The Fort Steuben Mall parking lot in Steubenville, Ohio is a public safety crisis — and it has been allowed to get worse with each passing season.

Since the 2022 purchase, the parking lot has been allowed to deteriorate into genuinely dangerous conditions. Massive potholes are causing tire blowouts and vehicle underbody damage. Pavement striping is largely absent — no marked lanes, no crosswalks, no organized traffic flow. Surfaces are so severely uneven that pedestrians face a real trip-and-fall risk every time they walk from their car to the door.

This is not an empty or abandoned property. Walmart, Texas Roadhouse, Aspen Dental, 7 Ranges, and multiple mall businesses operate here. Thousands of Jefferson County residents — seniors, families, and people with disabilities — visit this site regularly. Every one of them is absorbing this risk right now.

UPDATE 05/14/26: We have been in direct communication with Bill Johnson of Total Finance, and we appreciate the transparency he has shown in responding to this community. We understand more now than we did when this petition began.

To Total Finance:

We know Total Finance inherited this property through foreclosure, not by choice. We know over $300,000 has already been spent on repairs. We know the city's 30-day deadline felt unreasonable, and we've said so publicly. We have tried to be fair. But here is where we are today:

The city has cited formal violations covering the parking lot, driveways, sidewalks, and trip hazards alongside the structural failures inside the building. Those exterior violations are not new. This community has been documenting potholes exceeding 100 inches in length and 4 inches in depth since before Total Finance took ownership. 

We have heard the argument that a full parking lot repair cannot be justified without a resolution on the building. We understand the financial logic. But the parking lot does not close if or when the mall does. Those businesses will remain open. Those customers will keep coming. That lot will keep deteriorating through another Ohio winter, and another paving season will close without action.

Total Finance has indicated willingness to grant surrounding businesses formal permission to make repairs themselves. We welcome that and encourage those businesses to pursue it immediately. But permission is not a plan. It is not striping. It is not a long-term resurfacing commitment. It transfers responsibility without solving the problem.

We are asking for two things and two things only. Emergency patchwork on the most dangerous areas before paving season closes this fall, and a written, public commitment to full resurfacing and re-striping with a realistic timeline attached. Not perfection. Not immediately. Just a date we can hold you to.

You have been responsive. Now be accountable.

Steubenville is listening.