I attended a Resident’s Advisory Committee meeting a couple of weeks ago; this is the group that advises City Council on implementing the strategic plan. The guest speaker was Paul Makosky, Director, Warren City Engineering, Building and Planning Department. He gave a brief presentation the projects his department has completed in the past few years (or will soon begin) that addressed those goals, many of which relate to improving the city’s infrastructure — especially roads, bridges and streets. Here is a partial list:

• Parkman Road reconstruction to date ($3 million, 100% state and Federal funds)
• Parkman Road reconstruction (phase 3 2014, $3 million, 80% state and Federal funds)
• Parkman Road Bridge reconstruction ($4.6 million 99.5% state and Federal funds)
• Warren Blvd Bridge reconstruction ($1.3 mm, 100% state and Federal funds)
• Lovers Lane reconstruction, to be completed soon ($1.3 mm)
• South Street & Summit Street resurfacing ($1 mm, 100% state and Federal funds)
• High Street resurfacing ($365,000, 100% state and Federal funds)
• Mahoning Avenue resurfacing ($475,000, 100% state and Federal funds)
• East Market Street resurfacing ($1.8 mm, 100% state and Federal funds)
• Niles Road resurfacing (2013: $550,000, 100% state and Federal funds)
• Pine Avenue resurfacing (2014: $900,000, 100% state and Federal funds)
• Palmyra, Highland & Main resurfacing (2015: $1.8 mm, 100% state and Federal funds)
• West Market Street resurfacing (2016: $2.5 mm, 100% state and Federal funds)
• Requesting $5mm in State and Federal funds for Youngstown Road reconstruction
• Decorative crosswalks, Mahoning Avenue lighting and Warren Blvd trees
• Greenway Bike Trail ($3 mm)
• Riverwalk (2013: $1.1 mm Federal funds)

It should be noted that those State and Federal funds do not just show up magically in Warren. Mr. Makosky has to submit grant proposals and compete with hundreds — even thousands of other communities for increasingly scare funds. Mr. Makosky has been aggressively doing this and the results are evident in the above list.

I have more details on these and other projects that I will hand onto for a while in case anyone has questions.