COLUMBIANA COUNTY Board hires designer for sewers

Bids were opened for construction of a county municipal courthouse.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County commissioners have hired a Youngstown company to design part of a $32 million sewer project affecting an area north of East Liverpool.
Commissioners agreed Wednesday to hire MS Consultants Inc. to plan the first two phases of the four-phase project. The job will pay about $600,000.
The entire project is intended to comply with an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency order that the county provide municipal sewer service to the unincorporated Glenmoor and Lacroft areas in St. Clair and Liverpool townships, respectively.
Pollution risk
The OEPA directive was prompted by the pollution risk posed by the failing septic systems that now serve many of the businesses and residences in the locality.
The undertaking's first phase will entail installing sewer lines in an area west of state Route 11 near its intersection with state Route 170.
Phase two involves extending the lines into part of Glenmoor near state Route 267 and Y & amp;O Road.
Construction cost of the first two phases is estimated at $8 million, county Engineer Bert Dawson said.
Work is expected to begin in about 11/2 years and will take about a year to finish once it's started.
The county will borrow about half the nearly $8.6 million needed for construction and engineering of the first two phases.
It intends to get the rest of the funding through state and federal grants.
The loans will be repaid by the sewer users.
Phases two and four probably won't begin until 10 to 20 years from now, Dawson said. The effort is being spread over two decades because it's so expensive.
Commissioners also opened bids for the construction of a Columbiana County municipal courthouse to be built next year along Saltwell Road, north of Lisbon.
Companies that appeared to have submitted the lowest base bid for various parts of the project are: general contractor, Vendrick Construction Inc., Brookfield, about $1.9 million; electric, B & amp;J Electric, North Lima, about $378,667; plumbing, Komar Plumbing Co., Inc., Boardman, $77,800; heating and ventilation, York Mahoning Mechanical Contractors Inc., Youngstown, $277,500; and fire protection, North Coast Fire Protection Inc., Warren, $49,300.
The new building will not replace the county's historical courthouse in downtown Lisbon.
It will serve as a central location for county municipal court, which is now in three spots in Lisbon, Salem and East Palestine.
To pay for the new building, the county will use a court fund fueled by fees paid by defendants in criminal and traffic cases.
leigh@vindy.com