MANSFIELD –John Fernyak stood off to the side of Main Street and smiled quietly Friday evening.
The 92-year-old businessman and philanthropist watched as a new generation of leaders cut a ribbon to celebration of the completion of a $20-plus million Main Street Corridor Improvement project.
Never one to seek the spotlight, Fernyak smiled again after the ceremony when asked about the roots of the project.
Those roots stem back to his work pushing for Richland Carrousel Park that opened downtown in 1991 and helped launch the rebirth of the city.
His efforts also go back decades to his public push for Main Street and other streets downtown to be converted back to two-way traffic.
“I think it’s wonderful because I think it will give everyone in Mansfield who’s been hanging crepe on Mansfield to have a change of mind,” Fernyak said.
“I’m just delighted that it’s all happening,” he said.
Comparing the new corridor to past milestones like the carousel, Fernyak stressed the ripple effect that public capital creates.
Earlier this year, he and his wife, Mimi, donated 14 downtown buildings to the Richland County Foundation, which will partner with Windsor Companies to create more than 100 new apartments.
Simply put, no single individual has pushed more for downtown improvements than Fernyak, even as he passed off credit to others Friday evening.
“It’s cumulative,” he said. “You start with something, and it creates a spark, then other people start to join in.”
“Every book you read about downtowns says that if you go from one-way to two-way (traffic), the merchants and the businesses will get 10 to 25 percent more business,” Fernyak said.
“Instead of rushing through, it slows traffic, and you can see the businesses that are there because you’re not just driving through,” he said.
Pointing to redevelopment in Wooster led by late Stan Gault, Fernyak recalled how downtown housing there transformed that city’s foot traffic and expressed optimism for upcoming residential projects locally.
“If you go over to Wooster right now, you can’t get a parking space downtown and the streets are just full of people,” Fernyak said. “So I’m hoping that the apartments that Windsor’s going to do is really going to change the complexion of Mansfield’s downtown.”
(Below are photos taken Friday afternoon before, during and after a ribbon cutting ceremony in downtown Mansfield to mark the completion of the Main Street Corridor Improvement project. The story continues below the images.)
Mansfield mayor credits Fernyak during ribbon-cutting ceremony
Though he remained off to the side of Main Street during the event, Fernyak’s presence was felt.
During her remarks tracing the origins of the project, Mayor Jodie Perry credited Fernyak with planting the early seeds of downtown Mansfield’s revival.
She noted the Main Street project’s beginnings could be traced “all the way back to when Mr. Fernyak had this idea of creating a carousel and renovating and relaunching our downtown.”
Perry noted that the corridor’s completion was built on the momentum of those foundational efforts, telling the large crowd that without the work of early champions like Fernyak, the community could not have reached the latest milestone.
The ceremony Friday marked the completion of nearly two years of torn-up pavement, detours and heavy machinery in the downtown.
A large contingent of residents, civic leaders and merchants gathered along Main Street to celebrate the completion of the massive undertaking.
Perry thank everyone who attended the event, which included live music afterward in the Central Park gazebo.
“What an incredible crowd. I’m not sure we really knew what to expect, but I knew when we finished, we needed to celebrate this as a huge accomplishment for our whole community. And I think it’s a really big deal. It feels great,” she said.
“The big win tonight is for the community as a whole and for this idea of teamwork — that Mansfield can do really amazing things when we roll up our sleeves and we work together. We don’t care who gets the credit, we just want things to be better.
“And I think that’s really the overriding message that I want to share with everyone tonight. I am so excited and just thrilled to see all of you here,” the mayor said.
The project reshaped the central business district through a blend of prominent civic plazas, two-way street conversions, and an overhaul of subterranean utilities.
For city officials and community organizers, the celebration was the realization of a vision several years in the making.
“This is a really surreal moment,” said Jennifer Kime, chief executive officer and president of Downtown Mansfield Inc. “We have been dreaming and planning and building and orchestrating this exact moment for decades. … It shows you the power of downtowns and the power of public spaces.”
Project roots go back eight years to the Mansfield Rising plan
The $20-plus million project had its formal roots in the 2018 Mansfield Rising plan, gaining further momentum in 2020 under former Mayor Tim Theaker and City Council, followed by an award of more than $7 million from a federal RAISE grant in 2022.
Perry said that while the public visible features match the architectural concepts, the project’s true victory lies in broad civic cooperation.
“I ran into some of the designers earlier and I said, ‘What do you think?’ And they said, ‘It looks just like the renderings,’ and it really does,” Perry told the crowd.
“It’s just come to life, and I think it’s really marking a new era, not just for downtown actually, but for Mansfield as a whole,” she said.
Before the ceremony, Perry said the project was funded primarily through transportation dollars alongside over $4 million in local matching funds, which enabled the city to modernize the corridor.
“Nearly all of this money had to be applied for and had to be spent on this project — it was earmarked for transportation-related projects,” Perry said. “The local dollars … really funded a lot of the utilities, because transportation dollars don’t fund the replacement of water mains and the sewer.”
City engineer cites the numbers from the prohect
City engineer Bob Bianchi highlighted the sheer physical scope of the effort, which began in the design phase with local engineering firm K.E. McCartney & Associates in July 2019.
According to Bianchi, the project installed:
- 70,000 bricks.
- More than 13 miles of underground conduit.
- 1,755 trees, shrubs, and plants.
- Seven signalized intersections and two overhead decorative arches.
- 1.11 miles of double-yellow centerline pavement striping separating two-way traffic.
- More than 3,000 tons of concrete and 109 decorative light fixtures.
- A new North Plaza featuring a curved retaining wall, sandstone finishes, and a lit fountain set 14 feet deep on an arch foundation.
He also jokingly mentioned 1,172,390 “road closed” signs during his remarks, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“It’s been quite the process — a journey that’s been difficult, fun, exciting and creative,” Bianchi said.
“Miles of conduit, over 13 miles of conduit under the roadway … a lot of stuff going on underground that you cannot see. Deep foundations that support the streetscape … what’s underground is beautiful as well, you just don’t see it,” he said.
Bianchi was among the team that helped form Mansfield Rising in 2018. The Main Street project was one of the biggest ideas in the plan.
“This project started as a pipe dream — truly. We were talking, hoping, dreaming, trying to envision what we could do on Main Street, knowing that Main Street at the time did not represent who we are as a community,” he said before the ceremony.
“I could not have imagined that we would be here today standing on this sandstone, looking at the brand new plazas, the lighted seating walls, and the beautiful arches. Could not imagine it. But it takes a team — it really, truly takes a village to build a city street,” Bianchi said.
Kokosing Construction Co. served as the primary contractor, guided by construction manager, American Structurepoint.
Bianchi credited K.E. McCartney and Kokosing for their work.
“K.E. McCartney & Associates is an engineering firm headquartered in Mansfield … in our downtown. We started with them — and I’ve got this date — July 15th, 2019, 2,671 days ago is when the contract started to begin the planning of this project.
“Hundreds of meetings, tens of thousands of emails and communications and discussions and decisions that were made. They have been here through it all from day one and they’re still with us during this project.
“Skill, knowledge, craftsmanship (and) workmanship by (Kokosing) — it’s beautiful. Taking what was on paper and building it. They did a great job. Really, really proud of all the effort and skill sets you guys brought to this project,” Bianchi said.
Downtown business owner admits ‘it was a tough ride’
Braxton Daniels, owner of 101 Tea Company downtown and an artist and photographer who documented the ongoing construction for Downtown Mansfield Inc., described the buildout as a test of endurance.
“It was a rough ride, but a ride. We held on, we grabbed the bull by the horns, and we rode it,” Daniels said. “I think I’m a lot more resilient now — a lot of lessons learned. But I made it through. Still swinging, and I got more swinging to go,” he said.
Looking out at the completed streetscape, Daniels said the aesthetic upgrade sets a higher bar for the entire business community.
“It gives me inspiration; it gives me a vision for what’s to come,” Daniels said. “I think this elevated the standard of downtown, and I think it should elevate all businesses downtown as well to try to improve, invest and rebuild what we already have.”
Kime admitted the project has made life difficult for downtown businesses.
“I think helping the community see the full project has been the hardest part. It’s easy to see it as a streetscape project or to see it as a beautification project, but really the infrastructure building is the big part of it, and the long-term longevity and investing in public spaces. Those are the key pieces.
“But it’s a hard thing to see the longer vision of it when you’ve got temporary, real situations happening that affect people in the community,” she said.
Both Perry and Kime said private investment follows public efforts.
“When private investment sees that public infrastructure is improving, the public cares, and there’s a really committed movement to grow the community and invest in it, they want to be at the table,” Kime said.
“It’s just the beginning. We’ve been getting calls for the last 18 months about the project. When private investment sees that public infrastructure is improving, the public cares, and there’s a really committed movement to grow the community and to invest in it, they want to be at the table because they know the economy’s growing that way,” she said.
“The streets are open. Come down and experience it,” Kime said.
“They’re community public spaces built for you to enjoy. Now we’ve envisioned it all this time and now it’s time to enjoy it. So what I really want to say is: Welcome back to the new Main Street!”
(Photos of some of the residents who attended the celebration Friday evening marking the completion of the Main Street corridor improvement project. Credit: Adam “Doc” Fox)
