Business owners work to beautify the village of Lowellville with bridge project

The Village of Lowellville is getting a little brighter as workers install LED lights on the Washington Street Bridge. 

MG Electric is installing 16 lights in total, putting one on each bridge column.

"They're RGBW, which is red, green, blue, and white, so they'll change however they want to program these to different scenes for different holidays," Mark Gentile, the Vice President of MG Electric, said.

The bridge leads to Water Street and is one of the first things people see when they drive into the village. Adding the lights is part of a bigger project led by local business owners Ray Carlson and Matt Estephen to beautify the entire village.

In just the past few years, more than half a dozen buildings have been revamped next to the bridge by Carlson and Estephen. 

"All of 'em were boarded up pretty much and needed more of a bulldozer than a hammer," Carlson said. "It's very difficult to take an old building that's collapsing and do what needs to be done to save it for another 100 years."

The latest building Carlson fixed up is right next to the bridge. A few doors down East Water Street is a brick building called "Carlsons." The event space can hold around 120 people and has a stage for bands to perform. 

Other buildings Carlson has flipped are now restaurants, banks, and Airbnbs throughout the village. 

"The character that these old buildings have is what, to me, makes them appealing," he said. 

Carlson's motivation for each project is to leave behind something that will last for generations and to build a place where more people want to move.   

"Our village will have some assets here for our kids to come back home to," he said. "Lowellville is unique in that sense that if we continue on the path that we are on, in getting rid of the eyesores, not only is it going to increase the property value of everybody's homes that are here (then) people are going to start taking care of their homes because they know that they're in a community like this where a lot of people care."

Carlson said that the "Carlson's" building was his last project. 

"Ray always put his heart and soul into everything down here," Gentile said. "I think with this bridge, it's just going to be really nice to see, especially when you're coming down the hill over here. You'll see all the different colors and the vibrant colors over top of the river. It's going to be really something."

The bridge lights are expected to be up and running in mid-February.