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Nearly $2.5 million in grants will aid conversion to National Guard facility
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, Sep 04, 2008
PARIS TWP.: No. 813 is getting a new lease on life at the old Ravenna Arsenal.
The one-time munitions building — 200 feet long by 100 feet wide with red brick walls and overhead steel beams — is being converted into a schoolhouse for Army masons and carpenters.
It was the setting Wednesday as U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, and others announced nearly $2.5 million in federal grants for what is now the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site.
Ryan also pledged to work for an additional $1.5 million grant in the 2009 fiscal-year federal budget to build a new 100-bed barracks. The site currently has one 300-bed barracks.
The 21,418-acre complex in eastern Portage and western Trumbull counties is being turned into a first-class military training center for the Ohio National Guard. The project carries an overall price tag in excess of $150 million.
Ryan announced that $1.5 million was being provided for improvements to Building No. 813 — work that has already begun. Asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls and lead-based paint has been removed, a new heating-cooling system has been installed, interior walls have been demolished and old windows have been replaced. The roof and gutters will be repaired or replaced.
Another $984,000 in federal funds, which will be matched with $328,000 from Portage County, will be used to extend water and sewer service to the old arsenal from the village of Windham. The sewer and water project will be designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Completing that work could cost as much as $30 million, said Windham Mayor Rob Donham.
Ryan called the sewer-water grant ''a first step'' and said the project remains a high priority for getting additional federal funds in the future.
Maj. Gen. Gregory Wayt, the adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard, said so far this year 814 soldiers from all over the country have taken classes in Building No. 813.
It will be the home of a ''state-of-the-art engineering school for the U.S. Army,'' he said.
The improvements to the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site increase the ''readiness of your National Guard,'' Wayt told the 80 people at the ceremonies.
The Ravenna Arsenal produced artillery and mortar shells in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. It closed in 1971. In 1992, the Army began working to clean up contaminated sites and demolish buildings before the complex was turned over to the Ohio National Guard for training.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
PARIS TWP.: No. 813 is getting a new lease on life at the old Ravenna Arsenal.
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