the business journal midseptember 09

The Valley’s Business Matters

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ISSN 1047-8582 Vol. 26 No. 5 MidSEPTEMBER 2009 $2.50

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Eagle, a building with some 25,500 feet. DIFA MV Inc. bought the Al-loush Cardiology building with 2,400 square feet in Niles for $250,000 and is converting it to an obstetrics/gyne-cology clinic.

In addition, one of the largest deals so far this year is the sale of the Ridge Road cargo building near Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport to a company in the packaging indus-try. That company, Pillar Partners Two LLC, is using the 24,750 square feet there plus the former Delphi training center nearby to conduct research and development.

“Sales are really where the market has been this year,” Lewis remarks, as buyers with high percentages of cash available or “excellent relationships with their lender” have taken advan-tage of the market. “We’re thriving in a challenging economy,” he declares.

He also points to the sale of the Berk Enterprises property in Warren for which Lee Richard Hartman, a supplier of mainframe computer parts, paid $165,000 in late June. The build-

See BUYERS, page 56

As he walks the rows of ripened concord grapes on a sun-splashed day in September,

you’d think Robert Naples was taking a stroll through a vineyard tucked away in California’s Napa Valley.

The Cortland physician has de-voted a good part of the last three years to his avocation – and a poten-tial business endeavor – in the most

Commercial leasing activity might be flat, even down, but sales of commercial properties

in the Mahoning Valley are seeing a definite uptick, real estate agents report.

Scott Lewis, broker and vice presi-dent of Edward J. Lewis Inc.’s Warren office, reports his firm is seeing a “plethora of sales we didn’t expect would happen this year,” including the former Sharp Lumber in Girard, being used as a warehouse, the vacant Cornersburg Giant Eagle, undergoing conversion to a Dollar Store, and a medical office building in Niles.

MMTK Family Ltd. paid $250,000 for the Sharp Lumber property where a 34,500 square-foot structure stands, Lewis says, and Cocca Development Ltd. paid $550,000 for the Giant

Commercial Tenants Becoming BuyersRecession has brought unexpected sales, real estate agents report.By George Nelson

Ken Richards and Rodney Benedict service the cooling tower on the roof of City Centre One in Youngstown. The workers are employees of Ohio One Corp., which owns and operates commerical buildings downtown. See Page 57 for related story on property management services.

A Vineyard Grows In Youngstown. Yes, Youngstown.By Dan O’Brien

Robert Naples knew how to make wine but had to learn how to grow a vineyard.

unlikely of places. His vineyard is no more than

500 yards from the asphalt and ex-haust fumes emitted by the cars and trucks that travel Belmont Avenue in Youngstown. Here, Naples has grown a hearty vineyard in the inner city that will ultimately yield what he believes will be great-tasting, quality wine.

“I do everything they do in Cali-fornia,” Naples laughs. “Only at a fraction of the cost.”

Naples started planting his small vineyard – it’s no larger than an acre – three years ago when his cousin,

See VINEYARD, page 35

2 MidSEPTEMBER 2009 The Business Journal

12-14 Job Expo 2009 Some 5,000 job seekers converged on the Covelli Centre, hopeful of landing one of more than 1,000 jobs offered by area employers. Learn if companies found qualifi ed candidates and how job seekers fared in our special report.

17 Lou Zona

21 Building Wealth

23 Stacia’s Media

27-33 What’s for Dinner?From low-fat, low-carb and vegetarian meals to step-by-step Internet broadcasts on how to cook at home, area restaurants cater to customers’ special requests. Sample some of their offerings here.

9 Made in the Valley at Ghossain’sMartha Stewart and André the Giant are among the fans of Ghossain’s Mid-East Bakery. Reporter Maraline Kubik and photographer Tony Mancino take us to the Boardman bakery in this edition’s “Made in the Valley.”

24 Local.Com

41 BBB Report

50 Legal Listings

See RECONSTRUCTION, page 4

One of the biggest and most challenging projects in the history of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s District 4 is nearly fi nished

and should be open to traffi c Sept. 15.The reconstruction of two bridges along Inter-

state 80 that span Meander Reservoir and widening the highway from state Route 11 to the Ohio Turn-

Meander Bridge Reconstruction Challenged Engineers, Tradesmen

By Dan O’Brien

The project cost $91 million and incorporates the state’s fi rst spill-containment system.

Rufus Hudson, John Getchey, Ken Carano and Eric Czetli cut the ribbon marking completion of one of the biggest and most challenging projects in ODOT’s history, reconstruction of two bridges over Meander Reservoir.

pike cost nearly $91 million, said District 4’s deputy director, Eric Czetli.

“There were a lot of challenges to overcome,” Czetli said. “But we did it within budget and a month ahead of schedule.” The westbound lanes and bridge are set to open fi rst.

Czetli joined other state and local offi cials Sept. 9 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate comple-tion of the westbound lanes.

The bridge project is the fi rst of its kind in the state equipped with a spill-containment system designed to keep hazardous materials from seeping into Meander, Czetli said. The Mahoning Valley gets most of its drinking water from the reservoir.

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The Business Journal MidSEPTEMBER 2009 3

Reconstruction: From Page 3

Czetli said the bridges crest midway over Mean-der and allow any material spilled from trucks to drain into pipes, inlets and roadside ditches away from the bridges. The spillage then runs into two containment basins located at low points on opposite sides of the reservoir. Each basin is equipped with shut-off valves that prevent contaminated materials from seeping into Meander.

Should a truck overturn and cause a hazardous material to spill, emergency crews have about 30 minutes to respond and shut off the valves, Czetli said. “This gives them plenty of time to respond in case of an emergency,” he said.

More than 55,000 vehicles travel across this stretch of I-80 every day, Czetli noted. “About one-third of them are trucks.”

Replacing the two bridges was first proposed in the early 1990s, noted John Getchey, executive direc-tor of Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. “The original plan was to build a causeway,” he said. “As it stands, things worked out real well. This is a great project.”

Joe Alfano, ODOT’s project engineer, said about 120 tradesmen were working at the site during the height of construction. Most of the subcontractors were from the Cleveland area, but those contractors used tradesmen supplied through local unions. “We used ironworkers, carpenters and operators” from the Mahoning Valley, he noted.

Jeremy Levenson, a supervisor for Great Lakes Construction Co., Cleveland, said the project was unlike any other he’s worked on. “The first day was definitely nerve-wracking,” he noted.

To cause as little disruption to traffic as possible, workers used floating barges to demolish the two older bridges and to build the new structures, he said. “We’d never used barges in our work before. This was a whole new undertaking,” he said. By using barges, the crews were able to keep two lanes of traffic open on I-80 at all times.

Construction began in 2006 and work was performed on the two eastbound lanes and bridge first. Once that was under way, work began on the westbound lanes. Each bridge is 2,500 feet long.

The segment of I-80 was widened from four lanes to six to help alleviate traffic clogs between Route 11 and the Ohio Turnpike exit, Levenson said. “Capacity was the biggest driver in this project,” he noted.

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HMHP: Treating Challenges with New TechnologyFrom Page 3

By Dan O’Brien

Fuel cells aren’t a thing of the future. The technology is here, and today that technology is integrated in a host of commercial products

that can be used extensively in businesses and homes.

Moreover, manufacturers in northeastern Ohio produce many of the components needed to make these systems work and are in the ideal position to capitalize on a market expected to hit nearly $2 billion in sales within four years.

“That’s huge,” says Bruce Bille, president of Technical Staffing Professionals LLC in Howland. “Fuel cells have been around since the 1850s.” It was the drive for green energy and efficiency over the last decade that gave new life to the develop-ing technology that could make fuel cells a part of everyday life.

Bille was among the 75 or so guests who at-tended a symposium on fuel cell technology hosted by the Advanced Manufacturing Initiative and The Youngstown Business Incubator at Youngstown State University Sept 1.

The program, part of the group’s Innovation Series, focused on how companies in northeastern Ohio and the Mahoning Valley could have a role in capturing a business that’s drawing more interest every year.

“There’s already fuel cells out there in products that are commercially available,” Bille says.

These products range from home heating units to power packs that have the capability of producing enough energy to run an entire utility plant.

Fuel cells are sources of alternative energy that generate power through an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. The only byproduct of this reaction is water; thus there are no hazardous or environmentally damaging emissions.

Bille’s company is a management-recruiting firm that specializes in going after professionals – usually mid-level chemical, electrical and project engineers – for companies that do business in the alternative-energy market. Demand for such experience has skyrocketed 500% since he founded the company in 2001.

“What a lot of people don’t understand is that the fuel cell is just a portion of the system,” Bille says. While the cells require catalysts such as platinum to operate, there is also the need for other compo-nents such as pumps, various electronics parts and blowers.

“All are industries we have in Ohio,” he says. “Everyone is able to contribute something to a market that’s going to explode over the next few years.”

According to The Freedonia Group, a market research firm in Cleveland, the global commercial market for fuel cells is expected to reach $1.9 billion by 2013. By 2018, it’s projected that business should hit $5.1 billion.

Fuel Cell Industry Powers New OpportunityDemand most likely will be driven by smaller,

portable fuel cells, not heavy-duty components such as those now being tested in some automobiles.

Instead, backup generation systems, home heat-ing and electrical power units, as well as smaller engines for lift trucks and other small motorized vehicles, should command much of the market, relates Patrick Valente, director of the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition.

The organization has 75 members and acts as an informational and networking resource for compa-nies looking to move into the fuel-cell market, he says. Crown, a major manufacturer of forklifts, has developed a lift truck that operates on hydrogen fuel cells.

Standard electric-powered lifts have a tendency to lose their juice after an eight-hour shift and recharg-

See FUEL CELL INDUSTRY, page 8

Global commercial market expected to reach $1.9 billion by 2013, $5.1 billion by 2018.


HMHP: Treating Challenges with New TechnologyFrom Page 3

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ing the batteries takes a long time. “Fuel cells can be recharged in five minutes,” he relates. “Fuel cells are cleaner, and much more efficient to use.”

Widespread use of fuel cells in the automobile industry, though, is probably a long time coming, Valente says.

First, the country lacks the infrastructure to provide hydrogen-fueling stations.

Second, there just aren’t enough fuel-cell vehicles on the road or in the pipeline to justify construction of these stations.

Regardless, he says the state of Ohio is in a strong position to grab a large chunk of this emerging mar-ket because of its diverse manufacturing base, gen-erous economic-development incentives programs and a chain of potential suppliers.

Thus far, Ohio has pumped about $70 million into educational programs and technology initia-tives that promote the use and development of fuel cells.

Among those companies seeing the benefits of these programs is Catacel, a company in Garrettsville recently awarded a $450,000 grant to speed up the research and production of fuel-cell components, reports its sales manager, Sam Mawlawi. The com-pany employs 23 and specializes in designing and manufacturing heat exchange components as well as stackable fuel-cell units, or SSRs.

One of the company’s projects involved a station that powers a hydrogen-production plant in Turkey, Mawlawi says.

The company expects “one or two” plants in the United States will soon introduce fuel-cell technol-ogy to their operations.

Catacel is among a cluster of some 100 compa-nies in Ohio already doing business in the fuel-cell field.

Dick Wilk, president of Refractory Specialists Inc., says he took his company from its traditional HVAC – heating ventilating and air conditioning – and hearth business and added research toward developing products used in the fuel-cell business.

“We found out that the same-old, same-old doesn’t work today,” he relates. “We’ve proven that a small company can act like a big company.”

Wilk says Refractory Specialists has formed infor-mal partnerships with companies such as Siemens AG to produce insulation and coating that could be used on components in fuel-cell systems. “We don’t make the fuel cells, but we make the components that go into fuel cells,” he explains.

Since it entered this market during the late 1980s, the company has expanded and increased its client base. It employs 150.

What makes the fuel-cell alternative so appeal-ing is that the cells are fairly easy to understand and develop, adds Dr. Jim Maloney of Stark State College of Technology. “A fuel cell is simple to put together,” he says. “We have high-school students making them.”

Stark State has sponsored programs and courses that have helped students engage in working on advancing fuel-cell technology with some of the world’s top companies, Maloney says.

The North American headquarters of Rolls-Royce, for example, uses fuel-cell technology to heat and light its building in North Canton.

“We’ve seen 60% efficiency,” Maloney says. “And, they may reach 70% efficiency out of the system.”

Fuel Cell Industry: Powers New Opportunity From Page 6

Dr. Jim Maloney exhibits a membrane used in fuel-cell technology that converts hydrogen and oxygen to energy.


Fred Ghossain’s father came to the United States in search of the American Dream. He found it by taking a chance on a family recipe and a

community hungry for the tastes of home. “We took a chance on something that was com-

pletely unknown,” Fred Ghossain says. He and his father, Joseph, and brother, Nick, began baking pita bread and fl atbread in 1970 in the garage of their home at the corner of Market Street and Philadelphia Avenue on Youngstown’s south side.

Ghossain, whose family immigrated from Leba-non, says the specialty breads so common there were impossible to fi nd in Youngstown. Ghossain’s grandmother, Raya, baked wonderful breads at home and her son and grandsons decided to use her recipes to make and market them. “Customers were mainly mid-Eastern people,” her grandson recalls.

Word spread throughout Youngstown’s Middle Eastern community and demand for Ghossain’s fl atbreads and pitas grew.

Satisfying that growing demand wasn’t an easy task. “When you bake fi ve dozen pitas at home, it’s a lot of bread,” Fred Ghossain says. “When you try to expand that to 1,000 dozen, there’s a lot of trial and error.”

At the time, Joseph Ghossain, who came to America in 1954, was also running Humble’s Res-taurant on Market Street.

When Joseph Ghossain came to the United States, his son explains, he got a job in the kitchen of a hotel restaurant in Springfi eld, Mass. He was so profi cient in preparing meals, the owner of that restaurant sent him to culinary school. Then, in 1958 or ’59, Fred Ghossain says, his father spent three weeks in Youngstown visiting friends. Harry Humble, the owner of Humble’s Restaurant, had just put his restaurant up for sale and a friend suggested Joseph Ghossain buy it.

He did. Then, a few years later, he bought the Hub in Hubbard. “He was a very good businessman,” Ghossain says of his father.

Both restaurants were “all-purpose restaurants,” Ghossain says. They opened early and stayed open late, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee – strictly American fare, no ethinic specialties. Ghos-sain vividly remembers working in the restaurant kitchens as a boy.

His father sold The Hub in the mid-1960s, a few years before venturing into the bakery business. By the time a fi re in the kitchen at Humble’s closed that restaurant in 1975, demand for Ghossain’s fl atbreads and pitas had grown substantially – all by word of mouth, “we never did any advertising,” Ghossain says. So, his father decided to focus his energies on

American Dream Inspires Ghossain’s SuccessThe bakery’s breads are served in restaurants throughout the country.By Maraline Kubik

building business at Ghossain’s Mid-East Bakery.The family built four additions around their ga-

rage, bought a conveyor oven capable of baking more bread and started selling it wholesale to retailers.

Joseph’s Market in Waterville, Maine, was among the fi rst grocery stores to sell Ghossain’s pitas and fl atbreads, Fred Ghossain recalls.

The grocery store, founded in 1925 by owner Kevin Joseph’s grandfather, a Lebanese immigrant, once catered to mill workers. Today, it specializes in fresh-cut meats and some Middle Eastern foods.

“We found Ghossain’s through a priest at a Leba-nese parish who came from Ohio,” Joseph says.

Because many immigrants came to Waterville from Lebanon to work in the mills, there used to be a heavy concen-tration of Lebanese bakeries in the area. That’s not so anymore, Joseph says, and none of those that remain have the ability to bake the large quantities groceries stores require.

So, he says, once Joseph’s learned about Ghossain’s, the store began

buying marook bread, which he describes as a “fl at Syrian bread about

14 inches round that Middle Eastern people use to scoop up food like baked

kibbee, raw kibbee or tabouli.”Joseph says the response from his customers

“is phenomenal. Some people travel for miles just to get it. It reminds them of their situ.” Situ, Joseph explains, is the Lebanese word for grandmother. Joseph’s Market also sells Ghossain’s spinach pies.

Joseph’s Market Place in New Castle, Pa., is also among the bakery’s wholesale customers. Founded in 1915 as a general grocer, the retailer has since evolved into a specialty ethnic foods store.

“Fred used to bring the bread in himself,” says Dennis Joseph, who operates the specialty-foods store with his brother, George Joseph, and nephew, Bill Bresnar.

“We started with the pitas. Now we sell spinach pies, spices, hummus and pita chips. The amount of stuff we buy from Ghossain’s has grown from Day One,” Joseph says. “They are good quality. Ghossain’s delivers every Wednesday and we have people who wait for the product to get here. We sell out in a few days.”

A truck driver who delivers Syrian bread from another area bakery, he adds, is among the regulars who wait for Ghossain’s pita bread to be delivered.

Ghossain’s delivers its breads to several area retailers – grocery stores and delis such as Giant Eagle, Sparkle and IGA – as well as local restuarants including the MVR, Grecian Gourmet, Nicolini’s and Aladdin’s. The Middle Eastern bakery also has a loyal following – and long list of customers – throughout the United States.

Martha Stewart uses Ghossain’s fl atbread in some of her recipes and has recommended it to her fans, citing it in her book, Quick Cook Menus, Joe Ghos-sain says. Joe Ghossain is Fred’s son and a co-owner of the business. Oscar de la Renta, Ethel Kennedy and André the Giant are among the bakery’s most famous customers, he adds.

But the bulk of business comes from individuals from all walks of life who live throughout the coun-try, Fred Ghossain says. The morning The Business Journal visited, Ghossain’s had received phone-in orders from customers in Florida, Michigan, West Virginia, South Carolina, Illinois and Ohio – all before 9 a.m.

“People started telling other people,” Ghossain says. As word spread throughout Middle Eastern communities in cities across the country, demand continued to build.

Today, Ghossain’s breads are served in homes and restuarants across the country. “We sell to the restaurants in almost every country club in Florida,” Ghossain boasts, along with the restaurants at Disney World, the restaurants and dining rooms at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and a

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Joe Ghossain oversees operations at the Boardman bakery. His father, grandfather and uncle started the business in a garage.

See AMERICAN DREAM, page 10


American Dream: Inspires Ghossain’s SuccessFrom Page 9

Made in the Valley at Ghossain’s Mid-East Bakery

Products: Flatbreads, pita breads, spinach and spinach-and-feta pita pies, pastries, Mediterra-nean deli items, Virdowni frozen foods, thin bread chips, miscellaneous baked goods.

Founders: Joseph, Fred and Nick Ghossain

Year Founded: 1970

Headquarters/Manufacturing: Boardman, Ohio.

Number of Employees: 16

Retailers: Ghossain’s retail stores in Boardman and Niles, Giant Eagle, IGA, Sparkle, Joseph’s Market Place, The Pennsylvania Macaroni Co., among many others.

Restaurants: Aladdin’s, Disney World in Orlando, Fla., Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Gre-cian Gourmet, MVR, Nicolini’s and many others.

Geographic Area Served: United States

Source: Ghossain’s Mid-East Bakery

slew of others. Individuals order the breads in small quantities

that are shipped from the bakery in Boardman every day using overnight delivery services, Ghossain con-tinues. Restaurants order the breads several cases at a time, with some breads baked to order per customer specifications. Some restaurants want larger sizes of flatbread for wrap sandwiches, he explains, while other wholesale customers want breads packaged under their private labels.

The Back Burner Restaurant & Bar in Hockessin, Del., is among Ghossain’s regulars.

“We buy a lot,” says Kristin McGuigan, executive chef at The Back Burner Restaurant and its Gourmet To Go take-out store. “We buy 10 cases at a time and we’re a very small restaurant in an extremely small town.”

The Back Burner, McGuigan says, dusts Ghos-sain’s flatbread with a special blend of seasonings, bakes it and serves it in baskets to every table. Cus-tomers love it, the chef says. “Some come into this restaurant just for that.”

There are only 80 seats in the fine-dining res-taurant, she notes, so the per-person consumption of Ghossain’s bread is substantial. Packages of Ghossain’s bread sold in Gourmet To Go, she adds, “fly off the shelf.”

The Back Burner began serving Ghossain’s flat-bread, McGuigan says, after a customer suggested it. “We used to serve something similar,” she explains. After a customer recommended Ghossain’s, “We got a sample and just loved it.”

The Excalibur found Ghossain’s in a similar man-ner. “We were looking for a pita bread. There are no true pita breads in Vegas – there are round breads but no pocket,” says Matt Hosier, a specialty room chef at the Excalibur.

One of the other chefs at the hotel/casino said that he knew of a bakery that made good pita bread, Hosier says. “He brought in samples. We did a tast-ing and we liked it.”

Since then, Hosier says, he’s been serving Ghos-sain’s pita breads with hummus and tabouli at the Excalibur’s Round Table Buffet and Ghossain’s flat breads in the employee dining room where they are used to make fresh tomato pizzas and wrap sandwiches.

John Khoury, the Excalibur chef who recom-mended Ghossain’s says, “I know this bakery for a long time. It’s good bread. The bread that’s available here is too doughy. Ghossain’s bread is very light. It’s very healthy.”

He ordered 120 cases of flatbread and pita from Ghossain’s when he placed his last order and expects it to cover what the hotel restaurants will need for the month.

Khoury moved to Las Vegas from Youngstown 27 years ago and, being Lebanese, says he bought bread from the Ghossain family when he lived here.

“People started telling other people [about our bread] and it’s a ripple effect,” Fred Ghossain says, describing how business has grown. “We have a lot of repeat customers and a lot of new customers.”

Flatbreads and pita bread are the bakery’s top sellers, but the popularity of Ghossain’s growing line of products continues to increase. Spinach and spinach-and-feta pita pies, once available only in Ghossain’s retail stores, are now available fresh at

a few specialty food stores and in the frozen food departments of select grocery stores.

Ghossain’s began packaging and freezing the spinach pies for large-scale distribution under its new brand name – Virdowni – last year.

Virdowni, Fred Ghossain explains, refers to a river in his hometown in Lebanon that is lined with outdoor cafés that reportedly serve “the best food you’ll ever have in your life.”

Pita pies filled with pepperoni, ham and cheese, peppers and egg, potatoes and cheese with toma-toes, onions, parsley, olive oil and spices and pita pies filled with a variety of fruits were introduced in Ghossain’s retail stores this year “to see how they go,” Fred Ghossain says. Another new product, open-face pita pockets topped with spicy feta “are really, really, really good,” he adds. The bakery’s newest product, he continues, is its thin-bread chips. They are available in seven flavors that range from garlic to hot salsa to cinnamon sugar.

Adding new products and packaging existing products for mass distribution are not the only means Ghossain’s is employing to expand its busi-ness. The bakery opened a second retail store this summer in Niles. Before that, Ghossain’s only retail store was at its Boardman bakery. The company moved to Boardman in 2002 because its Market Street location could not accommodate expansion.

Eventually, Ghossain’s owners plan to open ad-ditional retail stores, most likely in western Penn-sylvania and then branch into the Cleveland and Akron areas, says Anthony Khoury, vice president of marketing and co-owner with his uncle Fred and cousin Joe. “We want to focus on doing things right [in the Niles location] before opening any more stores.”

Ghossain’s also bakes a full line of Middle Eastern pastries that are sold in its retail stores and to local restaurants. Deli items such as tabouli, hummus and stuffed grape leaves are made onsite and sold in both retail stores, along with a complete line of imported Mediterranean groceries, spices and nuts.


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Tax Gap: Internal Revenue Service Steps Up AuditsFrom Page 11

Rick Spahlinger expected to retire from OAO Severstal after working 38 years for the steelmaker – Severstal bought the former

WCI Steel 18 months ago. Instead, the former coordinator of purchased services was terminated in April, six months after Severstal idled operations at its Warren mill.

Without a vested pension and having taken a heavy hit in his 401(k), Spahlinger can’t afford to retire and was among thousands of job seekers who turned out Wednesday at the 2009 Job Expo at the Covelli Centre in downtown Youngstown.

Spahlinger was looking for an opening in quality assurance with another manufacturer. “Most of my experience is in heavy manufacturing – customer relations,” he explains.

The closest he came to finding a heavy manu-facturer exhibiting at the Job Expo was M-7 Tech-nologies. Based in Youngstown, M-7 Technologies provides precision measurement services for manu-facturers in a wide range of industries to improve product quality and reduce the time required to manufacture or repair heavy industrial products. It was M-7’s first time at the Job Expo.

“There are a lot of qualified candidates here,” ob-served Michael S. Garvey, president of M-7 Technolo-gies. “I’m amazed. We had an undergraduate from Carnegie-Mellon – that tells you the quality of candidates that are here,” he said.

M-7 Technologies isn’t looking to hire anyone immediately, Garvey said. His company, however, is growing and he anticipates hiring several people over the next year. “We’re at about 20 [employees] right now and we may double that, or more than double that in the next 12 months,” he said.

Berner International Corp., New Castle, Pa., didn’t have any open positions either, but was looking to build its bank of applicants because several employ-ees have more than 30 years with the company and are thinking about retiring, explained Peggy Ange-lucci. Angelucci works in purchasing but volunteered to help Berner’s director of human resources, Bobbi Lump, screen applicants at the expo.

“We’ve had some very qualified people apply,” Angelucci said. “We’ve also had some that are not so qualified,” she added. “We never expected this much of a turnout. We brought 250 applications with us and by 1:30 p.m. we were out.” Angelucci and her colleague had also collected a pile of resumes.

Berner makes air curtains – the devices that blow a steady stream of air from floor to ceiling at the entrances of commercial and industrial buildings to keep insects and pollutants outside and help maintain comfortable temperatures inside.

Wallace & Pancher Inc. also received resumes

from about a dozen applicants qualified for the posi-tions it is looking to fill.

The engineering and environmental consulting firm needs mid-level GIS specialists, environmental scientists, civil engineers and a project manager. Requirements for entry-level positions are a baccal-ureate or master’s degree in environmental science, biology or geology and a love of the outdoors, said John E. Burglund, assistant department manager. To be considered for senior-level positions, he said, applicants must also have more than 10 years’ ex-perience.

The Hermitage, Pa.-based company is looking to hire six to eight new employees, at least some of whom would be willing to relocate. The company serves clients throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and needs

to staff an office in Waynesburg, Pa., Burglund said. His company is also considering opening an office in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Janeen Weisman, a recruiter for Humility of Mary Health Partners, which operates hospitals in Mahon-ing and Trumbull counties, found several qualified applicants for the state tested nurse assistant and social worker positions she was looking to fill.

“We also had a lot of people looking for positions we don’t have open,” Weisman added. “We had a lot of people looking for maintenance and clerical posi-tions and we have no openings in either of those.”

At best, 20% of the estimated 5,000 job seekers who turned out for the event will secure employ-ment through the 1,000 job openings exhibitors were looking to fill. But that doesn’t mean those who won’t secure employment were discouraged.

“I thought it would be good to come out and see what opportunities are available – to see what companies are expanding,” said Dean Stebner. Stebner owned and operated Electric Device Corp. in Canfield for 20 years.

Electric Device provides engineering and manu-

Job Seekers: Expo ‘Encouraging’

By Maraline Kubik

Some 5,000 job seekers turned out hoping to land one of 1,000 jobs offered by employers.

Michael S. Garvey, president of M-7 Technologies, reviews job requirements with Rick Spahlinger.

See JOB SEEKERS, page 14

“We never expected this much of a turnout. We brought 250 applications with us and by 1:30 p.m. we were out,” said Peggy Ange-lucci of Berner International. She had also collected a pile of resumes.


Tax Gap: Internal Revenue Service Steps Up AuditsFrom Page 11

Job seekers converge on the Covelli Centre in downtown Youngstown during the region’s fi rst interstate job expo. Employers participating were from throughout the fi ve-county region.

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Job seekers crowd the floor of the Covelli Centre as they visit employers and training providers from throughout five counties.

facturing test equipment to industrial customers to ensure their product quality.

Now that he no longer owns the company and having recently earned his MBA, Stebner said he’s looking to start a new business but isn’t sure if he should stay in the Mahoning Valley. Knowing what businesses are expanding may help him decide whether to stay put or relocate, he explained.

Jim Athya of Warren, who designed fire protec-tion systems the last 11 years – before being down-sized out of a job this past March – is also looking to take charge of his future. He was one of about 40 job-fair visitors who attended the Start your Own Business Workshop.

About half of the attendees who turned out for the workshop left after learning that there are loans but no grants available to entrepreneurs. Like Athya,

Barbara Slavin, marketing director at New Castle School of Trades, explains programs available at the trade school

Ann Cowell tells Alvin Jenkins about job openings at Home Savings and Loan Co.

Job Seekers: Find Expo ‘Encouraging’From Page 12 those who remained were eager to learn about de-

veloping their business plans.“I was encouraged,” Athya said. He’d like to

continue in the same line of work, designing fire protection systems for buildings at the request of architects and building designers, but wants to do it on his own, not as the employee of a large company that trims costs by eliminating workers.

The workshop enlightened him about the prepa-ration that goes into establishing a startup company. “I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Athya observed. “You don’t just pull it out of your back pocket and put a shingle out.” Thanks to information provided in the workshop, Athya said he knows where to begin and where to look for help.

Workshops on how to dress for success, search for jobs online and succeed in the workplace were also offered during the expo.


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Journal Opinion

The Valley’s Business Matters

25 East Boardman Street, Suite 306P.O. Box 714, Youngstown, Ohio 44501-0714

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Email: [email protected] site: BusinessJournalDaily.com

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Columnists Monnie Ryan Lou Zona Gail S. White Stacia Erdos

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Rate Comparisons Cara J. McClure

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The Business Journal is published semi-monthly (twice a month) in Youngstown, Ohio. Copyright 2009 by Youngstown Publishing Co. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use, with-out written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited.

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BY LOUIS A. ZONA

Impressions

Our Fragile Sense of CommunityAgain this year, the Youngstown/Mahoning Valley

United Way kicked off its annual campaign with a Day of Caring, a communitywide effort that unites volunteers from business and labor in behalf of a cause greater than themselves. They work side-by- side on community service projects throughout the region.

The date chosen the past couple of years holds great significance – Sept. 11 – one Americans will long associate with one of the most horrific events that took place on our soil.

Some of the pain of that day has faded but the vivid memories of what happened eight years earlier – the twin strikes on the World Trade Center in New York City and on the Pentagon in Washington, as well as a third attack, thwarted – remain.

In the days and weeks that followed, we joined together as Americans to reach out to those directly affected by the attacks, donating food and other goods, money and time. Many of us were left with a lingering desire to do more in and for our com-munities.

It took a disappointingly brief period for that day of infamy to be exploited by some who saw it as a tool to further their political agendas. They impugned patriotism of those who questioned the rationales behind the invasion of Iraq and the ease with which victory was promised but still not delivered.

Most recently we have witnessed angry personal attacks become routine political discourse in the

debate over health insurance reform. The patriotism of the president has been questioned, as well as his allegiance to the U.S. Constitution even his legal right to be elected president. Some zealots warn of armed insurrection; others predict another civil war. Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat or an independent, you know this must stop.

The Day of Caring seeks to recapture the sense of community manifested Sept. 11, 2001, when we came together as a nation. Last Friday some 400 vol-unteers spent their day at places such as Sojourner House, Beatitude House, the American Red Cross, Easter Seals Society and Ursuline Sisters Ministries. There they cleaned, painted, landscaped, served meals and helped these agencies reach out to the people they serve.

The chief professional officer of the United Way, Bob Hannon, calls the need “incredible.” While all those needs will never be met, the Day of Caring has drawn awareness and, we hope, inspired appreciably more volunteerism.

This year, a joint resolution of Congress and a proclamation of President Obama designated Sept. 11 a “National Day of Service and Remembrance” to be observed annually.

The Day of Caring here makes a difference in the volunteers’ lives as they make a difference in the lives of those they help. And they pay tribute to the memory of their fellow Americans who lost their lives eight years ago.


BY LOUIS A. ZONA

ImpressionsWD-40, Duct Tape Are No Longer the Answer

BY GAIL WHITE

Commentary

See WHITE, page 18

Another wish that we could go back in time.

I’m always telling the publisher that I’m going to “grow up” and quit writing about my kids, but it

seems once you become a parent you look at the world through the eyes of your children and the filtered lens of a family.

Quite frankly, I think we would all be better off if our government were run like a family household.

When the budget is tight in our family, we skip going to out to dinner and put our wants on hold. Explaining the concept of bills to one of my sons, I was running through the various

payments each month.“That’s like infinity dollars!” he

exclaimed, with a new appreciation for why he couldn’t get the new toy he wanted.

If the government had employed such practices, we would not be over $11 trillion dollars in debt right now. Now that’s really like infinity dollars.

When my son didn’t pay attention to his cell phone minutes and ran up a bill two months in a row, I didn’t give him money and hope that he would try harder. I took the phone away. He

America Seen Through The Eyes of a Parent

A wise man (or was he a wise guy?) observed that you only need two tools in life, WD-40

and duct tape. If it doesn’t move and should, apply WD-40. If it shouldn’t move and does, use the duct tape.

I prefer the sim-ple, less compli-cated approach to solving problems and wish that the complexities of life today could be remedied with a touch of Elmer’s Glue. The other day I thought I’d add some oil treatment to the motor in my Chevy Malibu. After examining the engine for five minutes, prudence dictated that I return the STP to the auto-parts store.

Remember when you could reach under the hood of your Chevy and replace even the spark plugs without risking life or limb? If you tried that today, the car’s computer would be

messed up and spit something at you. Can’t you hear a voice coming from your manifold yelling, “Stand away from the motor, you moron, and call Mr. Goodwrench, now.”

Have you ever tried to repair a mi-nor problem in your computer? Once

you’ve read the manual, called the 800 number and spoken to some-body in Bangla-desh – even un-

plugged the cord and plugged it back in – your only recourse is to throw it into your back yard. I have found that both IBMs and Macs make very good planters after you’ve taken a sledge-hammer to them.

On the other hand, before you follow my lead and convert your computer into a decoration in your yard, you could ask your 10-year-old neighbor to look at it. Don’t be fooled by that innocent face; these kids were raised on this stuff (where my genera-

See ZONA, page 18

It seems that every facet of our lives has been made more com-plicated than it need be.

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White: America Seen Through the Eyes of a ParentFrom Page 15

Zona: WD-40, Duct Tape No Longer the AnswerFrom Page 17

mismanaged funds so he was now welcome to get his own plan and pay his own bill.

When AIG mismanaged funds, the government gave its executives more funds so they could “try harder.”

Since receiving public funds, and after celebrating their losses with lav-ish parties, AIG executives have been selling off the company holdings in fire sales – the latest of which were sold to companies in Hong Kong and China. How do you say, “No more American dollars” in Chinese?

Once, my children set up a stand by the road to sell mud balls and bird feathers. I tried to tell them that if they shaped the mud balls into bowls or animal figures they might have better luck. But, being boys, they were con-vinced that balls were what everyone would want.

Their business lasted one long, boring day.

Yet, when American car manufac-turers watched the demise of their product for more than a decade and were slow to change, it is the Ameri-can people left holding the bill for their misfeasance.

It is an invoice that they are now admiting will likely never be repaid.

But, like a parent who welcomes home a prodigal child who has gone astray and finds his way back on the straight and narrow path, the Ameri-can public will react in the same man-ner toward the auto industry. Slow to trust completely, but forever hopeful in their future.

Now, health care is a whole differ-ent breed of a problem child.

This industry is simply a complete-ly abhorrent, disobedient, dastardly adolescent. Spawned by pedal-push-

ing medical research and pharmaceu-tical companies, fed by doctors and hospitals concerned with the bottom line and pulled at both ends from insurance companies, the health-care business needs more than a trip to the woodshed with dad.

My youngest son came home from the neighbors disgusted one after-noon. They had a lemonade stand and were charging $1.25 a cup.

“And it wasn’t even a big cup!” he exclaimed.

It was the same reaction I had after my last visit to the hospital. My insurance company was charged $6 for a Tylenol. Not a bottle of Tylenol – one pill.

One side of the industry feeds off the other creating a cycle of pure dysfunction.

Don’t get me wrong, America has the greatest medical innovators in

the world. The accomplishments and technology developed in this country are the absolute best.

Let us not forget, all this has been accomplished in a free market.

Yet, at the rate that the cost of health care coverage is rising combined with the number of uninsured or underin-sured, who is going to benefit from these incredible innovations?

Like parents considering reform school for their child, our nation is faced with the need to take drastic measures to fix health care.

But do you really want an entity $11 trillion in debt to be in charge of making sure a doctor is available when you need surgery – or that the electric-ity has been paid so the life support system continues to run?

Of course, at $6 a pill, it could be a great way for the country to be out of debt for the next generation.

tion was raised on Ovaltine).The reality is that we are a society

that is always looking for the quick fix. It certainly is my M.O., but safe to say that the days are over when a ham-mer and screwdriver were all that you needed in the tool drawer. We live in a complicated and complex world and the tools that we need today require more than brute strength to operate.

Here I go again, wishing that I could go back to a simpler time. Once again I’d like to crawl into a time machine and return to the 1950s and my home at 118 Center St. I see my-self sitting in our living room gazing at our 10-inch Silvertone television watching Betty Furness point out the finer points of the new Westinghouse self-defrosting refrigerator.

I certainly romanticize the 1950s, but it was indeed a much less com-plicated time in America. Imagine a

world when the Slinky, a simple toy that “walked” down the stairs, kept us amused for hours. In a world of video games and mobile browsers, a slinky would be as popular today as knick-ers. And to think that my brother and I spent hours on our living room floor playing with tiny metal soldiers, us-ing only our imaginations. Kids today don’t need to imagine anything and so they don’t; some software engineer somewhere has already imagined for them in some video game.

Do you remember when playing ball meant, “See the ball. Hit or catch the ball”? Well, it’s no longer that simple. Major League teams have computer gurus on their payrolls whose sole purpose is to quantify players’ talent and rate of success. It’s all about metrics or “Sabermetrics” and “Pythagorean projections.”

It all goes back to the 1980s when Bill James began using Sabermetrics

to predict baseball teams’ wins and losses by computing “runs scored” against “runs allowed” and other vari-ables he found had more bearing than commonly accepted statistics. Today it has gotten so complicated that Sabermetrics applies mathematical values to a player’s defensive abilities with its RZR (revised zone ratings) and OOZ (out of zone ratings). They count whether a player catches balls hit his way or catches balls not hit directly to him. What gets even more complicated is what baseball calls its UZR (ultimate zone rating) that slices a baseball field into sectors that radi-ate from home plate and counts plays made in each zone.

Back when I played baseball, there was no such thing. There were only two considerations: Are you a good player or a lousy player? I always fell into the latter, which in today’s Sabermetrics lingo would be termed

VLP (very lousy player).Things as seemingly simple as

voting on Election Day have become a big deal. I remember paper ballots, and ever so fondly. Today the voting machine runs you back through your choices and nudges you to vote for candidates or issues you chose to leave blank.

It seems that every facet of our lives has been made more complicated than it need be. Can you imagine what it would be like if we could send that time machine back and have our great-grandparents visit 2009? You might hand them a cell phone. “You say that I can take video clips with it and text message and download information from the Internet?” my great-grandfather might ask. “You lost me at video clip.”

Never mind, Grandpa. Just hand me that roll of duct tape, would you?


YOUNGSTOWN - WARREN

Regional Chamber Report

By Kim GondaRegional Chamber Vice President, Marketing & Business Services

Members: Get Involved, Increase Your Business

R e g i o n a l Chamber mem-bers tend to real-ize the tangible benefits of mem-bership – dis-counts on health care, workers ’ compensat ion and office sup-

plies, as well as access to a variety of tools such as use of our database. But they don’t always consider the intangibles, which may just be key to their growth: referrals, networking and member loyalty.

Consider just a few examples of each:

Referrals • Through the Regional Chamber’s

Web site, RegionalChamber.com, each member has its own listing within the online Membership Directory; businesses and organizations receive additional local and national expo-sure when people are searching for that business or even that category of business through a search engine. Did you know that our online Membership Directory receives 250 to 500 page views each day?

• Many members participate in our Lead Groups or are active on commit-tees that allow them opportunities for more one-on-one time with fellow members so that they are comfortable in giving referrals to them.

NetworkingMembers like to do business with

other members.• An attorney who sponsors and

presents at some of our human re-sources roundtables that focus on topics like employee discipline and attendance policies gained four new clients. All had attended these small, interactive events.

• A marketing and promotional products company whose employees have attended many of our Business Marketplace events (like speed dating,

but for businesses!) has increased its clientele to include a local insurance company, hometown bank, pizza chain and dry cleaning business by meeting them at these fun, network-ing gatherings.

• An insurance agent increased his book of business to include a tire company and fire protection equip-ment company because as a “chamber ambassador,” he called to welcome them as new members and offer his assistance if ever needed.

• A photographer who set up a marketing consultation with a cham-ber staffer to brainstorm ideas on how to expand his business not only garnered an offer to shoot some of the chamber’s photos but also received additional work from those he pho-tographed.

Member LoyaltyDoing business with Regional

Chamber members: It’s not just a phi-losophy that we, as an organization, follow, but one that, as individuals, we pursue for our own personal needs as well. And, we have heard from several members that when they are shopping for a product or service, they first look to find them among our member companies.

Such loyalty shows support of com-munity initiatives, economic develop-ment and business growth.

We could go on, as the stories we hear like those above are endless. Chamber membership is truly what each member determines to make of it; after all, membership is an invest-ment.

Keep in mind that more than 90% of our member companies have fewer than 10 employees, and most of those businesses and organizations pay $295 to belong to the chamber (the lowest of any metro chamber in Ohio, if not the nation).

If they’re actively promoting them-selves and their companies and tak-ing advantage of all that we have to offer, they’re going to make back that $295 – and then some – in no time at all. Quite a return on their invest-ment!

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BuildingWealthTERM

PASSBOOKSTATEMENT

SAVINGSAPY*

CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT

*Annual Percentage Yield Arrows tell whether rates rose or fell since last issue. Dashes indicate “unchanged.”

Minimum $500

Minimum $500

FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

CF BANK (formerly Central Federal S&L) 1 Year 1.50 .10/Wellsville 24 Mos. 1.75 N.A.

CHARTER ONE BANK 12 Mos. .75 — N.A./ 5 Year 2.25 — .25

CONSUMERS NATIONAL BANK 12 Mos. .85 .18/Salem 4 Year 2.50 — .18

CORTLAND BANKS 1 Year .75 — .50/Cortland 5 Year 2.50 — .50

E.S.B. BANK 1 Year 1.00 — .30/Ellwood City, Pa. 4 Year 2.30 — .30

FARMERS NATIONAL BANK 1 Year 1.00 — N.A./Canfield 4 Year 2.00 — .20

FIRST MERIT BANK 1 Year .50 — N.A./New Castle, Pa. 2 Year 1.10 — .05

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PA. 1 Year .50 — N.A./Hermitage, Pa. 5 Year 2.25 — .10

1ST NATIONAL COMMUNITY BANK 1 Year 1.00 — .20/East Liverpool 4 Year 2.43 — .40

FIRST PLACE BANK 6 Mos. .60 — .25/Boardman 12 Mos. 1.25 — .25

HOME FEDERAL 1 Year 1.51 .60/Niles 3 Year 2.12 .75

HOME SAVINGS 12 Mos. 1.60 —

.35/Youngstown 5 Year 2.80 — .35

HUNTINGTON BANK 1 Year 1.50 — N.A./Youngstown 4 Year 2.42 N.A.

KEYBANK 1 Year .15 — N.A./Youngstown 3 Year 1.35 — .45 5 Year 2.35 —

MIDDLEFIELD BANKING COMPANY 1 Year 1.66 .50/Cortland 13 Mos. 1.86 — .75 2 Year 2.02

PNC BANK 1 Year .70 — N.A./Youngstown 43 Mos. 1.25 — N.A.

PNC BANK 1 Year .85 N.A./Conneaut Lake, Pa. 5 Year 1.55 — .05

US BANK (formerly Firstar Bank) 1 Year .50 — N.A./Boardman 59 Mos. 3.00 — .10

Interest Rates

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of The Business Journal compilations. Rates are subject to change without notice and should be confirmed with the individual financial institution before entering into transactions. ©2009 Youngstown Publishing Co. All rights reserved.

September 11,2009

ANNUALPERCENTAGE YIELD,

2-Week Trend

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BuildingWealth SPONSORED BY

Interest RatesYour Responsibilities as an Investor

To help ensure the success of your investments, you will want to take a number of important steps.

Inform and Educate Yourself •Read thoroughly all sales literature, prospec-

tuses and/or other offering documents before mak-ing any investment.

•Consider all investment risks, fees and/or other factors explained in these documents.

•Understand the relationship between your investment objectives and the risks and returns on particular investments. Also understand the relation-ship between your particular investments and your investment objectives.

Talk with Your Financial Adviser•Provide accurate information about your fi nan-

cial status, investment goals and risk tolerance when seeking advice so that your investment fi rm can provide you with appropriate recommendations.

•Seek out information you need or want from your fi nancial adviser by asking any questions you

have about your account, a transaction, risk expo-sures, potential confl icts of interest, and, of course, commissions, sales charges and other fees.

•Notify your fi nancial adviser whenever there is a signifi cant change in your investment objectives, risk tolerance, income, net worth or liquidity needs.

•Review your portfolio holdings on a regular basis, and whenever your fi nancial circumstances change. You may want to make changes.

•If you have any investment holdings at other institutions or brokerages, tell your fi nancial adviser so that your fi nancial adviser can make sure all your holdings work together.

Keep Your Accounts Current •Have cash or available margin-buying power in

your investment account, or transfer funds into that account, to ensure payment for securities purchases by the settlement date. If you are paying by check or funds transfer, you should always make payments directly to your investment fi rm.

•Review all transaction confi rmations and ac-count statements or reports carefully and promptly. Report any errors or questions you have to your fi nancial adviser or branch manager immediately.

Use the Right Resources – Carefully •Consult an attorney or tax adviser for specifi c

tax or legal advice. •You are fully responsible for your investment

decisions if you choose automated channels (Inter-net or telephone) for your trading needs.

•Consider carefully the validity and reliability of investment information obtained from all sources, especially unsolicited information obtained over the Internet.

•Understand that the opinions of securities ana-lysts should never be interpreted as a guarantee of future performance or rate of return.

Source: Securities Industry and Financial Marketing Associa-tion. This article provided by Mike Paterchak, Branch Manger, Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc., Member SIPC and NYSE

For more information and the location nearest you, visit us on the web at www.stifel.com.© 2009 Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated. Member SIPC and NYSE.

in step.

You know where you want to be financially—ten, 20, 30 years from now. And you have a vision for achieving your goals.

Your Stifel Nicolaus Butler Wick Division Financial Advisor can help you stay

in step with the changing times.

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FINANCIAL INSTITUTION

CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT

Term APY Minimum

AUTO LOANS

Term Rate Type Down Payment Term Rate, 2-Wk Trend Fees

MORTGAGE LOANS

Arrows tell whether rates rose or fell since last issue. Dashes indicate “unchanged.” Rates are subject to change without notice and should be confirmed before entering into transactions. ©2009 Youngstown Publishing Co. All rights reserved.

ASSOCIATED SCHOOL 1 Year 1.75 — $1,000 Up to 48 Mos. 5.70 Fixed 20% 15 Year 4.87 — 2+200EMPLOYEES 2 Year 2.05 — $1,000 Up to 60 Mos. 6.20 Fixed 20% 20 Year 5.25 — 2+200

FIRST CHOICE COMMUNITY 1 Year 1.85 — $500 Up to 48 Mos. 5.65 Fixed 20% 15 Year 5.50 0+costs(formerly RMI CO. EMPLOYEES) 2 Year 2.01 $500 Up to 60 Mos. 5.65

OHIO EDISON/ 1 Year 1.75 — $1,000 Up to 48 Mos. 5.70 Fixed 5% 15 Year 4.625 0+costsPENN POWER 2 Year 1.99 — $1,000 Up to 60 Mos. 5.99 Fixed 5% 30 Year 5.50 0+costs

SEVEN SEVENTEEN 1 Year 1.50 $1,000 Up to 48 Mos. 5.99 Fixed 5% 15 Year 4.50 0+costs 2 Year 1.80 $1,000 Up to 60 Mos. 5.99 Fixed 5% 30 Year 5.125 — 0+costs

STRUTHERS FEDERAL 1 Year 1.00 — $1,000 Up to 48 Mos. 6.00 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. 2 Year 1.50 — $1,000 Up to 66 Mos. 6.00

YOUNGSTOWN CITY 1 Year 1.65 — $2,000 Up to 60 Mos. 5.99EMPLOYEES FEDERAL 2 Year 1.65 — $2,000 Up to 72 Mos. 7.25 N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A.

Credit Union RatesSeptember 11,2009

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BY STACIA ERDOS

Media ScopeAttack of the ‘Concerned’

There was no ambulance, but I sure feel like I was being chased. Excuse the slight detour from

the usual Media Scope column, but my other potential topics are buried under a pile of solicitations or, should I say “letters of c o n c e r n ” t h a t cover my desk.

You see it all started on a recent Tuesday.

I was on my way home from work and was stopped for a red light at South Avenue and Midlothian Boulevard. Suddenly I felt a bang. My car (and head) lurched forward. More annoyed than any-thing, I got out of the car to find a van had rear-ended my car. Its license plate and some lovely blue paint were imprinted on my bumper along with several dents.

The driver began apologizing and taking full blame saying she wasn’t paying attention. We exchanged in-formation and I called my insurance agent (and friend) who insisted I get a police report.

The police officer who responded tried his best to dissuade me from filing the report – something about it meant more paper work for him, he’d have to cite the other driver and there really wasn’t any point. But at my insistence, we proceeded. Without ever stepping out of his cruiser, he took down my name and address then said I could go.

“Don’t you want some sort of state-ment?” I asked. He replied, “You were stopped at the red light and she hit you, anything else?” I thanked the officer for his professional, courteous manner and I headed home.

I did have a mild headache and a sore neck so I took some Motrin and started running the kids to their activities.

After returning home that evening, I had no fewer than six messages blinking on my phone from chiroprac-tors and personal injury attorneys tell-ing me to call them right away because I was entitled to free consultations and

therapy and treatment for as long as I needed it. How had they learned about my accident so fast?

The next day more phone calls and then came the nonstop mail – letters from attorneys in Youngstown, Ak-ron, Cleveland, even Columbus. One included a DVD.

There were mailings from chiro-practors saying, “Call now to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation

and a 10-point spinal screening examination.”

Some appealed to my fears – “39% of whiplash pa-tients report disc

degeneration within 5 to 10 years after the accident.” “Don’t be fooled, see a doctor first.” Some attorneys warned me about chiropractors. Other attorneys blatantly appealed to my monetary desires. They urged, “Call 1-800 HURT NOW.” “Get a cash advance!” “Find out how much money you could get!”

It was obvious they’d gotten cop-ies of my police report. Much to my chagrin, I found it myself online. But some had the information even faster, within hours of the accident. I’ve since discovered some law firms actually send people to police departments to comb through the accident reports to find the names of victims and poten-tial clients. It almost made me wish I hadn’t called the police. No wonder everyone is suing each other and we’re in the midst of a health-care crisis.

While personal-injury attorneys are allowed to send mailings as long as they’re clearly marked “advertise-ment,” the Ohio Supreme Court’s Code of Professional Responsibility includes acknowledgement that “the situation is fraught with the possibility of undue influence and intimidation” for an accident victim who feels over-whelmed. And lawyers are subject to the “Do Not Call” provisions.

My neck is still aching so I am go-ing to get X-rays, but frankly, I’m so turned off by the barrage of calls and mailings, I’ve decided to work it out with the insurance company myself. So, if you are an attorney or chiroprac-tor reading this column and feel the need to express your concern, how about a fruit basket?

It was obvious they’d gotten copies of my police report. Much to my chagrin, I found it myself online.

A fender bender crams my mailbox with solicitations.

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BY MONNIE RYAN

Local Dot ComOut of Sight, Out of Column

Often I’m asked how I pick local Web sites to write about in this column each month. Well,

I make it a point to jot down Web addresses of local businesses I see in newspapers, on TV and even on billboards, adding them to a running list that I keep at the ready.

Often, I choose a category to feature – say, law firms or government agen-cies – and then search my list and local phone books to find sites to match those savvy enough to include their Web address in their ads. Then, I do a test run to determine that the addresses are accurate; you’d be sur-prised how many are not. (I found two while compiling this column.)

Sometimes, I find sites in strange places. As I was out running errands recently, I spotted a stretch limo. Cool vehicle, yes, but more cool to me be-cause stretched across the back was the Web site of Fab Limousines Inc., FabLimo.com. At the site, I was sur-prised to learn about all the available services. I know folks who’ve hired a limo to take them to concerts and ballgames, but I didn’t know about the party buses, shuttle buses and motor coaches that make daily runs to casinos and New York City.

Even though they’re only estimates, it’s nice to get some idea of the cost of booking a vehicle here. Other links provide company background, pho-tos of vehicles and another division, Chauffeurs4hire.com.

Most readers, I’d guess, are aware that my husband and I are wine lovers. Most afternoons when the weather is reasonably warm, it’s likely you’ll find us sitting in our front-porch rocking chairs toasting the after-school bus drivers as they chauffeur Niles Middle School students back to their homes.

So when I learned about Vintage Estate Wine and Beer in Boardman, I made a beeline for the Web site, Vin-tage-Estate.com. To start, I checked out the on-tap beers (more suited to my husband’s tastes) and wine (ah yes, a Reisling).

I really got rolling in the kitchen section, where I smell a challenge: One of these days, I’ll be there to try the newest “Holy Cowza Yowza,” flatbread topped with peppers so hot they’ll give a gift certificate to the per-son who can eat the most. Hey, guys, no contest: Might as well go ahead and give me the prize right now.

Freelancers like me are always on the lookout for job prospects (although I have no plans to change my semi-re-tired status). Still, I’ve signed up at

LinkedIn.com as well as checked into The Valley Lead Group, Val-leyLeadGroup.com. Members of this local associa-tion, which meets

Wednesday mornings in Cornersburg, exchange “qualified” business leads. Once someone has been approved for membership in a particular field, such as real estate, no one else from that field is allowed to join.

On another note, possibly as early as this Christmas, we plan to treat ourselves to a larger flat-screen TV. Doing that means we’ll have to replace the large storage cabinet we’ve had for years – we’ve reached our limit on the size of the TV it will accommodate. While we’re at it, we’ll look into re-placing our amplifier and speakers.

Returning to my list, I found The Speaker Shop in North Lima, The-SpeakerShop.com. Here, I saw some to-die-for cabinets (custom-built at the company’s shop) and learned that should I buy something, they’ll handle installation. I also like that privacy and return policies are spelled out.

Since I was finishing up this col-umn just after uploading a photo of an Amish quilt to one of my on-line galleries, my thoughts were on needlework. Figuring I might find something among the unique shops in Cortland, I went to the city’s Web site, CityOfCortland.org, and checked the business directory.

I hit pay dirt at Quilter’s Fancy, QuiltersFancy.com, finding items for sale that include darning needles, but-tons and books by shop owner Cindy Oravecz and others. It’s a fun place to browse – and next time I’m in Cort-land, I plan to peek in the shop.

Columnist tells how she selects sites to feature.

I do a test run to determine that the addresses are accurate; you’d be surprised how many are not. (I found two while compil-ing this column.)

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What’sForDinner?The Business Journal MidSEPTEMBER 2009 27

The Springfield Grille may be best known for it steaks and crab cakes, but many diners opt for

more healthful, meat-free entrees.“We get five to eight special re-

quests a day from vegans, not counting special requests because of allergies,” says B.J. Sulka, general manager of the Springfield Grille in Boardman.

Vegans are strict vegetarians who, in addition to abstaining from meat, poultry and fish, also do not eat dairy products such as eggs, cheese, milk and butter.

“Vegetarianism is not becoming more popular,” Sulka continues. “It’s more about the carbs and fat. People are a lot more health-conscious.” As a result, they opt for more healthful alternatives to meals based on red meat and other animal products.

About half of the Springfield Grille’s vegetarian offerings are on the menu, the others are suggestions servers of-fer when diners express an interest in meat-free meals or meals that meet other special dietary requirements, Sulka continues. “We take food aller-gies very seriously here and our serv-ers are all trained to offer alternatives that aren’t on the menu. We have such a large [and varied] menu that we can do anything.”

Many of Springfield Grille’s pasta dishes are vegetarian, Sulka says. The restaurant even offers what he calls “pasta/no pasta,” a dish that resembles angel hair but that is made from a va-riety of vegetables sliced into slivers. A marinated portabella mushroom sandwich is also a popular meat-free option that he mentions.

Vegetarian dishes have been avail-able at the Springfield Grille since it opened 13 years ago, Sulka notes.

At the Blue Iris on Courthouse Square in Warren, half of the menu is vegetarian, reports Melissa Yohman-Murphy, head chef and co-owner of the fine-dining establishment.

The restaurant’s menu, which features American tapas, or “small plates that come out a little at a time”

From the restaurant via the Web to your kitchen and dinner table, Vernon Cesta’s latest

venture offers a chance to enjoy the taste of Vernon’s Café at home.

To promote the restaurant in Niles and drive more traffic to its Web site, www.vernonscafe.com, Cesta launched an online cooking program late last month. The program features a dish on the restaurant’s menu and wine pairing by its sommelier, Dennis Huston, who’s been recognized with six Wine Spectator awards. With the help of 2 Ticks & The Dog Promotions Inc., the first episode of “Cookin’ with Vernon” was posted in August with Cesta preparing capellini pomidoro.

“Right now, I’m getting a lot of

Restaurants Cater to Special Dietary NeedsFood-conscious consumers want low-carb, low-fat and vegetarian options.By Maraline Kubik

Cookin’ with Vernon Makes Debut on WebBy Jeremy Lydic things out of the garden,” Cesta says.

“Fresh tomatoes, fresh basil. So, we did a pasta dish that’s very simple.”

Cesta, who uses in the restaurant vegetables and herbs that he grows in his garden at home, says dishes will be seasonal, such as char-grilled rib steak for October’s episode to complement tailgating during football season.

Cooking in front of the camera is nothing new to Cesta, who has done cooking segments with WKBN-TV. It’s no different than the fast-paced nature of the kitchen, he says. The list of featured dishes was compiled before the first shoot.

Once the ingredients are gathered, Cesta cooks “just like I was cooking for a customer,” he says. Each dish is presented so viewers can follow.

Chef Melissa Yohman-Murphy and her husband and sous chef, Stephen Murphy, say half of the items on Blue Iris’ menu are vegetarian.

offers “From the Earth” vegetarian dishes on page one that can be ordered separately or paired with offerings from “Land and Sea” on page two, she explains. Some of those Land-and-Sea

offerings, such as Tuscan greens and beans with spicy sausage, can be made without meat.

Fresh, natural, organic ingredients, locally grown fruits and vegetables,

and Ohio-raised meats are used when-ever possible, Yohman-Murphy adds. “Even people who are not vegetar-ian are more inclined to want fresh vegetables,” she says. “Our motto is ‘Celebrate life and eat good food.’ ”

Among the offerings listed on the From the Earth menu are sauteed spinach with pine nuts and golden raisins, crispy potatoes baked with fresh herbs, wild mushrooms sautéed in garlic butter over crostini and the Blue Iris salad, which combines or-ganic field greens with pears, boursin cheese and carmelized nuts.

Land-and-Sea offerings include medjool dates wrapped in bacon, Ca-ribbean crab cakes, beef filet mignon skewers with red wine jelly, Mediter-ranean chicken with feta cheese, red onion, sun-dried tomatoes and kal-amata olives, and eggs in purgatory, which Yohman-Murphy describes as “a fresh organic egg slow poached in tomato sauce and served on toasted Italian bread with shaved pecorino romano cheese and hot peppers on the side.”

Every dish on the menu, she ex-plains, “has a pronounced flavor of its own but also complements whaterver you pair it with.”

See RESTAURANTS, page 28See COOKIN’, page 29

Restaurants: Cater to Dietary NeedsFrom Page 27


Tapas dining, she continues, “is progressive.” Diners may order one dish and then another, or they may order several at once but they don’t necessarily come out at the same time. “It’s more relaxed,” Yohman-Murphy says, “and very popular in larger cities.”

Sometimes, diners will order dishes from the From the Earth menu and not even realize that they haven’t ordered meat – even if they aren’t veg-etarians, she says. Other times diners who prefer vegetarian meals but who aren’t what Yohman-Murphy describes as “radical vegetarians” will order fish or egg dishes along with vegetarian plates, she says.

When she opened the Blue Iris with her husband and sous chef, Stephen Murphy, with help from her father and co-owner Michael Yoman, Yoman-Murphy says she wanted to offer fresh food year round and dishes that would provide something for everybody. “Local farmers make it easy for me to do my job,” she says, by providing fresh-from-the-farm produce most of the year including a mystery basket that she says “keeps me on my toes.” Because she never knows what the mystery basket will contain, Yohman-Murphy says she must be quick to come up with an appealing recipe that will showcase the produce while it is at its peak. “Before people were eating all this fancy food, they were eating simple food from the garden,” she notes.

The Blue Iris also offers desserts, which Yohman-Murphy proclaims “are good for the soul.” Among the offerings is Chocolate Euphoria, which has “a fudgy brownie bot-tom, chocolate pastry cream, cookie crumble, whipped cream and milk chocolate pour-over. It’s all organic,” she adds, and a Key lime pie that was named “Best Pie on the Island” three years in a row when Yohman-Murphy worked as a pastry chef at the Pier House Resort & Carribean Spa in Key West.

At Golden Hunan in Liberty, tofu tops the list of vegetarian offerings, says Gary Yang, who’s worked in the kitchen 15 years. “We sell a lot of tofu,” he says, especially General Tso’s tofu, a hot and spicy dish. “General Tso’s tofu is very, very popular.” Other restaurants may list General Tso’s tofu on their menus, he adds, but Golden Hunan’s “recipe is very, very good.”

In addition to several tofu dishes listed on the menu, Golden Hunan will substitue tofu for meat in any beef or chicken dish to meet the require-ments of vegetarians.

Golden Hunan also offers a variety of tofu-free vegetarian options, Yang says. Among those he mentions are vegetable delux, which blends Chi-nese and American vegetables in a white sauce, and Hunan-style green beans, a spicy dish flavored with garlic. “There are a lot of Italians in Youngstown and they like garlic,” Yang says, explaining why he believes the dish is so popular.

Overall, Yang attributes 10% of Golden Hunan’s business to the sale of vegetarian cuisine.

Vegetarian dishes account for as much as 20 or 25% of sales at Ange-Netta’s Café & Bakery in Canfield, and health-conscious items account for a full 50%, says Angela Briceland, who manages the family-owned res-taurant.

Since her parents opened the res-taurant seven years ago, Briceland says the menu has included vegetarian and other items for the health-conscious, most of which include Weight Watch-ers point values. “My mom has been into Weight Watchers for years,” Briceland explains.

Daily specials always feature at least one item Briceland describes as “health-conscious,” such as tilapia with grilled sugar snap peas, mango chunks, red peppers, asparagus and sweet onions served with a salad. A vegetarian item is also often included among the daily specials, she adds, and some menu items can be served vegetarian style, such as the eggplant parmesan, which is served with either a traditional meat or marinara sauce. Italian greens, the restaurant’s best-selling appetizer, is always served without meat, unlike some restaurants that add sausage, Briceland notes.

Women are the biggest consumers of the health-conscious offerings, she continues. Men order them too, she says, but more often than not the men opt for bugers or pizza.

Among the vegetarian and health-conscious items on the menu, Brice-land lists, are penne and greens, chicken Italiano, vegetable burgers and salads.

AngeNetta’s is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Golden Hunan is open from 11:15 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thurs-day and from 11:15 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Blue Iris is open 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. (Reservations are suggested for groups of six or more.) The Springfield Grille is open 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

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Cookin’ with Vernon: Debuts on WebFrom Page 27

Vernon Cesta, owner of Vernon’s Café, displays a dish featured in “Cookin’ with Vernon.”

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“The whole idea was to keep it simple for everybody,” Cesta says.

Because 2 Ticks & The Dog has done advertising for Vernon’s Café, the agency decided it was time to design a Web site for the restaurant, says its creative director, Jim Fogarty. When Cesta approached Fogarty with the idea of putting together a cookbook, he thought that an online cooking show would be a good way to adver-tise it because it gives customers a reason to return to the Web site.

Because some people can’t follow a cookbook recipe, the concept of an online cooking segment gives view-ers a visual guide, Fogarty says. The video offers the benefit of being able to pause or replay a segment as well as the ability to watch it on a computer or portable media player.

“When you’re making a commer-cial, you’re always wanting to lead somebody back to the Web site,” Fogarty says. “So, you’re finding a lot more companies putting more accessi-ble video and more media on the Web sites to try and bolster their business or to give more information.”

Each episode runs about five min-utes, and 12 episodes are ready to

post, Fogarty says. During the first two days the first episode aired on YouTube, more than 300 watched, and feedback from restaurant customers has been positive. If that continues and episodes attract enough Web traf-fic, the show will continue, he says.

“We’re looking to build the Web presence the way Vernon has built a clientele,” Fogarty says. “It’s up to customers and the people who visit the Web site to decide how it goes.”

The biggest challenge was sched-uling, Fogarty says. Each episode was put together from at least 25 minutes of raw footage, filmed in the restaurant’s kitchen after hours. Because the restaurant is sometimes open until midnight, “some of the episodes were shot until 2, 3 in the morning,” he says. And just as Cesta chose the recipes, he also had a hand in the final editing, Fogarty says.

“Vernon approves everything just like his restaurant,” Fogarty says.

“Cookin’ with Vernon,” which features a theme song written and performed by local musician Frank Castellano, is available online as well as on Time Warner Cable’s Find It on Demand and Comcast’s Searchlight on Demand.

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Every restaurant wants to be different. But not that different.

It’s clear that tastes in the Mahoning Valley extend well beyond the menu of meat and potatoes as more restaurants here have introduced their own distinctive cuisines to attract folks with a broad ar-ray of tastes.

“We like to take the risk and offer meals and dishes not well-known in the Valley,” says Jim Mook, executive chef at The Fifth Season Restaurant in Austintown. “We love variety.”

Seafood dishes such as mangrove snapper, a fish common off the Florida Keys, or wild game such as alligator and kangaroo are popular among custom-ers, Mook says. “I think the level of sophistication among diners in the Mahoning Valley is pretty high,” he adds.

Each Thursday, The Fifth Season offers some type of wild game as its menu special. Besides kangaroo and alligator, patrons have ordered their share of bison, wild boar, ostrich, duck or frogs’ legs. “A lot of wild game is very lean and rich in protein,” Mook notes.

The restaurant makes sure it has enough entrees on the menu to satisfy the less adventurous diner. “Parmesan Romano chicken is one of our trademarks here,” Mook says. And, the restaurant does a large business in traditional fare such as steak and pork chops.

Mook says even the most exotic dishes aren’t enough to drum up business by themselves. Ulti-mately, customers are very concerned about the tab, and with the economy still in the doldrums, diners are more conscious than ever about price.

“A lot of people think that we’re way outside their price range,” Mook says. “Not so.”

Between 4 and 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, The Fifth Season touts its $10 menu – offering 10 entrees at $10 each. “It’s worked out real well for us,” Mook relates. “We’ve seen a lot more walk-in business as a result.”

Jim Mook, executive chef at The Fifth Season in Austintown, says the restaurant’s $10 menu has “worked out real well for us.”

The summer months are normally among the toughest in the restaurant industry, and sometimes it’s hard to compete with busy vacation schedules, festivals, graduation parties or weddings.

“Business has been slow, but we’re not too far off from last year,” reports Nick Stevenson, manager at Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Boardman. “We’re mov-ing into the months where we start to see things shift.”

Through the summer, Carrabba’s promoted its “Summer in Italy” special – the restaurant’s Tuscan tomato salad and chicken arugula. “We always do something like this every quarter,” he says. However, he relates, what patrons really crave is “anything off the grill, especially steaks and chicken.” Chicken marsala – chicken prepared with mushrooms, pro-sciutto and Lombardo Marsala wine sauce – is among the top sellers off the grill, he says. Other favorites are grilled Norwegian salmon and sirloin Marsala.

Stevenson says that Carrabba’s, while a franchise, bases its menu on family recipes, and all the dishes

are made in-house: “Nothing is frozen. Everything is fresh.”

The one-two punch of an already slow season and a harsh recession has taken a toll on the restaurant industry. A survey conducted by Data Development Worldwide found a large number of customers dine out less often and are likely be tighter with their cash even as the economy rebounds.

The survey showed that when patrons do dine out, they’re apt to spend less – either selecting lower-end items on the menu or redeeming gift cards or coupons. Those restaurants that cater to upscale customers were more likely to be hit the hardest, the study showed.

“This summer was terrible,” relates George Mager, owner of Café Cimmento, Youngstown. The downtown restaurant is known for its Italian pasta dishes – some of which are original creations. “It’s slow anyway for restaurants during this period, but I also think the economy had an impact.”

See MENU, page 32


Creative Menu Offerings Draw Diners

By Dan O’Brien

Summer is always a slow season for restaurants, sales usually pick up in the fall.

A good chunk of the restaurant’s business comes on evenings when shows are booked at the nearby Covelli Centre and the DeYor Performing Arts Cen-ter. Since there are fewer bookings during the sum-mer at indoor venues, it means less traffic downtown and fewer patrons in the restaurant.

That should change over the next several months, Mager says. “There are a lot of things picking up at the Covelli Centre,” he relates. “There are a lot of good shows coming and a new hockey team is set to play in October. I expect we’ll do well.”

While the Cimmento menu consists of traditional pasta dishes, meats and chicken, Mager says it also includes dishes concocted at the restaurant. “I know no one else sells our cavatappi niotti,” he relates, “It was created here.”

Half of all the dinners the restaurant sells are pasta dishes, Mager reports, while chicken outsells Café Cimmento’s beef and pork dishes by a 2-to-1 margin.

“The key to remaining successful is consistency,” Mager relates. Concert nights are especially busy and the restaurant has several wine tastings scheduled for the fall. Café Cimmento’s wine list includes bottles that range in price from $12 to $90 each. “We serve high-end wines such as Camus or Silver Oak – we don’t sell a lot of those,” he laughs.

Greg Sop, co-owner of The Rosetta Stone, Youngstown, is also expecting bigger crowds over the fall season: “We’ve just come out with a new din-ner and lunch menu, so we’re excited about that.”

Among the new entrees for Rosetta Stone is a New Zealand rack of lamb, Sop adds. “We also do a sushi and Ahi tuna,” he says.

Rosetta Stone’s seafood, such as baramundi Aus-tralian, mako shark and ono – a lean whitefish – are flown in daily from Hawaii. “We’ve trimmed back our specials, but put some more rare dishes on the regular menu. Business for us doubles in September. We try to keep a balance of comfort foods and foods outside the norm,” he says.

Rosetta Stone also grabs extra business when Youngstown State University is in session, Sop says.

“We have a lot of university professors and students that eat here.” YSU students, he relates, receive a 10% discount if they produce their student identi-fication cards.

“We’ve also started a V.I.P. club” that enables pa-trons to receive text messages with a prompt number. The number will then direct the customer to a coupon worth 10% on a purchase the following month.

He also notes that prices at the restaurant have come down since Sop renegotiated deals with some of its vendors. “We want to appeal to a variety of customers,” he says.

George Mager, owner of Café Cimmento, and his daughter, Mary Ceci, expect business to pick up as fall approaches.


Menu: Draws DinersFrom Page 31

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If ancestral heritage has anything to do with it, our favorite foods should be bangers and mash, Wiener schnitzel and steamed leek pudding. It’s always been a puzzlement as the king of Siam told

Anna, then, as to why we’re so fond of the tastes of Italy. Most often, we hanker for the common red sauce – whether it’s marinara or filled with meat or fish, it’s one of the first things we look for on the menu when we go out to eat.

Luckily, it’s found in abundance locally. Our fa-vorite haunts include Sunrise Inn in Warren, Alberi-ni’s in Niles, Caffé Capri in Boardman, Armando’s in Liberty Township – our mouths start to water just thinking about them. And, we have no doubt that if we asked our readers for suggestions, we’d get a list longer than the Great Wall of China.

Every once in a while, though, we crave pasta with attitude. Hold the spaghetti with meatballs – thank you very much – we want to savor the flavor of something a bit more uncommon. We found some special dishes that fill the bill – and our stomachs – quite nicely, and every single one comes through the microwave for a second meal quite nicely once we’re back home.

We don’t remember how long ago it was that Salvatore’s Italian Grill opened in Howland, but since then, we’ve sampled

the pasta here way too many times to count. And, it’s a rare occasion when we order something other than chicken cacciatore (officially named pollo alla cacciatore), penne alla vodka or the penne alla arrabiata, the latter composed of penne pasta with prosciutto in spicy marinara sauce.

More recently, Salvatore’s opened a restaurant in Austintown at what used to be The Lodge, thus giving us two opportunities to chow down on our favorites depending on where we’re coming from. It was at this location, in fact, that we sat down to enjoy the meals for our search.

For our search visit, we passed on the spicy one, although we heartily recommend it to anyone who likes his pasta with a bit of punch. But once again, we couldn’t resist chicken cacciatore ($12.95) and penne alla vodka ($13.95). All the entrees here are substantial in size – we’ve always taken home at least half to keep in our refrigerator until we’re ready to dig in again.

Entrees are served with a small salad and a basket filled with freshly baked rolls and small squares of pizza. It is, we caution, quite easy to fill up on these goodies even before the entrees arrive. There’s a full bar at both locations as well as daily specials.

The cacciatore consists of a boneless chicken breast sautéed in marinara sauce together with mushrooms, green peppers and tomatoes to meld all the flavors – then the whole thing is dumped on top of a pile of spaghetti. No skimping on the sauce here, by the way; there’s way more than enough to ensure that every bite of pasta is saturated.

The penne alla vodka is in a tomato cream sauce with prosciutto, shallots and vodka, making the sauce closer to pink than red. Some like it hot, in-cluding us, so we add some crushed red peppers for extra zing, but the flavor of this dish easily stands on its own.

Another standout here is angel hair alla rotelli; $13.99 buys a large platter of mushrooms, arti-chokes, peas and sun-dried tomatoes in basil garlic white wine sauce. Yum!

Pastabilities: If you’re among the some who like it hot, try the ziti diavolo; garlic, onions, green peppers, sautéed sausage and chicken breast chunks tossed in hot Sicilian sauce. For lunch, great options are a freshly made pizza, available in traditional or “gourmet” versions, or a calzone, stromboli or sub sandwich.

Another long-time favorite of ours is Enzo’s Restaurant and Lounge in Warren. When one of us worked in that city, it was a frequent

lunch destination. The food was delicious and rela-tively inexpensive, and, unlike the fast-food places, the atmosphere was warm and relaxing. Later, our daughter and son-in-law held their wedding recep-tion here (yes, more wonderful food).

Among the special touches guests are afforded is ice water, delivered to the tables soon after they are seated. Still another comes at the end of the meal; instead of making guests scrape their leftovers into those hard-to-manipulate containers, servers take the plates back to the kitchen and wrap everything neatly.

Pastabilities: Our choices suited us just fine, but each of the restaurants we visited has plenty of other wonderful options. We’re especially fond of the stuffed banana peppers appetizer here. For an entrée, don’t miss the linguini anacapri – shrimp, calamari, mussels and clams sautéed in white wine sauce.

One of the newer entries in the local Italian restaurant market is Rotelli, a chain based in Boca Raton, Fla., that operates in six

states. In this area, restaurants are in Austintown, Boardman and Liberty. It’s become our custom to stop for lunch at the Austintown restaurant on our way home from a photography outing at Mill Creek Park.

As at Salvatore’s, we end up ordering the same things just about every time. For one of us, that usu-ally means eggplant parmigiana ($9.99) – delicious, but not exotic enough to qualify for our search.

The standout here is the penne chicken and broccoli ($11.99). It’s a good-sized bowl of grilled chicken, sautéed broccoli, garlic and fresh toma-toes in a light white wine sauce – a taste that’s simply out of this world.

The broccoli is tender but not mushy, and the cooked-to-perfection chicken adds a distinctive flavor.

Pasta withPersonality

In Search of:

By Monnie Ryan

Besides all that, we learned on our search visit that the restaurant offers WiFi access – a real plus for on-the-go business people.

The real draw, though, is the food; we love the fettuccini primavera ($12.95). It’s made with homemade noodles and fresh vegetables topped with Alfredo sauce. If you prefer tortellini, there’s a wonderful Alfredo version in which the tortellini is stuffed with veal and topped with the sauce (also $12.95).

The fettuccini noodles were fresh and cut relative-ly thick; the veggies included cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, broccoli florets and sliced black olives, all cooked just to the point of tender. The sauce is thick and creamy, and we think we detected a hint of sweetness.

It’s not a huge portion – someone with a giant ap-petite most likely could eat the entire bowl without blinking – but we left satisfied and still brought

about half of ours home. Pastabilities: The wedding soup

here is to die for, with a flavor-filled broth, plenty of tasty meatballs and greens that are quite sufficient but don’t obliterate everything else. Also delicious are the gnocci, or potato dumplings with red sauce and a meat-ball ($11.95).

For many years, we’ve bragged about the quality of food in our little part of the world, telling friends,

family and even the occasional stranger that it just doesn’t get any better than here (well, with the possible exception of

seafood that was plucked from the ocean minutes before it landed on our table).

Once in a while, we get the chance to prove it. When it’s Italian food we’re looking for,

there’s one place we’ve recommended for years: Nicolinni’s Ristorante.

Just recently, in fact, an old high-school buddy and his wife flew in from Dallas for a 50th class reunion, and this was our stop-of-choice for din-ner. For reasons of distance, we visited the original location in Austintown instead of the newer one in Boardman.

And yes, like everyone else we’ve ever taken there, they left raving about the food.

Our search visit, though, was for a late lunch. Neither of us was extremely hungry, but knowing we’d have leftovers (and remembering how extraor-dinary the dish was when we’d ordered it with our Dallas friends), we chose linguine Nicolinni. The white clam sauce contains broccoli florets, Italian seasoning, imported cheeses and a hint of crushed red pepper ($15.95).

We’re not sure what makes this so mouthwater-ing – our money’s on those crushed red peppers, which impart a barely detectable zing, and a slightly thicker-than-expected sauce. The broccoli florets are bite-size and cooked to just-tender, and there’s no skimping on the chopped clams that top the whole thing. And if it matters, here, too, the server gift-wraps leftovers for you in no-muss, no-fuss fashion.

Pastabilities: Consider the crème di pomadoro ($13.95), a flavorful combination of pancetta and sweet peas in tomato cream sauce over penne. If you want to heat things up, don’t miss the hot peppers in oil appetizer at $4.95.


Vineyard: Growing in Youngstown. Yes, Youngstown.From Page 1Arlene Rosemond, acquired eight vacant parcels alongside the house where their grandparents once lived in Brier Hill. Rosemond acquired the land through Lien Forward Ohio, a program funded by Mahoning County that works to return tax-delin-quent land to productive use.

Brier Hill was once home to a large concentra-tion of Italian immigrants, and Naples thought of re-establishing the winemaking tradition that’s long since disappeared from the city.

Rosemond and her son, Nutchie, live at the house at the corner of Raymond and Burlington avenues on the city’s North Side and help tend the vineyard by weeding, trimming and cutting the grass. “I lived here during my third year in medical school and residencies,” Naples relates, emphasizing the senti-mental attachment he still holds for the land.

“We still have a lot of family functions here,” Naples says as he inspects a bunch of grapes that should be ready for picking this month. “I’ve been making wine for 20 years, and when the opportunity came I thought this would be a great idea.”

This year will be the first harvest for Brier Hill Winery and Vineyard LLC, a name Naples developed out of respect for the storied neighborhood. “It takes about three years” before grapes can be successfully grown for winemaking, he explains.

The first harvest is expected to be small – enough to make roughly 10 gallons of wine. “That should make about 50 bottles,” Naples says. He planted the first six rows – about 50 vines – the first year, and added 100 more the second. This year, he’s planted another 50 for a total of 200 vines. One vine yields a gallon of wine, so the vineyard could produce up to 200 gallons in a couple of years once all the vines mature.

Winemaking is becoming a popular pastime here in the Mahoning Valley, says Robert Kuzenko, owner of Wine Makers Headquarters, Warren. “I’ve been making wine for a long time, and I’d have to drive to Cleveland or Pittsburgh for supplies,” he says.

That encouraged him to start his own wine and beer-making supply business three years ago. “I’ve seen 40% growth each year,” Kuzenko reports. “There are a lot of people who make wine. It’s a fun, relaxing hobby for a lot of people,” he says.

Although a skilled winemaker, Naples admits he knew little about growing his own vineyard. “I read everything I could on the subject, purchased DVDs, and called just about everyone in the wine business,” he says. Specialists who operate wineries in Ashtabula, Presque Isle, Pa., and upstate New York were extremely helpful, he notes.

The most important aspect of starting a vineyard, Naples cautions, is to “grow what you can, not what you like.” Conditions in northeastern Ohio aren’t conducive to growing the Merlot or Cabernet varieties of grapes so plentiful in the Napa Valley. However, Naples found that his concord and French-American hybrid grapes take to this climate very well.

“Grapes need sun,” he says. “The Napa Valley has on average between 190 and 210 days of sun throughout the year. We’re lucky if we get 140 to 150. The California grapes could never survive the winter.” He has vines shipped to him from the Finger Lakes area in New York and then plants them.

To ensure the vines grow vertically, Naples de-vised a simple trestle system made of metal posts he

bought at Lowe’s for about $5 apiece. The posts stand roughly five feet apart and are tethered together with cords that stretch across the entire row to guide the growth of the vines.

Aside from concord, the vineyard should yield French-American hybrids such as Noriet, Corot Noir, Chambourcin, Marechal Foch, Marqueta and LaCrescent. “Out of the 200 I’ve planted, I’ve only lost eight vines,” he says. The growing season begins in May, after the last frost.

As for now, Naples considers the effort a labor of love and spends about two evenings a week tend-

ing the vineyard. He also credits friends and family members who helped plant some of the vines and says he doesn’t have any intentions to take his wine commercial – yet.

“I’d like to buy some more property behind us,” he says, gesturing to a line of trees along the south side of the vineyard. Some of that land, he notes, is owned by St. Anthony Parish, which turned him down when he offered to purchase the property.

“I wouldn’t mind expanding,” he says, hinting that someday he might try to market his wine. “But right now, I’m still an amateur.”

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With unemployment levels nearing those of the early 1980s, Columbiana County officials eagerly await news of stimulus

funding so they can create the position of county economic development director, but time is running out.

When the Community Action Agency of Co-lumbiana County got news that it would receive $445,661 in Community Services Block Grant funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, its executive director, Carol Bretz, says the first thing that crossed her mind was hiring an economic development director. Columbiana Coun-ty has lacked one since 2001 when funds ran out.

At press time, the agency had yet to receive the funds so it could proceed in its search, Bretz says. Thus, the 18 months the agency budgeted for will likely be cut to 12, maybe less.

“This isn’t the situation I had hoped for when we submitted our application in June,” Bretz says. “Unfortunately, it’s taken the state longer to process these applications than they originally expected. I am concerned that we’ve lost time.”

The grant is being held up because the Ohio Department of Development’s Office of Commu-nity Services – through which funding is dispensed – wants the agency to address special conditions before funds are released, Bretz says.

Such conditions include clarifying the use of funds budgeted for the county engineer’s office, pro-viding a list with dates of conferences and events the development director will attend, and incorporating the more specific language Development provided in the memorandum of understanding between the action agency, county commissioners and the county engineer.

Bretz had hoped to advertise the position for two weeks beginning July 1 and start reviewing the ap-plications the third week of July. Now, she says, the county will be fortunate to have someone in place by Oct. 1. The deadline to exhaust the funds is Sept. 30, 2010, a deadline that Bretz hopes Congress will extend.

From the stimulus-package dollars, the eco-nomic development director position would be al-located $311,229, with the agency spending another $100,901 for a full-time planner/grant writer, and $30,096 for its Senior Farmers’ Market Program. After the stimulus dollars are spent, it will be the director’s responsibility to seek funds and keep the position self-sustaining.

An 18-member board will choose the director,

ColumbianaCountyAmbitious Goals Set for Development Director

By Jeremy Lydic

Duties would include compiling a list of available sites along with needed infrastructure, zoning.

oversee his activities and set goals, Bretz says. The ideal candidate is someone from northeastern Ohio who knows the area well and has at least 20 years of experience in economic development.

“We want to be able to see successful projects,” Bretz says. “They’ve got to have a track record. This is too great of an opportunity to hire the wrong person.”

Among the director’s duties are working with the county engineer, Bert Dawson, county commission-ers, the Community Action Agency and Columbiana County Port Authority to identify potential projects and apply for grants and funds.

The director would also be responsible for com-piling an inventory of the commercial and industrial sites in the county available for development and posting them on a Web site, complete with exist-ing and needed infrastructure, acreage and zoning issues. The Web site would be a central point of information for companies interested in locating in Columbiana County.

The county has capitalized on some opportuni-ties, such as the federal prison in Elkton and Heri-tage-WTI Inc. in East Liverpool, but other opportu-nities have fallen through, Dawson says. Speaking as both county and sanitary engineer, Dawson says Columbiana County has the infrastructure to make

it attractive to business and “is in a pretty strategic location” because of how close it is to metropolitan areas such as Youngstown, Steubenville and Canton. Companies are looking at the county, he says, and an economic development director would follow up on their inquiries so the county can better compete with nearby counties in Pennsylvania and West Virginia as well as Ohio.

“I hope we’re successful in finding someone that has somewhat of a track record and has people skills to open doors and market Columbiana County,” Dawson says. “I think we’ll get someone good.”

Job creation is the development director’s primary charge, with goals of bringing in at least eight new businesses in the technology, manufacturing and health care sectors, those businesses creating or bringing in at least 125 jobs that pay at least $15 per hour plus benefits.

The director is also expected to help five busi-nesses in the county expand, so that at least 75 more jobs are created, these jobs paying at least $12 per hour with benefits.

Minimum pay rates are based on an annual household income of $30,000 for a family with two parents and two children, the minimum needed to be self-sufficient in Columbiana County, Bretz notes.

Any growth during a recession is good growth, and Compco Industries at 400 W. Railroad St. in Columbiana is creating jobs while adding customers, says its president and CEO, Rick Fryda, left. Since Jan. 1, the metal-stamping company has enjoyed the business of 97 new customers while calling back five workers who were furloughed and hiring four new employees. “We see growth in 2010,” Fryda says. Such growth will be ideal if it comes in monthly bursts of up to 10%, says Compco’s CFO, Douglas Hagy.

See GOALS, page 39


All Sports Sporting Goods moved into the Mezzanine Town Mall at 129 E. State St. in East Liverpool on June 1, but has served the area since 1977, says its business manager, Tom Pease. Like any other small businesses, the trophy and athletic clothing supplier has taken a hit during the recession, but its custom print services have kept things steady, Pease says. Prints on clothing, such as jerseys, sweatshirts and hats, make up 75% of All Sports’ business, and the shop fills up to 40 orders a week. “T-shirts is where it’s at,” Pease says. “That’s our bread and butter.” In an effort to expand its customer base, All Sports is adding sign and decal printing this year.

Pharmaceutical business at Morgan’s Drugstore and Gift Shop at 118 E. Lincoln Way in Lisbon “is stable at this point,” but gift purchases are down 25% from last year, says its owner and pharmacist, Kevin Snyder, behind counter. Clerks Amy Humphrey, left, and Paula Stoffel help customers find what they’re looking for and offer suggestions.

A change in the times calls for a change in direction, and Kolby’s department store at 440 E. State St. in Salem has adjusted by combining a focus on accessories with an online presence, say co-owners Gary and B.J. Abrams. The shop launched its first Web site, www.tennilles-kolbysofsalemllc.com, two months ago but still caters to walk-in customers such as Melissa Costa, right.

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Achieving these goals would be a huge step forward in a county where poverty rates exceeded the state rate of 14.1% in 2005. In its 2008 State of Poverty in Ohio report, the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies show that the Buckeye State’s East Central economic development region, which includes Columbiana County, lost 8,492 manufacturing jobs, a 16.9% decrease from 2007. The East Central region ranks third highest in eli-gibility for Medicaid at 17.2% as well as households receiving energy assistance at 18.4%. It also has the second-highest percentage of adults without a high school diploma at 21.1%.

Bretz, with the Community Action Agency 33 years, has witnessed the precipitous drop in the number of jobs in heavy industry that paid their workers well “and the impact on families and busi-nesses in Columbiana County has been significant and terrible,” she says.

As the number of such jobs has fallen, the demand for social services has risen, and Bretz says demand for her agency’s Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) has never been higher. Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 2008, the agency spent $647,084 for that program – 43.25% of its annual allocation.

“People were just expecting that we would be able to help them,” Bretz says. “We’re seeing a significant uptick in denial for requests for services.”

In what Bretz calls a “real-time statistic” of the

Goals: Set for Development DirectorFrom Page 37 poverty level in the county, 7,867 – 48.5% – of

county public school students were receiving free and reduced-price lunches last October. Household income must be at or below 130% of the federal poverty level to qualify for the free-lunch program and less than 185% of the federal poverty level to qualify for reduced-price lunches.

“I think that’s an appalling statistic,” Bretz com-ments. “And every year since I began tracking that data, probably 15 years or so ago, it increases.”

Because such funding comes with no guarantee of renewal, using it to expand such services would

be temporary, forcing the agency to cancel those services when the well dries up, Bretz says. An eco-nomic development director would give the county a chance to bring in new jobs, thus reducing the need for the services the agency provides.

In 2006, manufacturing jobs comprised 14.6% of all jobs in Columbiana County, down from 50.2% in 1970. Unemployment stood at 14.7% in July, up from 13% in April and inching closer to the 20.2% in January 1983, Bretz says. Columbiana County’s unemployment rate ranks 28th among the 88 coun-ties in Ohio.

As the holidays near, The Ginger Jar at 240 E. State St. in Salem will likely see an increase in its ceramic painting classes, says owner Marsha DeJane. “Summer’s kind of slow for that,” DeJane says. “When fall activities start, it’ll probably pick back up.” The shop opened in 1985 and added a gift shop in 2002 to attract passers-by, but a decrease in foot traffic has mirrored the loss of some storefronts downtown, DeJane says.

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Industrial Parks: Getting InquiriesFrom Page 31


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BuildingBetterBusiness

By Pat RoseBBB President

Breakfast with Our Champions

Bill DeCicco was named Business Advocate of the Year by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber at its Salute to Business Breakfast

Sept. 3. In accepting his award, DeCicco listed 12 ini-

tiatives that he believes must be implemented to revitalize the Mahoning Valley. Here is some of what he said:

1. Improve Our Image. There is considerable evidence that outsiders now have a better opinion of us than in the past. To ensure a continued favor-able image, we must demand accountability from our elected officials. It is imperative that we elect leaders who work diligently to improve the region rather than those who are self-serving or beholden to special interest.

2. Think Regionally. Considerable progress has been made in recent years. I believe it began with the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments and continued when three chambers from Youngstown, Warren and Niles merged to form the Regional Chamber. I am encouraged by the recent formation of additional regional organizations, including the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative.

3. Continue Good Labor/Government/Manage-ment Relations. Labor, government and manage-ment collaboration is a major reason why General Motors made the decision to build the Cruze at Lordstown and why the Youngstown Air Reserve Sta-tion remains as a major employer. Blue or white col-lar, Democrat, Republican or independent: We all are in this together. Our diversity gives us strength.

4. Complete the Regional Highway Network. Projects such as the Hubbard Expressway, relocating U.S. 62 from Route 11 to Alliance and the missing Route 422 link from Warren to Cleveland were all planned over 50 years ago. What’s taking so long?

5. Education, Education, Education. A good education means a good job. A good job means less social disorganization. Emphasis must be given to finding better ways to assist our inner city schools and help those children most vulnerable.

6. Encourage Brownfield Redevelopment. Al-though the Valley lost 50,000 steelmaking jobs, we now have thousands of acres available of developable sites that can be occupied by new environmentally friendly businesses. Continued support of brown-field developments must remain a priority.

7. Restore the Mahoning River. Nearly a century of making steel rendered our Mahoning River an environmental disaster. Although it will be costly to remediate environmental problems with the river, a cost-benefit study prepared by the U.S. Army Corps

12 Initiatives to Revitalize the Valley

I w a s p r i v i l e g e d to have breakfast (along with over

600 other people) with some of our region’s best examples of why the Mahoning Valley is on the upswing. At this year’s Regional Chamber’s Salute to Business breakfast, four outstanding people were honored.

Ed Muransky, named Business Professional of the Year, taught us all to be entrepreneurial and

a futurist. He loved a unique pretzel that he tasted at a trade show and took a chance that others would love it too. Auntie Anne’s is now in malls all over the country. He also understood that doctors needed facilities designed just for them. So Ed met that challenge with The Surgical Center at Southwoods. He made the point that you can be successful in our area. You just need to work hard and smart and surround yourself with good people.

Germaine Bennett was honored as the Nonprofit Professional of the Year. Everyone at the head table literally gushed about her hard work, not only as a teacher and principal, but also in retirement as an member of nonprofit boards and committees.

But Germaine wanted only to leave one thought with us. It wasn’t about working together, although she truly believes in that. It wasn’t about support-ing the nonprofit community, although she leads by example in that category. Her one thought and it is

crucial to our success: “It’s all about the children!”The chamber’s Salute to Labor Achievement

was awarded to Larry Fauver, vice president of the Mahoning Trumbull AFL-CIO. Through the years, he has been the voice of reason. He understands that neither labor nor management can exist suc-cessfully alone.

It takes cooperation from both sides to create a successful atmosphere in which industry can pros-per. Larry understood what needed to be done to increase jobs and worked closely with management to improve the conditions and safety of labor.

Bill DeCicco, recently retired executive director of Castlo Community Improvement Corp., rightfully was honored as the chamber’s Business Advocate of the Year. If you are not familiar with the name, Cas-tlo stands for Campbell, Struthers and Lowellville

– towns severely affected by the steel closings of the 1970s. What were the sites where men and women made a decent living became the brownfields, where mills were torn down for scrap and the soil and water were polluted with the waste.

Bill understood you had to play the hand you were dealt. He turned those brown-fields into an industrial park where new businesses could locate and put good men and women back to work. What he has cre-ated here in the Mahoning Valley is used as

a template for other cities that have suffered similar losses to their industrial bases.

Bill outlined 12 economic development initiatives at the breakfast and we all walked out of the meeting with the same thought; Bill gave us a map to rebuild the Mahoning and Shenango valleys. You can read his 12 initiatives at the top of this page.

I urge you to do your part to become a part of our rebirth.

of Engineers concludes the resultant development will far exceed the cost.

8. Implement Youngstown 2010 and Warren’s Comprehensive Plan. Without strong central cities, the entire region will be at risk.

9. Forge a Link with Western Pennsylvania. Our economic region is composed of three counties in Ohio and two in Pennsylvania. The Mahoning and Shenango valleys enjoy a strategic location between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, two great cities.

10. Promote Tourism. Millions traverse the re-gion annually on our highway network and nearly 10 million people reside within a 100-mile radius. We need to attract these people as visitors to our entertainment venues, cultural institutions and museums, golf courses and lakes.

11. Place the Mahoning Valley on the National

High-Speed Rail Corridor. With all due respect to the Ohio Rail Development Commission, the short-est distance between New York and the Eastern Seaboard, and Chicago and the Midwest is through Ohio’s most populated corridor, which traverses Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Warren, Akron, Cleveland, Lorain-Elyria, Sandusky and Toledo.

12. Promote the Mahoning Valley’s Location to Prospective Employers. We are located at the mid-point between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, New York and Chicago, and also Cincinnati and Toronto. We remain at the center of the American Manufacturing Belt, and half of the population of the United States and Canada is within a 500-mile radius. We have a skilled and dedicated work force, a low cost of living and a vast array of cultural, educational and recreational amenities.

Retired Castlo exec charts roadmap for growth at chamber Salute to Business.

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When the D.D. & Velma Davis Family YMCA was constructed six years ago, Youngstown YMCA President and CEO Ken Rudge

thought that the branch would hover around 12,000 members – more than enough to sustain its new operations. He was both right and wrong.

Rudge was right when he thought that number would sustain the Davis Branch. However, instead of 12,000 members, the branch at one point last year hit 16,500. Add in the demand for its community programs, which attract about 10,000 nonmembers a year, and an average of 40,000 people pass through the doors every month.

“That’s a half-million people a year. We needed to make it larger,” Rudge said as he and other dig-nitaries gathered Sept. 10 for a groundbreaking ceremony to usher in a new $6 million expansion of the Davis Branch. “This addition wasn’t in the cards originally.”

The Davis YMCA opened Sept. 10, 2003.The addition will consist of mostly youth fitness

and recreation programs, expanding the Y’s ability to build a healthier community based on family, faith and love, Rudge said, “It’s a place that families can enjoy together.”

The expansion will add 30,000 square feet to the 75,000-square-foot building. The new space will house a recreation center for youth as well as a fitness center and a multi-purpose gym on the first

YMCA To Begin $6M Expansion

Turning shovels during a groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 10 are project architects Greg Strollo and Robert Buchanan, CEO Ken Rudge, board President Jay Yerian and Tony Lariccia. The Davis YMCA opened Sept. 10, 2003.

floor, both for youth. The second level will consist of an expanded fitness center, an aerobics studio, a staff lounge, a new community room and new restrooms.

The project also includes adding a children’s art studio and an enhanced children’s center near the main entrance. And, the existing preschool center and family adventure center will be remodeled.

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Getting AheadTIPS FOR CLIMBING THE CAREER LADDER, COMPILED BY MONNIE RYAN

Getting AheadWorking Your Way Up

If you think that simply showing up on time and doing your job proficiently will get you a

promotion, think again. These days, employees have to prove their worth to gain advancement as employers ask workers to do more with less and keep operating costs low.

Experts from Snelling Staffing Ser-vices offer these tips to help you make the most of career opportunities:

• Keep up with trends and tech-nology. Employers are all looking for top-caliber performers who possess specific skills and know-how, so it’s crucial that you stay up with what’s happening in your field.

• Stay marketable. Attend classes and seminars, especially if the com-pany is willing to pay the registration fees. Volunteer for projects that will enhance your abilities. Being involved shows initiative, an attribute your boss will respect. Keep an up-to-date re-sume on hand; you never know when an opportunity will come along.

• Be active. Sometimes, that simply means sitting down with your supervi-sor and asking, “What do I have to do to be on track toward a promotion?” If there are areas your employer would like you to improve, ask for specific feedback and chart a timeline with goals.

• Adopt a mentor. One of the best ways to advance your career is to learn more about the career of someone in a leadership position. Ask a person in your office or a peer within a trade association whom you respect to meet with you regularly.

Avoid the office rumor mill. When you see Gossipy Gail and Loose-Lips Louie at the water cooler, keep right on going. Nothing will hurt your credibility more than perpetuating negative or sensitive office buzz.

• Keep current. Stay up on the latest movers and shakers in your industry and read materials that will make you think like a leader.

• Dress for the position. Don’t go into debt for a designer suit or pair of shoes, but do take a little time to dress yourself as you would if you were working in the position above

your own. • Join and volunteer in industry

associations. Nothing can make you more visible than joining industry associations. Meetings, mixers and events provide priceless networking opportunities and can expose you to key players and industry leaders.

Cover Bases in Cover LetterThe cover letter usually is the first

thing the hiring manager sees, and is one of the best tools to make a posi-tive first impression. To help ensure that yours conveys the right messages, consider this advice from Robert Half International:

• Research the firm and industry through the Internet, trade publica-tions and the library. Demonstrate your knowledge of the field and re-quirements of the position and com-pany. Explain why your background meets the organization’s needs.

• Don’t rehash your resume. Focus on key aspects of your background that relate to the job opportunity.

• Address the letter to the person hiring for the position, not “Dear Sir or Madam.” If necessary, call the com-pany to verify the name and title, and double-check the spelling of both.

•Run your cover letter through your spell-checker, and proofread it yourself. Then, find friends or rela-tives (or your former English teacher) to proofread it again.

Who’s Reading Your E-mail?Fully 32% of companies with 1,000

or more employees have hired person-nel specifically to read employees’ e-mail messages, and nearly 28% have terminated employees for violating e-mail policies, according to data loss prevention company Proofpoint Inc.

One of the primary reasons for checking e-mail is that it is a primary source of information leakage, which can result in a host of regulatory viola-tions and legal problems.

Employee use of social network-ing sites such as MySpace, FaceBook and Twitter increase the chance that sensitive company information may become public.

Bottom line? If you don’t want the boss to see your e-mail message, don’t hit the “send” button.

Prove your worth and gain advancement.


Court OKs New Vision Reorganization PlanWKBN/WYFX/WYTV operator filed Chapter 11 in July.

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Salary Hikes Lowest in 25 YearsNEW YORK, Sept. 3 – The increase in company salary budgets for 2010 is the lowest since The Conference Board’s survey was launched 25 years ago. This year, the median increase is 3% in all employee categories, down 0.5% from the previous year.

Salary increase budgets refer to the pool of money that an organization dedicates to salary increases for the coming year. Generally, it is represented as a percentage of current payroll.

Across industry categories, the insurance sec-tor reports the highest 2010 forecasts for salary increase budgets in all employee categories, 3.5%, while the communications sector reports the lowest in all employee categories -- 2.5%. A median forecast of 2.5% also is reported for the salary increase budgets for executives in the energy and agriculture industries.

While the median forecast salary increase bud-get is low, the typical employer still is budgeting for salary increases ahead of inflation in 2010. Suppressed, in part, by the slack in production capacity, Board projections show the inflation rate to be 2% this coming year.

New Vision Television, the owner of television stations WKBN/WYFX and operator of WYTV, an-nounced Sept. 11 that its plan of reorganization has been approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The court’s decision signals an imminent end to New Vision’s restructuring process, the company said.

New Vision entered Chapter 11 July 13 with the support of the company’s first- and second-lien debt holders, who unanimously supported the reorgani-zation plan. New Vision owns or provides services to 14 major network-affiliated television stations across the United States.

Under the plan, as approved by the court, all of New Vision’s debt and guaranteed obligations of more than $400 million will be eliminated. New Vi-sion will be provided with sufficient capital to ensure the company’s uninterrupted business operations, and New Vision’s existing management and employ-ees will remain in place, the company said.

“New Vision has reached an important mile-stone,” said Jason Elkin, New Vision’s founder and CEO, in a prepared statement. “As we began this restructuring process, we promised our employees, our viewers and our advertisers that New Vision wouldn’t miss a beat, and we haven’t. Our daily business hasn’t been impacted at all: Jobs and ben-efits for our employees are intact; advertisers have continued to receive top customer service; and our stations have continued to invest in best-of-class news coverage and other programming.”

New Vision’s restructuring is subject to the earlier consent of the Federal Communications Commission. New Vision has sought such consent and expects approval shortly, the company said.

“New Vision’s tremendous progress in just 60 days is a tribute to everyone who has been involved,” Elkin’s statement continued. “We are grateful for the tremendous faith our debt holders have shown in New Vision’s business model and future prospects, and we are thankful for the dedication and loyalty of our employees, advertisers and viewers.”

New Vision Television is the third station owner-ship group led by Elkin and his management team. It was formed in July 2006.

With corporate offices in Atlanta and Los An-geles, New Vision Television and its predecessor companies have owned and operated more than 30 television stations across the country since 1993.


PEOPLE, COMPANIES, MAKING NEWS

For the Record

John Agnew, CEO of Agnew Farm Equipment, Boardman, says his company has occupied the same spot at the Canfield Fair for 143 years. Sales of Agnew’s power equipment double in September as a result of the display and special Canfield Fair pricing, he says.

Nominees for the 2009 Valley Leg-acy Awards, which honor civic-minded seniors for their contributions to the Mahoning Valley, include Business Journal columnist Monnie Ryan and her husband, Jack Ryan of Niles. Other nominees are Bill Byard of Warren, Rand Becker of Youngstown, Germaine Bennett of Youngstown, Joanne Collier of Poland, Thomas P. Gilmartin Sr. of Youngstown, Joyce Hoover of Boardman, Audrey John of Niles, George H. John of Niles, June Johnson of Austintown, Louis and Maria LaCava of Austintown, Kay Lavelle of Youngstown, Nancy J. Malone of Niles, John Masternick Sr. of Girard, Patrick C. Pinney of Youngstown, Louise Selaro of Youngstown, Anne Schweinfurth of Warren, James E. Tallman of Niles, W. Lawrence Weeks of Cortland and William Zavarello of Boardman.

Nominees for Outstanding Advocate for Seniors are Maggie Lorenzi and Mary Ann O’Neil of Youngstown and Bob Tucker of Warren.

Nick Demetrios has been promoted to manager at Hill, Barth & King LLC, Boardman.

Caren Renz has joined First National Bank, Hermitage, Pa., as vice president of private banking.

A 24-page adver tising feature on Mike Coates Construction Co., Niles, was published in August by Properties Magazine. The feature celebrates the company’s 50 years in business.

The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber 2009 Business Showcase After Hours Mixer will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 17 at the Covelli Centre, Youngstown.

John Kasich, GOP candidate for governor of Ohio will serve as featured speaker during a chamber breakfast Sept. 25 at Ciminero’s Banquet Centre, Niles.

A small-business summit, “Organiz-ing Your Business & Life,” will take place from 7:15 a.m. to noon Sept. 30 at Holiday Inn-Boardman.

For information about these events, call 330 744 2131.

Professional Research Consultants Inc. has awarded St. Elizabeth Health Center, Youngstown, a five-star award, and St. Joseph Health Center, Warren, a four-star award, based on a survey as-sessing the medical staff’s perceptions of the hospital’s medical records.

The Youngstown Business & Profes-sional Women’s Club’s ninth annual champagne luncheon and fashion show will take place at 11 a.m. Oct. 3 at Antone’s Banquet Centre, Boardman. For information, call 330 726 2267.

Prospective entrepreneurs over the age of 50 can learn about starting a home-based business at a workshop Oct. 14 at the Boardman branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahon-ing County. The workshop is sponsored by the Ohio Department of Develop-ment. Call 800 848 1300.

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OnlineDatelinesSharon Health System To Open Hubbard SatelliteSHARON, Pa., Sept. 9 – Sharon Regional Health System plans to establish a $1.7 million satellite medical center in Hubbard.

Construction on the new Hubbard Diagnostic and Specialty Center is expected to begin in October, with completion scheduled for January.

The center will occupy 11,500 square feet in the former Nemenz/IGA store on West Liberty Street.

The diagnostic and specialty center will bring specialty physicians to Hubbard in cardiology, gen-eral surgery, sports medicine and orthopedic surgery, along with a full complement of diagnostic tests, physical therapy and a specialized heart center for advanced cardiac testing.

The center will accept all physician requests for diagnostic tests and therapies regardless of hospital affi liation, according to a press release.

The specialized heart center is a satellite of Sharon Regional’s Heart and Vascular Institute, and will offer cardiac stress tests, cardiac nuclear medicine, cardiac echocardiography and general offi ce cardiology through Sharon Cardiology Specialists. The practice group opened an interim offi ce in Hubbard Sept. 1 on West Liberty Street.

The new Hubbard Diagnostic and Specialty Cen-ter will also serve as a satellite for Sharon Regional Sports Medicine Services. As such, it will offer ap-pointments with sports medicine specialists and a large sports medicine therapy and rehabilitation center, the hospital system says.

Area Jobless Rate 2nd Highest YOUNGSTOWN, Sept. 1 – The Mahoning Valley avoided having the highest jobless rate in the state of Ohio in July, but not by much, reports the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Youngstown-Warren-Boardman Metropoli-tan Statistical Area’s 14.2% jobless rate in July rep-resented a slight drop from the 14.4% rate reported for June, but still was the second-highest among Ohio’s 13 MSAs. The Mansfi eld MSA edged out Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, with a 14.3% job-less rate in July.

In July, 40,100 were out of work in the local MSA among the total civilian labor force of 281,500. The July jobless rate compares to 7.7% a year earlier.

Jobless rates were higher in all of the nation’s 372 metropolitan areas in July than in July 2008, with 19 metro areas reporting rates of at least 15% and 139 posting jobless rates of at least 10%.

Dayton Named Innovation HubDAYTON, Sept. 9 – The state has created its fi rst Ohio Hub of Innovation and Opportunity, Gov. Ted Strickland announced here during a press event.

The fi rst hub to be created since the program was unveiled, the Dayton hub is designed to catalyze the region’s aerospace and technology assets and drive sustainable economic growth, the governor said.

“To accelerate Ohio job growth and economic recovery, we must work in strategic partnerships toward a common vision,” Strickland said. “The designation of Dayton as Ohio’s aerospace hub positions the region for growth by building on its historic strengths in aerospace and technology in-novation.”

The goal of the Ohio Hub strategy is for a region to leverage its resources to attract clusters of con-nected businesses, encourage new investments and an infl ux of talented workers, and create opportuni-ties to increase jobs and develop key industries.

Dayton’s Ohio Aerospace Hub of Innovation will build upon the area’s strengths in aerospace, sensor technologies and advanced materials and will tap the resources of The University of Dayton and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Strickland said.

“Ever since the Wright Brothers cemented Dayton’s place in aerospace history by inventing the airplane here, we have been creating an economic base built around invention, creativity and original-ity,” said the mayor of Dayton, Rhine McLin. “The Hub designation solidifi es the strong relationships we have forged between the University of Dayton Research Institute, Tech Town and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.”

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BY JEFFREY GITOMER

Sales Savvy

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible, conducts seminars, sales meetings and training programs. Reach him at 704 333 1112 or at [email protected].

I gave a discount. It’s not the first time I’ve ever done it; it probably won’t be the last. But I teach against

it. And I preach against it.If your price is $1,000, and you

discount down to $900, $100 comes out of profit. And in these times, profit is the only saving grace of business.

My public sem-inar tickets sell for $99 each. If you buy 10 or more, they are $89 apiece, and it’s been that way for the past 10 years.

Last week we decided that for one week only we would offer our custom-ers a $20 per ticket discount. Never did it before, and even though we sold a lot of tickets, I took a lot of flak.

People wrote to me, e-mailed me, and called me out on the fact that I was giving a discount and going against my teachings. Not many people, but enough to ruffle my feathers. It should be said that 10 times as many people thanked me – and 50 times as many people bought tickets.

Back to the discount. I agonized over whether I should offer it, know-ing that people were going to yank my chain. But this is how I made the final decision: The amount of money that we would lose would not be make-it-or-break-it dollars. By comparison to the rest of our income, it was a very low percentage.

With many companies canceling their sales meetings, and not sup-porting their salespeople the way they used to by paying for one of my tickets, I decided to make this offer directly to salespeople.

My e-mail magazine reaches thou-sands of people. Most readers are traditional salesmen and saleswomen who pound the pavement and use the phone lines to earn a living.

I decided to take money out of my pocket, and allow it to stay in their pockets so they might have an incentive to buy a ticket on their own,

without reimbursement from their bosses. And many did.

Maybe I did go against my teaching, but I did not go against my customer. I also stated that this discount was for a limited time – one week.

Keep in mind, this was not an “I have to do this” discount. This was an “I want to do this” discount. Yeah, maybe I’m justifying it. But I didn’t do it to stay in business. Rather I did it to promote goodwill and give more people an opportunity to attend a sales

seminar that just might help them succeed through th i s economic

mess.How are your prices holding up?

Thinking of offering a discount? Thinking of having a sale?

Many companies are discounting out of desperation. Companies that sell cars, houses and furniture are examples of businesses in trouble that are forced to discount. I was not. I was creating my own stimulus package for my customers.

If (for whatever reason) you are going to offer your customers a lower price, the following guidelines will help ensure success, and ensure cus-tomer loyalty:

• Make certain that you can afford to discount.

• Make certain there is some profit for you after the discount.

• Have a start and end date. Do not go beyond the stated end date.

• Have the promotion in the hands of all your customers electronically.

• Make certain that accounting is as involved as sales and marketing.

In this economy, people have come to expect discounts as a part of the downturn and (slow) recovery. If you choose to offer one, make certain that your customer feels valued, that you can back it up with service, and that when the discount period is over, you have your goodwill intact.

Sometimes You MakeA Decision That HurtsWhen you offer a discount, make sure you can afford it.

Many companies are discount-ing out of desperation.

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By Dan O’Brien

YOUNGSTOWN, Sept. 11 – As he looked across the large banquet hall, Mayor Jay Williams remarked that as companies and families cope with a tough economy, logic dictates that the room “should be half-full.”

Instead, more than 400 volunteers representing 46 companies and organizations packed the recep-tion hall of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church to participate in the United Way’s Day of Caring, which officially kicks off the agency’s fund-raising campaign for 2009.

“This is where the Mahoning Valley shines the most,” Williams said as he addressed the breakfast. “It’s a reflection of how special we are.”

Volunteers organized by their respective com-panies were to spend the day performing service projects at 34 local nonprofit organizations funded by the United Way Youngstown/Mahoning Valley.

Among them were painting, landscaping, con-struction, cleaning, home repairs, serving meals and conducting field trips.

“The need out there is incredible,” said Bob Han-non, president and chief professional officer of the United Way. “To get more than 400 volunteers is absolutely huge for us.”

The United Way seeks to raise $2.5 million in its campaign this year and reaching that goal looks promising, Hannon said. The Pacesetter campaign and leadership gifts have generated $568,814, or 23% of the goal.

“We’re up by $200,000 compared to last year,” he reported.

Hannon added that individual employee contri-butions are on the rise. Hill Barth & King LLC, a public accounting firm based in Boardman, reported its donations are up 20% so far, the Canfield School District said its contributions are 40% greater than in 2008, and Altronic Inc., Girard, reported its donations are up 10%. “All of these volunteers are working extremely hard,” Hannon remarked.

What is special about the United Way campaign, the chief professional officer said, is that all the money raised remains in the Mahoning Valley, sup-porting nonprofit community organizations such as Beatitude House, the Valley chapter of American Red Cross, Sojourner House, the Easter Seals Society and the Ursuline Sisters HIV/AIDS Ministries.

The organization funds 27 nonprofits in the Ma-honing Valley and supports another 70 community programs.

Don Terpak, chairman of Humility of Mary Health Partners’ corporate campaign, said he believes con-tributions from HMHP employees could increase as much as 15% this year compared to 2008.

“We have 18 volunteers out here today,” he said. Volunteers from HMHP were to wash walls, paint and clean at Beatitude House Potters Wheel. Potters Wheel helps disadvantaged women with job training, job preparation and education toward earning a GED.

“It’s important to us as a health-care organiza-

Day of Caring Begins United Way Campaigntion to get involved,” Terpak said. “It’s our way to help make a difference in people’s lives and in our community.”

It’s important to lead by example, he added, be-cause HMHP and other companies involved have a vast network of clients and customers who could attract more donations.

The United Way campaign runs until Dec. 31. “We believe there’s a lot of untapped potential,” Han-

non said of residents of the Mahoning Valley who could become donors. Among them are employees of physicians’ offices, attorneys, small businesses and school districts.

Never has the need been greater, Hannon empha-sized, citing the profound economic stress and the struggles families go through just to make ends meet. “One in four people in the Mahoning Valley benefited from United Way programs last year,” he noted.

Youngstown/Mahoning Valley chapter sets $2.5M goal.

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Legal Listings

Ohio Fictitious Names

CHAPTER 7

09-443199 7661 South Avenue LLC dba Ride Powersports, 7661 South Ave., Board-man 44512. Nature of Business: Retail sales of ATVs and motorcycles. Total Assets: $7,047.37. Total Liabilities: $556,844.71.

Business BankruptciesCHAPTER 11

09-42981 Vinyl Profiles Acquisition LLC, 11675 Mahoning Ave., Nor th Jackson 44451. Total Assets: $1,637,776.15. Total Liabilities: $3,932,051.29.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A fictitious business name is the name under which a company conducts business but which is not the legal name of the owner or of the corporation as indicated in its articles of incorporation.

Price’s Lawncare & More, James R. Price, 747 Oakridge Drive, Boardman 44512.

Shades of Light Photography, Melissa Shade, 1504 Bancroft Ave., Youngstown 44514.

Winners Palace, Gino A. Maurizio, 1698 S. Racoon Road, Youngstown 44515.

Star Nails, Angelina Nguyen Le, 3219 Elm Road NE, Unit 5, Warren 44483.

The Filling Station, Premium Note Trad-ing Co. Inc., 164 Churchill-Hubbard Road, Youngstown 44505.

Austintown Ambulatory Surgery Center, Aus-tintown Surgery Center LLC, 45 N. Canfield-Niles Road, Austintown 44515.

East Palestine Happy Youth, 2070 Inc., 825 W. North Ave., East Palestine 44413.

Mahoning Valley Produce, Ronald A. Brown, 1135 Taylor Lane, Mineral Ridge 44440.

The Pressure Band, Scott Zelasko, 1062 Parkside Drive, Alliance 44601.

Evans Expert Roofing, Ronald J. Evans Jr., 4892 Westchester Drive, Apt. 1, Austintown 44515.

Inspection Ready Cleaning Service, Anton Garzanich and Timothy Garzanich, 149 Hawkins Lane, Columbiana 44408.

New USA Gas Mart, M&M Global Trading Inc., 317 Pine Ave., Warren 44485.

Craig’s Flooring, Craig Swartzlander, 1909 Harvey Ave., East Liverpool 43920.

A Rainbow of Miracles, Mark Anthony Simini, 912 Cynthia Court, Niles 44446.

Utimate Food Mart, Juspunjabi Inc., 1426 Niles Road SE, Warren 44484.

North Jackson Convenient Mart & Drive Thru, Sobhi C. Rady, 4715 Market St., Youngstown 44512.

Custom Restraint Services, Brian Mauere, 74 Willow Bend Drive, Canfield 44406.

Deray Towing, Debra A. Easterbrook, 418 Manchester Ave., Youngstown 44509.

Big Dude’s Guess Who Lounge, Felder Fin-ley Partnership, 1804-1810 Wilson Ave., Youngstown 44501.

Pa. Incorporations/Fictitious NamesCenter Stage Academy of Dance Inc., 111 W. Northview Ave., New Castle 16105, school.

DeSantsi Home Care Inc., 108 Valhalla Drive, New Castle 16105, home care.

Premier Strategy Inc., 3142 state Route 956, New Castle 16105, real estate.

Terralinks Inc., 373 Old River Road, West Pittsburg 16160, golf course soil business.

AMK Financial Services Inc., 1266 E. State St., Sharon 16146, financial services.

Aspen Storage Inc., 6222 Saddlebrook Drive, Hermitage 16148, rental storage units.

Birch Properties Inc., 6222 Saddlebrook Drive, Hermitage 16148, real estate develop-ment and leasing.

Shaffer Services Inc., 137 Babcock Road, Mercer 16137, home improvement.

Anchor Custom Framing & Vintage Col-lectibles, 4466 Mitchell Road, New Castle 16105, framing and selling collectibles. Ficti-tious Name Owner: Elaine S. Dawson.

Crater Cakes, 6304 N. Edinburg Road, Edinburg 16116, food brokerage company. Fictitious Name Owners: Byrnes and Kiefer Co., Keystone Ingredients Inc.

Dynamic Multimedia, 828 Park Ave., Ellwood City 16117, install multimedia systems in churches. Fictitious Name Owner: Melvin R. Hormel.

Face Palm Vending, 1 Early St., Suite A, Ell-wood City 16117, vending services. Fictitious Name Owner: Ryan Venezie.

Fetch! Pet Care Services of SW Mercer/NW Lawrence Counties, 145 Thornhill Drive, Pulaski 16143, pet care (dog walking, small- animal care, pet taxi, in-home pet sitting, pet day care). Fictitious Name Owners: Baron Pet Care Services Inc., Jeannie Baron-Yenerall.

New Castle Wine Co., 36 N. Jefferson St., New Castle 16101, winery. Fictitious Name Owner: Gary F. Lynch.

Precise Heating and Air Conditioning, 1777 Shaw Road, Volant 16156, sales/service of heating and air conditioning equipment. Fictitious Name Owners: Richard Reed, Wil-liam Reed.

The Disability Legal Clinic, 40 N. Jefferson St., New Castle 16101, law practice. Ficti-tious Name Owner: Carlson Lynch Ltd.

The MAD Unit, 54 Links Drive, New Castle 16101, mobile auto detailing. Fictitious Name Owner: Michael A. Saad.

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Dunkin’ Donuts Fills Holes in MarketBy George Nelson

The upcoming opening of the region’s newest Dunkin’ Donuts store in Austintown will bring to 16 the number of locations the national

chain operates in five counties in northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Expected to open in the next few weeks, the new store – at the prime location of the Interstate 80/Route 46 interchange – will be the eighth to open or relocate since 2005. That includes a new store on Market Street in Boardman, which opened earlier this year, just 1½ miles south of its first store in Boardman, and another on Route 46 in Niles across from the Eastwood Mall.

“It’s a good market,” says Lynne Schroeder, re-gional marketing manager for Dunkin’ Brands Inc.

Bryan Stolte, co-owner of six of the area stores, attributes the brand’s strength in this market in part to the operators as well as a “strong marketing pres-ence” on television and radio.

Stolte previously was director of operations for 440 stores stretching from Pennsylvania to Chicago. A few years ago, when the corporation was downsiz-ing, local operator Ted Rogers approached him about forming a partnership.

Franchisees in this area have always been “re-ally good, solid operators [who are] operationally focused,” Stolte says. “They engage with the guests. They protect the brand from a quality perspective.

“We really positioned ourselves well,” he contin-ues. “We cover almost every corner of the area, so there is a convenience there.”

Dunkin’ enjoys great name recognition, says longtime operator Joe White, who with his son, owns six stores, including the stores in Girard and Hermitage, Pa., and two in Salem.

In the doughnut business more than 30 years, White operated stores under the Mister Donut name when Dunkin’ acquired that chain in 1990. As he saw his choices at the time, he could convert his stores to operate as Dunkin’ or “die on the vine. So I decided to convert to Dunkin’,” he says.

The chain, White notes, long “a big brand on the East Coast,” decided it should become stronger in other areas of the country. “So they went to other markets where they had a presence,” he explains.

White opened a store in Salem in 2005 and the store in Girard in 2007.

Like Stolte, Jim Braga, who owns the store in Austintown and is opening another in the township, credits Dunkin’s success here in part to local opera-tors. “We’re one of the few markets where we do have strong average weekly sales,” he says, something he attributes to good products and service.

Braga has been in the business 27 years. Born in Rhode Island, he came to Ohio in 1982 and worked for his brother and sister-in-law, who had purchased a shop in Cleveland. About a year later, he bought his first store in Wilkes Barre, Pa. There, Braga met a local woman who became his wife. He bought the Austintown store in 1994 and in 2002 relocated that store to its present spot on Mahoning Avenue.

The new store on Route 46 has 4,000 square feet and the space devoted to retail is roughly two-thirds of that, Braga says, with the rest to offices. He has four franchises in the Youngstown market and al-

though he’s had the opportunity build more stores, he wanted to own the land they were built on. “I’m better off having two stores,” he says, “rather than having four or five stores and paying tremendous rent. That’s how I look at it.”

Dunkin’ diversified its offerings about 10 years ago, adding bagels and bagel sandwiches and ex-panding its array of beverages. “Coffee is probably our biggest signature item,” with that beverage line

today representing about 60% of Dunkin’s business, Stolte says.

Although he acknowledges business is a bit slower because of the recession, Dunkin’ is “some-what recession-proof,” Stolte suggests.

“We’re not a high-ticket-item business. You can get a cup of coffee for $1.29 – people aren’t cutting back to that extent,” he says. In fact, several stores increased sales and saw more customers than last year.


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RealEstateMarket Compiled byMark Heschmeyer

Trumbull County’s Largest TransactionsAddress Buyer Sale Amount Seller Sale Date

23 Warner Road, Hubbard Michael F. Broderick $675,000 Madelyn R. Cousin-Johnson & Thomas A. Johnson 7/9/2009

1001 W. Market St., Warren Midwest Restaurant Group LLC $496,296 Spirit Master Funding IV LLC 7/9/2009

6881 Mines Road, Howland Isaac & Rosemarie Torem $435,000 Kekti R. & Raxit Shah 8/11/2009

2354 Keystone Trail North, Bazetta Travis C. & Heidi D. Gullett $340,000 Robert A. & Nelia E. George 7/22/2009

520 Amber Drive, Warren Eugene A. & Sandra L. Rossi $330,000 Josephine E. Byers & Randy Kelly 8/18/2009

435 Amber Drive, Warren John L. & Janet T. Biro $301,500 Steven L. & Jennifer R. Sauer 8/7/2009

9355 Hunt Club Trail NE, Warren Nicholas R. & Thelma J. Trafan $300,000 Hunter Design & Construction Inc. 7/6/2009

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Buyers: Commercial Tenants Taking Advantage of Lower Building PricesFrom Page 1

ing has some 21,300 square feet.That’s not to say there hasn’t been some suc-

cess on the leasing side, Lewis says, citing what he describes as “reasonable activity” in CTW Develop-ment Corp.’s Westford Lifestyle Community as well as an agreement with The Cleveland Clinic.

Rates for commercial space run across the board, he says, with some of the better spaces going for $14 per square foot. In Trumbull County, his firm has completed leases on some older properties, such as the North Mar buildings in Warren, rented for $10 per square foot, and the former Akron Children’s Hospital space on Route 46 near North River Road, which went for $11.25 per foot.

“I think the activity is pretty reasonable given the current economy,” says Steve Platz, owner of Steve Platz Realty, Poland. People are out looking at what they might buy or lease, he explains, although he finds they are taking more time to consider where to locate. “Overall I think the activity is pretty solid right now,” he says.

While activity is comparable to last year at this time, “if you compare it to the end of last year, I think it’s stronger,” Platz continues. “I really didn’t notice a drop off until more like October of last year.”

Platz’s business, he reports, is nearly evenly split between sales and leasing. “My sense is that because people think they can get some pretty reasonable deals, that’s why they are considering buying rather than leasing,” he says. “My gut tells me it’s more the economy than not.

“But some people just want to lease, so they’re content to lease,” he adds. They don’t want the added responsibilities of owning property, such as main-tenance. Still, they are at least considering whether their costs would be the same, even a little bit less.

Some tenants are driven entirely by location, Platz explains, while others seek sites that will charge rent. In some cases, they are considering locations they once wouldn’t have if they can drive a better rent deal. “They’re considering things that are good loca-tions but not the prime, prime locations,” he says.

“Tenants are going to be tenants for the most part,” says John Horvath, broker associate with Coldwell Banker First Place Real Estate, Poland. “Leasing is as steady as it was last year, but we’re seeing an uptick in purchasing of retail properties,” he confirms.

That includes pending sales on a couple of larger retail buildings and the recent sale of the former Waffle House in Austintown to a local restaurateur. “The community is really going to be excited,” he predicts.

Price is the driving factor in many of the sales, Horvath notes. The Waffle House was a bank-owned property as is another large property set to close within the next 30 days. “They came on the market and they were priced right and sold,” he says.

“It’s an unusual market right now but we’re seeing activity. And that’s always a good indicator for the year,” he remarks.

On the leasing side, Horvath says rates are hold-ing steady, but landlords are offering inducements

such as build-out allowances and giving renters rent-free time to retrofit properties to their specifica-tions. “I don’t see people giving away retail or office space along the corridors of Boardman or Howland or Canfield,” he says. “Overall, Horvath says, he looks to end the year on an uptick “and that’s what we’re seeing.”

City OKs Clean-up StudiesOn Parcels for V&M StarYOUNGSTOWN, Sept. 11 – Contracts for Phase II environmental studies on two parcels of land the city acquired for V&M Star Steel’s proposed $970 million expansion were approved by the Board of Control as discussions continue between Youngstown and Girard on a border adjustment that officials say is necessary for the project.

The city will pay MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown $70,609 to conduct a study of the former Shelly & Sands Inc./McCourt Construc-tion Co. property and $172,235 for the former Dempsey Steel site. The two parcels are among five sites for which the city expects to spend up to $5 million on environmental upgrades.

The other three properties are portions of the former Brier Hill Slag property, land owned by the state of Ohio that V&M occupies and that the city will acquire, and the Norfolk Southern parcel.

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By George Nelson

Property management services, says Joe Sylvester Jr., allow tenant companies to concentrate

on what they do best. They needn’t concern themselves with what happens should a storm fell a tree or there be a heavy snowfall.

Joseph Sylvester Construction Co., Boardman, which provides services for its own commercial and industrial properties, has a division that handles the condominium association it man-ages. “With both of them we basically do all the outdoor maintenance such as landscaping” as well as painting, shingling and sidewalk repairs, says CEO Sylvester.

On some leases – chiefly govern-ment tenants – the company also pro-vides interior cleaning and supplies. “Otherwise that’s normally the tenant’s responsibility,” he says. In other cases, the firm also handles interior heating and cooling maintenance. In the case of more extensive repairs, “usually we share the cost with them,” he says.

With the condo association, own-ers pay a set fee for maintaining the common areas, Sylvester explains. With tenants of Sylvester’s proper-ties, depending on terms of the lease, services might be provided or paid separately with a common area main-tenance – or CAM – fee.

“It’s sometimes fairer for both parties based on the type of winter seasons you have,” Sylvester remarks. “The CAM charge adjusts up and down each year, so that works in everyone’s favor.”

Tenants also benefit from having a fee they can budget for, knowing that there is a set amount to be paid. “The other big advantage is they’re using our buying power,” Sylvester contin-ues. To place a trash dumpster in an office is very expensive, “but with all the large contracts we have, we get a much better price,” he says. He also gets better prices on snow removal.

For Ohio One Corp., which owns and operates six buildings in down-town Youngstown (and provides maintenance services for four others), property management services include cleaning, security and maintenance, says its president, Richard Mills.

“Generally all of our leases are a full-service lease,” he says, meaning

Tenants Happy to Hand Maintenance Headaches To Their Landlords

they include utilities, taxes, insurance and common area maintenance.

That includes a full-time, five-per-son maintenance staff with a federally licensed heating, ventilation and cool-ing technician “so we don’t have to call a contractor and wait for him to show up,” he says. And there are always miscellaneous items to be addressed, from door closers to light bulbs, and the tenant might not be qualified – or have supplies – to perform repairs.

“They can write one check for the rent and it covers everything. It’s a worry-free approach,” Mills remarks. The downside for Ohio One is that it must absorb any increases in costs, al-though, he says, that’s usually handled through an annual escalator clause tied to the Consumer Price Index.

John Phillips, owner of John Phil-lips Real Estate and Property Man-agement LLC in Warren, manages a small office building and a strip plaza in Howland on behalf of their owners as well as 15 condo associations. For the commercial tenants, Phillips also handles some of the leasing. He col-lects rents and pays related bills, con-tracting for maintenance and repairs as necessary. “I try to look ahead and see what major capital improvements or replacements may be done on the property in the future,” he says.

While his company might handle minor exterior cleaning, “inside the portion they’ve leased is their respon-sibility,” he says. “Sometimes we get involved with power washing and painting, depending on the exterior of the building.” The company also handles sidewalk maintenance as well as seal coating and painting stripes on the parking lots.

Some property owners lack the computer services and other programs needed to collect and report income, says Lou DeVicchio, president of De-Vicchio & Associates, Youngstown. “It’s a lot cheaper just to get a manage-ment company to handle it all.”

As property manager at the city-owned 20 Federal Place, DeVicchio says his responsibilities include every-thing from collecting rents, to paying bills and maintaining the building. Cleaning services are among those paid for through a separate CAM fee. Some services such as security are also negotiated separately.

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CONSUMERS NATIONAL BANK – SalemUp to 60 Mos. 5.75 - 16.50 Rate varies based on applicant’s credit rating

CORTLAND BANKS – CortlandUp to 60 Mos. 6.75Up to 72 Mos. 6.75

E.S.B. BANK – Ellwood CityUp to 60 Mos. 7.65Up to 72 Mos. 8.65

FARMERS NATIONAL BANK – CanfieldUp to 60 Mos. 6.55Up to 72 Mos. 7.09Rate varies based on applicant’s credit rating

FIRST MERIT BANK – New CastleUp to 48 Mos. 5.50-12.50

10% Down

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PA. – HermitageUp to 60 Mos. 7.85Up to 66 Mos. 7.85

1ST NATIONAL COMMUNITY – East LiverpoolUp to 60 Mos. 6.00 - 11.75

Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of The Business Journal compilations. The rates are subject to change without notice. All rate information should be confirmed with the individual financial institution before entering into transactions. © 2009 Youngstown Publishing Co.

FIRST PLACE BANK – BoardmanUp to 60 Mos. 8.00

10% Down

HOME SAVINGS – YoungstownUp to 60 Mos. 7.74Up to 66 Mos. 8.24

10% Down

HUNTINGTON BANK – YoungstownUp to 60 Mos. 6.99

KEYBANK – YoungstownUp to 66 Mos. 6.99

Down: Varies

PNC BANK – SharonUp to 66 Mos. 7.24

PNC BANK – YoungstownUp to 66 Mos. 7.00 - 13.00Rate varies based on applicant’s credit rating

US BANK (formerly Firstar Bank) – BoardmanUp to 48 Mos. 5.49

Auto Loan RatesSeptember 11,2009

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was first published by Business-JournalDaily.com and was sent via e-mail to subscribers of our Daily Headlines. Go to BusinessJournalDaily.com to sign up for this free daily service.

The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber is touting the national notice the Mahoning Valley has received this year that describes the

area as “quickly becoming an all-around economic development attraction” in the United States.

“From business startups to attraction, expansion and retention, the Mahoning Valley is gaining quite a reputation nationally as a place that is welcoming and advantageous to operate a business,” said Tom Humphries, CEO of the chamber. “This recognition plus many other positives that have emerged for our Valley recently means this area is really poised for success after many years of decline.”

The chamber issued a press release Sept. 9 that cited the August edition of Entrepreneur Magazine, which ranked Youngstown among its Top 10 cities to start a business. The article tells of the accomplishments of Turning Technologies and the Youngstown Business Incubator, along with new leaders such as U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, and Mayor Jay Williams, and local and regional development initiatives.

The chamber also noted that the Youngstown-Warren metropolitan area was ranked by Site Selec-

Chamber Touts Positive Notice Mahoning Valley Is Getting

tion magazine in the top 10 for economic develop-ment attraction and expansion projects in 2008. “Recognition like this demonstrates that our region is a great place for companies to be positioned,” said Walter Good, the chamber’s vice president for economic development.

In June, the Regional Chamber received the top award in the business attraction category at the 2009 Economic Development Impact Awards, presented by Team Northeast Ohio and Inside Business magazine. The chamber was recognized for its efforts to attract Republic Special Metals to the Mahoning Valley. Republic is building a $64 million, state-of-the-art specialty steel production plant in North Jackson.

“Receiving this award is a real honor because it takes into account major business attraction proj-ects from all of Northeast Ohio’s 16 counties and its economic development groups,” Good said.

Humphries noted that with the addition of former international banker Eric Planey to the chamber staff as vice president for national and international business attraction, the chamber is poised to spread the word around the world about the advantages of locating a business in the Mahoning Valley.

Points to publications that recognize economic development efforts.


Mortgage RatesTYPE FEESRATE, 2-Wk TrendTERMFINANCIAL INSTITUTION

Arrows tell whether rates rose or fell since last issue. Dashes indicate “unchanged.”

AMERISTATE BANCORP INC. FHA/VA 0% Down 30 Yr. 5.00 0+costsBoardman Fixed 3% Down 30 Yr. 5.00 0+costs

BANK OF AMERICA HOME LOANS Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.375 0+costsWarren Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.125 0+costs

CHARTER ONE BANK Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.625 — 0+costs Boardman Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 0+costs

CONSUMERS NATIONAL BANK Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.625 — 0+costsSalem Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 0+costs

CORTLAND BANKS Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.50 0+costsCortland Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.125 0+costs

DOLLAR BANK MORTGAGE CENTER ARM 5% Down 5 Yr. 4.25 N/ACleveland Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.125 — N/A

E.S.B. BANK Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.75 0+costsEllwood City, Pa. Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.375 0+costs

FARMERS NATIONAL BANK Fixed 20% Down 15 Yr. 5.50 — 0+costs Canfield Fixed 20% Down 20 Yr. 5.75 — 0+costs

FIRST MERIT BANK Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.50 — 0+costsNew Castle/Boardman Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.125 0+costs

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF PA Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.875 0+costsYoungstown, Ohio Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 0+costs

September 11,2009

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Mortgage Rates1ST NATIONAL COMMUNITY FHA 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.375 — 0+costsEast Liverpool Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.625 0+costs FIRST PLACE BANK Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.625 — 0+costsBoardman Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 0+costs

FLAGSTAR BANK Fixed 0% Down 15 Yr. 5.00 — 0+costsBeechwood Fixed 0% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 0+costs

HOME FEDERAL Fixed 20% Down 15 Yr. 6.00 — 0+costsNiles

HOME SAVINGS Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.75 — 0+costs Youngstown Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 0+costs

HOWARD HANNA FINANCIAL Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 4.625 0+costs Pittsburgh Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.125 0+costs

HUNTINGTON BANK Fixed 3% Down 15 Yr. 4.875 0+costsYoungstown Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 0+costs

KEYBANK Fixed 20% Down 15 Yr. 5.00 — 0+costsYoungstown Fixed 20% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 0+costs

PNC BANK FHA 3% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 1+costsYoungstown Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.125 — 0+costs

WELLS FARGO HOME MORTGAGE FHA 3% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 0+costsBoardman (Formerly Norwest Mortgage) Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.25 — 0+costs

US BANK Fixed 5% Down 15 Yr. 5.03 0+costsBoardman (Formerly Firstar Bank) Fixed 5% Down 30 Yr. 5.60 — 1+costs

TYPE FEESRATE, 2-Wk TrendTERMFINANCIAL INSTITUTION

September 11,2009

© 2009 Youngstown Publishing Co. All rights reserved. *Private Mortgage Insurance because less than 20% down.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was first pub-lished by BusinessJournalDaily.com and was sent via e-mail to subscribers of our Daily Headlines. Go to BusinessJournalDaily.com to sign up for this free daily service.

The four business and community leaders honored Sept. 3 at the Youngstown/Warren Regional

Chamber’s annual Salute to Business breakfast come from different backgrounds and were recognized for different achievements, but they voiced a common theme: create opportunities in the Mahoning Valley so its young people don’t leave to seek employment elsewhere.

Recognized as Business Profes-sional of the Year, Ed Muransky, CEO and founder of the Muransky Compa-nies, grew up on Youngstown’s south side and moved back here seven years ago. Having lived in Atherton, Calif., which had fenced-in lots so he never met his neighbors, and Tampa, Fla., he remarked, “There’s no place like the Mahoning Valley for people.”

Muransky, who played on the 1984 Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Raiders, described three elements of succeeding in business: understanding customers, focusing on employees and having relationships with people such as Anne Beiler of the Auntie Anne’s Inc. pretzel chain, of which Muransky

is a franchisee. “Those three things have to work together,” he said.

“The opportunity is here,” he con-tinued. “We have wonderful people. We have wonderful surroundings. Go down to Fellows Riverside Gardens. If there’s a prettier place in the world, I want to see it. We have all the ele-ments.”

Bill DeCicco, recently retired as executive director of the Castlo Com-munity Improvement Corp., was recognized as Business Advocate of the Year. His family’s roots in this country extend to the 1880s in Girard. His forefathers, like those of many others in attendance, were attracted to the opportunities the area offered, and he witnessed the area’s prosperity until those “glory days” came to an abrupt halt on the September day in 1977 known as Black Monday, when the Valley’s steel mills “started falling like dominoes.”

Because his children had to move out of town to find opportunities, “I have come to realize that [eventu-ally] my family will no longer have a presence in the Valley,” DeCicco lamented, although conditions have

been improving in recent years.DeCicco listed a dozen initiatives to

improve the Mahoning Valley, includ-ing several under way. Among them are improving the image of the Valley, offering Youngstown’s recent listing in Entrepreneur Magazine as proof that it already is better; thinking region-ally, an approach more widespread of late; continued improved labor-man-agement relations, completing the regional highway system, encouraging brownfield development, emphasizing education, and forging stronger links with western Pennsylvania, the last a priority recognized by Gov. Ted Strick-land, the morning’s keynote speaker, and his counterpart, Ed Rendell, and U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, and Jason Altmire, D-4 Pa.

Germaine Bennett, the honoree as Nonprofit Professional of the Year, is an educational human resources consultant for ONTASC and a retired 35-year employee of the Youngstown City Schools. She, too, lamented that her children, who attended the city schools, had to leave the area to pur-sue the careers they wanted.

“We’re working on trying to make

ED MURANSKY BILL DeCICCO LARRY FAUVERGERMAINE BENNETT

Honorees Seek Valley Where Young StayBy George Nelson

this a place kids can return,” she said.

Robert Shroder, president of Hu-mility of Mary Health Partners, credited the Salute to Labor Achieve-ment honoree, Larry Fauver, vice president of the Mahoning/Trumbull Labor Council, AFL-CIO, with doing more to improve labor-management relations in the area than any other individual. “His legacy, of course, will be felt for many, many years,” Shroder said.

Fauver credited improved commu-nications between labor and manage-ment for the better relations. “That’s the big thing,” he remarked.

As did others, Fauver told how he misses having his grandchildren in the area, another reminder that many young people have had to leave to find jobs over the years.

“Maybe some day they’ll come back,” he said wistfully.

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BUSINESSJOURNALDAILY.COM VIDEO SERIES

3 Minutes...

As a Blue-Dog Democrat, Congress-man Charlie Wilson is in favor of health-care reform. Ensuring that

there was no vote before the August recess, he says, provided more time for discussion and for people to understand the proposed program.

Health Care Plan: We’re going to have to have health care for as many people as possible. But, the real plan here is to drive down the cost of health care and then also make sure that more people have choices as to what health care they get. And then thirdly, to make sure that it’s a compre-hensive plan. We can’t just fi x one part and not fi x the other. I think Medicare is going to be a big part of that.

Favor Medicare as a Buy-in?As one of the options – if people had a choice to buy from their regular insur-ance company. If they had a choice of that and then a fundamental coverage of Medicare, I think that would be a way to start moving.

Town Hall Meetings? I have had AARP Town Hall Meetings. I haven’t had the one where they’ve been turned into a circus. I refuse to do those. … I’ve held 18 roundtable meetings with stakeholders, have visited seven of the hospitals. … I did a telephone town hall meeting and had over 4,000 people on the line.

Charlie WilsonU.S. Rep., D-17 Ohio

Ted StricklandOhio Governor

Visit BusinessJournalDaily.com to view video interviews with the Mahoning Valley’s most infl u-ential business and community leaders. Topics are always timely and pertinent.

Gov. Ted Strickland is confi dent that the economic downturn is at or near its nadir. He’s also opti-

mistic that V&M Star Steel’s proposed $970 million expansion will play a role in the Mahoning Valley’s recovery. The governor helped direct $20 million in federal stimulus money for transporta-tion infrastructure improvements at the proposed project site, which includes acreage in Youngstown and Girard.

Communication with V&M?I have had conversations – direct

conversations – with the leadership of V&M Star. I do believe that it will hap-pen. Can I tell you for sure that it will? No. But I believe that the intentions are there. The planning is under way and things are falling into place in a way that will lead to a very positive outcome: Jobs being created and this company making this major investment here.

Other Sites Considered?I have not talked to the leadership

about any other specifi c locations.

Is Credit the Hold-Up?Access to credit is a huge issue for

nearly any company or entity that is interested in expanding.

Here again, there seems to be some loosening of the credit markets. It’s not where it needs to be, certainly. And I think that is, quite frankly, the biggest hinderance to a more robust recovery.

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