyone with a green project idea on a vacant lot.

Lightening the blight

Meanwhile, TNP has other ideas in the works, according to Martin.

After analyzing the results of the Community Challenge grant, which assessed the condition of every lot in Warren, and meeting with the residents, TNP recently released reports on every neighborhood in Warren.

“It allowed us to pull back a few more layers,” Martin said, adding the information will help move along TNP’s plans.

“We have to eliminate the feeling of entitlement within our neighborhoods, I think,” John Lacy, TNP board member, said. “We have to go out and fix our neighborhoods. We can’t sit around and point fingers and wait for someone to come in and do it.”

A project in the works is a new headquarters for TNP and the land bank in the northern downtown area. “This is a significant investment that we hope will help that section of town turn the corner,” Martin said. “I hope that we’re able to start it this year.”

Lacy said he wants the building to be a hub of sorts for training for new homeowners.

TNP is also exploring the idea of an “artist in residence” program that would offer artists low-cost housing in exchange for public art. Martin hopes this will encourage artists to consider staying in the area for the long term.

Land Bank program heart of neighborhoods

October 18, 2015

By MARY BETH WYKO, Tribune Chronicle

When Sam Lamancusa, Trumbull County treasurer, oversaw a sheriff’s sale of foreclosed properties in September 2010, he was just doing his job.

The sale that included nearly 20 properties was at 8 a.m. Afterward, Lamancusa drove past one of the houses that was sold; it was poorly maintained with a bad roof and broken windows. There, he said, he saw a man putting up a “For Rent” sign.

“I pulled up and I said to the guy, ‘You’re going to rent this place?’” Lamancusa said. “The guy was going to let the tenant fix it and offer cheap rent.

“I went home that night and had a horrible loss of sleep. I’d eliminated a tax delinquency problem, but created a problem for the people of that street,” he said.

Lamancusa knew that something had to be done, but he didn’t know what. He said he spoke with the Trumbull County assistant prosecutor who represented the office and eventually his concerns made their way to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

From this, the Trumbull County Land Bank was born in October 2010.

“We were the third land bank accepted in the state of Ohio,” Lamancusa said.

Its mission is to return vacant land and abandoned property to productive use, reduce blight, increase property values, support community land use goals and improve the quality of life for county residents.

When Lamancusa’s office created the land bank, it was done so with the support of Trumbull County commissioners and the Prosecutor’s Office. It operated under the Treasurer’s Office for several years until Lamancusa learned from an attorney general’s opinion that the county treasurer or treasurer’s office employees cannot operate a land bank.

That’s when control was shifted to Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, a community development nonprofit organization.

TNP manages the sale, transfer, disposition, demolition, rehabilitation and reutilization of all land bank-owned property.

“The land bank’s role is huge,” said Matt Martin, TNP executive director. “That’s the heart of our programming.”

Since taking over management of the land bank in March 2013, TNP has returned more than 100 houses to productive use through homeownership, Martin said. He said many of those properties “were sold cheaply to homeowners willing to fix their houses up and live in them for three years.”

The organization also manages the “Adopt-A-Home” program that uses capital donated by area businesses and groups, community organizations and private individuals to renovate vacant houses and sell them to homeowners at market value.

TNP has also demolished more 200 derelict vacant houses, the majority of which are in Warren, and is working through a $4.2 million allocation for demolition. Some of the money is being used to work with residents on post-demolition land-use projects under TNP’s “Lots to Love” program.

Projects in Warren included a garden on Buena Vista Avenue, park spaces on Highland and Tod avenues, and a multi-faceted site on Willard Avenue, in addition activity in the city’s Garden District.

Martin said selling more than 300 side lots to neighbors has been “an excellent land use option after a demolition.” TNP has awarded more than $20,000 in gifts cards to those purchasers improve the lots though a sidelot incentive program.

“This helps expand existing land for homeowners, increase quality of life, and stabilize property values while making productive use of empty space,” Martin said.