COLUMBIANA COUNTY Officials approve emergency road work

By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County commissioners authorized emergency repairs for a road in Butler Township that closed after last week's storms.
The heavy rains caused a culvert beneath County Road 405, also known as Valley Road, to wash out, deputy county Engineer Bob Durbin told commissioners Wednesday.
The repair work is expected to be finished by the end of the week, Durbin said.
It's unclear how much it will cost to fix the highway.
The cost could exceed the $25,000 limit the engineer department is allowed to spend on such a project without first getting commissioners' approval, Durbin explained.
Money for the repair will come from the engineer department's road and bridge fund, which is supplied with revenue from a gasoline tax and license plate fees.
Air pollution
Commissioners said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is lobbying the U.S. EPA to exclude Columbiana County from a group of counties that has been identified as overstepping federal ozone limits.
The designation could result in tough air pollution sanctions that will be enacted for violator counties.
Columbiana County is being lumped in with Mahoning and Trumbull counties, which commissioners said is unfair because Columbiana County is largely rural and doesn't have the industry and vehicle traffic its northern neighbors possess.
Those factors contribute to exceeding the ozone limit. Ozone is a major component of smog.
The U.S. EPA is expected by April 2004 to finalize its list of Ohio counties failing to meet the ozone standard.
After that the state EPA will have three years to develop a plan to reduce pollution in those areas.
The plan could include reducing emissions from power plants, large industrial boilers and vehicles.