YARS, Youngstown partner for battle on blight

Tech. Sgt. Casey Klein, 910th Civil Engineer Squadron heavy equipment noncommissioned officer in charge, listens to instructions from City of Youngstown Street Department construction foreman Tom Sakmar while using an excavator to demolish a vacant, dilapidated house in the Taft School neighborhood on the city’s south side, July 23, 2015. Members of the 910th Civil Engineer Squadron, based at Youngstown Air Reserve Station teamed up with a City of Youngstown Street Department team to kick off a joint blight removal project to demolish at least a dozen blighted structures in this neighborhood under the Air Force Community Partnership Program. The program is designed to identify and develop mutually beneficial partnerships between Air Force installations and surrounding communities. In this case, the City of Youngstown gets skilled labor from the Civil Engineers, while the Civil Engineers gain valuable training opportunities that are hard to find under normal circumstances. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Bob Barko Jr.)