YOUNGSTOWN - People living on Youngstown's Eastside are bringing their worries about the Lincoln Park bridge to the state. Everyday, large trucks and cars pass over the bridge but some people have also been seeing a lot more trash.

“Eastside...is a lot of people's dumping zone. They come over here and can't act accordingly. They act like they don't have any home training, ” Million Perry-Phifer who lives on the Eastside said. 

Perry-Phifer has even seen things like couches thrown off the bridge and land in Lincoln Park - cluttering it up. 

The bridge carries US 422 over the park and connects the city to Campbell. 

Perry-Phifer is also worried about how safe the bridge is because people typically walk on its one narrow sidewalk to get to stores nearby. 

The Ohio Department of Transportations maintains the bridge. They plan to put up a “vandal fence” on the side of the bridge near the sidewalk.

“It just prevents folks from possibly littering off the bridge or debris falling off the bridge and it's just an overall safety increase measure,” Ray Marsch, a Spokesperson for ODOT District 4 said. 

ODOT doesn’t know how high the fence will be yet and doesn’t have a specific date on when it will go up. 

Perry-Phifer and his team from the Persayus Way Project raised their concerns with ODOT in November of 2023. They want to see another fence put up on the other side of the bridge in the future. For now, Perry-Phifer is just happy to get one step closer to a better Eastside. 

“I just want my people to be safe and feel safe in any way possible,” he said. "There's things in Youngstown that we can do as a community to make sure that we're safer."

The Persayus Way Project continues to work on violence prevention, community outreach and cleanup throughout Youngstown. 

They are currently working on another project to redevelop an old building on the Southside. They are using $117 thousand dollars to restore the roof and structure of the building and plan to announce what it will be used for in the next few weeks.