TRUMBULL COUNTY Panel plans outdoor education site

The Trumbull County Educational Service Center will review proposals Jan. 29.
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Planning Commission is recommending that a new outdoor education center for county schoolchildren be built on 140 acres in Cortland on Mosquito Lake.
Members of the commission decided Tuesday to negotiate with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to lease the land for the Trumbull Area Multi-Purpose Environmental Education Laboratory, called TAMPEEL, which is run by the Trumbull County Educational Service Center.
The decision on where to put the land lab rests with the educational service center, which will review proposals from Howland and Cortland on Jan. 29.
"Cortland looks more desirable for the site," Newbrough said. "They have a lot of environmental diversity. You have lake shore; you have thick woods; you have wetlands; you have meadows."
Park: Plans for the Cortland location, north of Main Street and west of state Route 46, include developing part of the land into a park for use by the community at large, said Gary Newbrough, director of the planning commission.
The commission intends to apply Friday for $2 million from the state capital budget to build roads, a parking lot and an educational building that could double as a community center, he said.
It may be possible to apply for the grant without specifying at which location the facilities would be built, he said.
The proposed Howland location, along North River Road near state Route 46, is primarily wetlands. That site could be developed with walkways and rudimentary facilities as a satellite TAMPEEL location, he said.
In August, the educational service center board closed the old TAMPEEL site on Bailey-Ellsworth Road in Lordstown because of concerns the land was contaminated.