YOUNGSTOWN – City council agreed to permit the board of control to enter into contracts for improvement work to downtown streets, with a price tag of up to $2.7 million, and the rehabilitation of the South Avenue Bridge for no more than $1.6 million.

But council on Wednesday didn’t have enough votes to approve a contract renewal for up to $75,000 with its planning consultant.

Several members said they were not pleased with the proposed contract with Samantha Yannucci because she moved from Youngstown to the Philadelphia area in September.

While enough members said they would support the contract, possibly keeping it in place for six months, the proposal didn’t have enough votes to be approved by emergency measure.

Legislation needs the support of at least six of council’s seven members to be approved by emergency. Councilwomen Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward, and Amber White, I-7th Ward, voted against considering the ordinance an emergency.

Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, said, “The no votes are irresponsible and self-serving with everything the city has going on. It is extremely important for us to have a planner in place.”

Council at its Feb. 19 meeting referred the contract to its community planning and economic development committee.

Council can vote on the contract at its April 2 meeting. It needs a simple majority to pass on a third reading.

The city has twice attempted to hire a city planner in recent years, but instead decided to use the services of consultants when it wasn’t satisfied with the candidates for the full-time job.

The city last had a city planner on staff in March 2009.

Council voted 7-0 Wednesday to permit the board of control to advertise for bids and enter into a contract with the best and lowest bidder for improvement work to be done to Boardman Street between Walnut and Market streets and to Walnut Street between Commerce and Wood streets.

The project would cost up to $2.7 million with almost half paid by state and federal grants, said Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works.

The project should start in May and take about four months to complete, Shasho said.

The work includes repaving, reducing vehicle lanes, adding diagonal on-street parking on Walnut Street, new curb ramps, improved lighting, landscaping and new traffic control signals.

The project also features a pedestrian walkway, or step street, on Walnut Street to better connect downtown to Youngstown State University.

The site of the proposed pedestrian walkway is currently a steep asphalt hill near the Choffin Career and Technical Center at the top and a parking lot for the downtown YMCA at the bottom.

City council also voted 7-0 Wednesday to let the board of control sign a contract for up to $1.6 million to rehabilitate the South Avenue Bridge as well as permit the board to hire a consultant for construction engineering for that project for up to $170,000.

Of the $1.6 million, the city is paying $634,000 with the rest coming from federal and state funding.

Because of a need to relocate utilities, that project won’t start until spring 2026 and take about four months to finish, Shasho said.

The small bridge goes over the Youngstown and Southeastern Railroad Co. train line just south of the larger Peace Officers Memorial Bridge that crosses the Mahoning River.

During construction, the section of South Avenue near the bridge will be closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic with detours.

The vehicular detour will be three miles in length and use Williamson Avenue, Market Street and Indianola Avenue. The pedestrian detour will be 0.7 of a mile in length and use Williamson Avenue, Gibson Street and Dorothy Avenue.

Access will be maintained to all adjacent properties, residences, businesses and intersecting side streets. That includes the old South Side Park, which is not open to the public, and the South Side Veterans Memorial.

The work includes rehabilitating the bridge’s substructure, refacing the abutments, replacing the approach slabs (which connects the roadway pavement and the bridge) as well as the guardrails, sidewalks, bridge railings, curbs and pavement markings.

Council also voted Wednesday to permit the board of control to enter into a contract to renovate the second floor of city hall for up to $290,000. The community planning and economic development department is being relocated from the fourth floor.

The second-floor space, which is about 4,000-square feet, has been empty since the clerk of courts office moved from there in 2018 to the city hall annex as part of the relocation of the court system. The department’s current location on the fourth floor is the former city prosecutor’s office and is about half the size of the planned new location.

The work will be done later this year, Shasho said.

City officials hired a firm a year ago to design the space and prepare bid documents. At the time, the project was estimated to cost $500,000. But the city reduced the scope of the project.

After the municipal court moved to the city hall annex, the city did work to the former courtrooms, also on city hall’s second floor. The police department uses the space for meetings and offices.