Officials OK grants for 2 road projects

A settlement has been reached for a police bill for a strike at a local plant.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- Weathersfield Township and Mahoning County will be involved in two joint projects.
State Issue 2 funds were approved for the projects Tuesday by township trustees: Ohltown-Girard Road and Webb Road intersection; and repaving an estimated mile of Ohltown-Girard Road, also known as County Line Road.
County Line will be repaved from Four Mile Run Road to state Route 46; and a T-intersection will jut off of Ohltown-Girard Road after the point it splits off into Ohltown-Girard Road and Webb Road.
A cross road will be run between the two streets after the Y-intersection starting at an undedicated Mahoning County Road to improve safety at the intersection.
The Webb and Girard-Ohltown road work is expected to cost about $80,000 with the township's matching funds share to be an expected $5,000.
The County Line Road repaving is projected by engineers to be a $300,000 project, township Administrator David Pugh explained. The township is expected to be responsible for about $30,000 of that, but exact costs won't be known until both projects are bid.
The County Line project will include removing existing asphalt down to the concrete base, putting glass grid on the road and then paving it with a 2-inch base.
Bill payment: Trustees also said Tuesday that RMI Titanium Co. in Niles has paid the township $50,000 toward an outstanding bill. The township contended that the United Steelworkers of America AFL-CIO Local No. 2155 owed the township for police protection required at the plant during a strike. A suit was filed by the township in December 1999 in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
The union agreed to pay $4,000 of the cost, but because the company had already paid its $50,000 share, trustee chairman Fred Bobovnyk said the trustees will settle with the amount paid, although the township did not receive interest on the bill it had sought in its civil case.
Trustees also approved a resolution to be a participating community in Niles' bid to pursue federal funding for a public transit system. The township will pay $8,760 or $1 per person counted in the most recent census to be part of the transit system. To obtain the grant, Niles must have local funds available to it to help fund the system, Bobovnyk said.