Photo by Ross Gallabrese Steubenville Mayor Ralph Petrella talked about his vision for the city's future during Wednesday's meeting of the Steubenville Rotary Club.

STEUBENVILLE — Ask Ralph Petrella why he wanted to get involved with local politics, and he can offer a simple answer.

“We have a missing generation that’s not standing up, and that’s my generation,” Petrella told members of the Steubenville Rotary Club during Wednesday’s meeting. “My generation loves to complain and we love to protest — we love to do things to let people know how passionate we are, which is great. But we’re not running for government, we’re not in the fight and helping where we can. I decided to step up for that reason.”

Petrella was discussing his decision to run for mayor, a position he has now served in since January. At 37, he took on the post at a younger age than many elected officials. Public service, he said, runs in his family: His father, the late Craig Petrella, had a long history of community involvement, including service as the city’s Second Ward councilman.

He laid out where he would like to see the city go and how it could get there to the Rotarians and guests who had gathered at the JeffCo Event Center.

A Steubenville native and graduate of Steubenville High School, he graduated from West Liberty University and started his career in strength and conditioning at Robert Morris University. Since then, his career has included stops at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Minnesota and Texas Tech.

“One thing I loved about my experiences was that I got to see different places in the country and pick up things I could bring back to the city,” he explained.

In Richmond, Va., he said, he saw what could happen when people in the community said it was time to change a section of town that had been known as being dangerous.

“When Virginia Commonwealth decided, ‘Hey, we want to step up our game and we’re going to start purchasing buildings and expanding our campus,’ they did a great job of incorporating that area and they built the community around the campus. I see that happening downtown.”

He said he saw the same thing in Minneapolis, and how the town revolved around the university.

“I see that happening with the Franciscan University of Steubenville,” he said.

And, as for his stop in Texas: “If Texas Tech wasn’t in Lubbock, Texas, there would probably not be a Lubbock, Texas,” he said.

Having educational institutions at home is important for future growth, Petrella added, while referring to Franciscan, the College of St. Joseph the Worker and Youngstown State University-Steubenville. That’s in addition to a strong high school system and the Jefferson County Joint Vocational School.

“Principal Heather Hoover (who also is the city’s Third Ward councilwoman) is doing a great job at the JVS pursuing the trades,” he said. “That’s how we’re going to keep people here in the valley, here in Steubenville.

“Trades are going to be big for us,” Petrella said. “That’s what’s going to keep our citizens here, and it’s going to be things like that that build what does come here.”

A focus on education means that some change can be expected.

“As a town of higher education, we have to have premium accommodations for donors and premium recruits, and those recruits might be teachers or they might be students — it all depends on how you look at your recruiting market,” Petrella said.

“So, we’re going to give them premium experiences, like giving them log cabin-esque environments where they can hike and enjoy our nature park, giving them restaurants, giving them a potential brewery downtown so they can have these experiences they will remember, and they will want to come back and they will want to stay.”

Creating those environments, he added, will be critical, pointing to Pittsburgh as an example of a former steel town that has transformed itself into a center of education and health care.

“We can do trades and crafts at St. Joseph the Worker and we can do different trades that don’t overlap at Youngstown State,” he said. “We can go right to the workforce from the JVS and come out of Steubenville High School with an associate’s degree and, potentially, a pilot’s license.”

Petrella said the city’s location — 30 minutes from Pittsburgh, a little more than two hours from Columbus and about 90 minutes from Morgantown — puts it in a great position to recruit new residents.

He added he is very passionate about pursuing waterfront development in the city. That potential project would include mixed-use property that would give the city a premium place where people could work, play and live.

Petrella said that would be a long-term project, adding he also would like to see the Jefferson County Jail relocated somewhere deeper in the county and use that land as a place for true marina.

In response to questions, Petrella added:

• There was nothing new to report about the Fort Steuben Mall. He said the city is waiting for a response from the owners about how they plan to answer concerns expressed about the condition of the facility. He added that fire inspection reports submitted to City Council painted a bleak picture of the mall.

• The John Scott Connector is in need of major repair work, he said, saying the $100,000 repair project is just the start. He said he had met with the staff of U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Salem., about possible funding sources.

“There’s a lot to fix in Steubenville, and we need every ounce of federal money we can get,” he said.

• He has been working diligently to establish connections with elected officials in Columbus, saying those will be very valuable.

• Problems with the city’s water system will require a lot of money to fix, he said, adding that members of council will have to balance raising water rates against using loans to acquire the needed money.