Trustees are examining their options for public water system expansion.

Trustees are examining their options for public water system expansion.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIBERTY -- Work is scheduled to begin next week on sidewalk installation along busy Belmont Avenue.
Township trustees awarded a $363,653 contract Thursday to Parella-Pannunzio Inc. of Austintown, the lowest of six bidders on the job.
They also approved spending $5,250 for design work by MS Consultants of Youngstown.
To make Belmont Avenue safer for pedestrians, sidewalks are to be installed from Gypsy Lane to Church Hill Park.
The job is expected to take 30 to 60 days, depending on the weather, said Trustee Patrick F. Durina.
The project is being funded by a $394,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation.
The sidewalks are part of an overall effort to improve and beautify the Belmont Avenue commercial corridor and spur economic development.
Discussed waterlines
Trustees also discussed extending waterlines to a section of Church Hill-Hubbard Road, between the township hall and Logan Way, to a section of Logan Way, near Church Hill-Hubbard Road, and to a section of Tibbetts-Wick Road, between Sampson Drive and Belmont Avenue. Those areas rely on well water.
Although they have already passed a resolution allocating $470,000 in township funds to have the lines installed by the Trumbull County Engineer's Office, no money has yet been spent on the project.
"There are seven or eight businesses that would tap in immediately along the Church Hill-Hubbard Road-Logan project. People are using wells. Some of those wells along Church Hill-Hubbard Road are contaminated," Durina said.
The project is also designed to spur growth. Water and sewer can be one of those growth mechanisms," Durina added.
Trustees discussed the new water service with Walter Pishkur, president of Consumers Ohio and Pennsylvania Water Co., which already supplies treated Shenango River water to the Trumbull County system.
Pishkur said he'd be submitting a proposal to trustees to extend the lines.
"He may have a better deal for extending waterlines and customer rates. They may be able to do it for less in a shorter time frame," Durina said.
Advantages
Pishkur said his company offers several advantages, including its own water source, its own in-house design department, a willingness to invest its own money in new waterlines, and its own financing plan for people paying to tap in.
"We have capacity for more water sales. We can design, operate, bid and construct in a very effective way, and we can also help provide a local share for bringing other funding sources," he said.
"We will be a significant taxpayer in Trumbull County by virtue of our ownership and operation of water systems in the county," Pishkur added.