CANFIELD TOWNSHIP To stop work on road, trustee files suit naming officials, others

Bayus suit also claims that the plans for the road are flawed.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- Canfield Township Trustee Judy Bayus has filed a lawsuit in an effort to stop work on Gibson Road.
In addition to fellow township officials, the defendants include Mahoning County commissioners Ed Reese, Vicki Allen Sherlock and David Ludt; county Administrator Gary Kubic; county Sanitary Engineer Joseph Warino, who's also a former Canfield township trustee; county Engineer Richard Marsico; and the county planning commission.
Bayus is asking a county common pleas court judge to force the county to install a sewer line along the road at county expense. She's also seeking an injunction to prevent township trustees Paul Moracco and Bill Reese, also named in the suit, from moving ahead with plans to repave the road and widen it to 20 feet. Also listed as a defendant is Township Clerk Carmen Heasley.
Surveyors began work Monday on the road, which is off of state Route 46. The township is set to pay for most of the $359,000 project using a $230,000 state Issue 2 grant.
The lawsuit has not stopped the project.
"We're going ahead with the project until our attorney tells us not to," Moracco said.
About the suit
Bayus argues in her suit that a court order from Sept. 14, 2000, requires the township to ensure that sewer lines and waterlines are installed along the road when it is repaved. She said the latest plans for the road violate the court order because they do not include the installation of a sewer line.
Moracco said the court order involved the developer and the county planning commission and not the township.
Bayus' suit also alleges that county officials Marsico and Warino promised to install the sewer line.
Bayus' counsel, Warren attorney Frank Bodor, said Bayus is concerned that the township will repave the road this year, only to have to rip up the pavement if a sewer line is installed.
Marsico, however, said a sewer could be installed along side the pavement.
Assistant County Prosecutor Donald Duda, who represents the sanitary engineer's office, said that he doubts Warino promised to install the sewer line. He called the lawsuit "frivolous."
County Administrator Kubic said he had not seen the lawsuit and did not want to comment.
Bayus also argues in her suit that the plans for the road are "fraught with errors" and that the township is set to spend $33,000 more than it should on the project because bids were added incorrectly.
Also named as defendants are Foust Construction Inc. of Girard, the company repaving the road, and Woodland Park Property Ltd. of Canfield, which is developing Westbury Park at the end of Gibson Road.
hill@vindy.com