COLUMBIANA COUNTY Commissioners finalize details for sewer system

It's expected to take about six months to install the utility service.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Final details are being completed for construction to start next year on a $1.7 million state-mandated municipal sewer system to serve Winona area residents and businesses.
Columbiana County commissioners, who met Friday instead of Wednesday, approved some minor modifications in a nearly $397,000 grant for the project from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provides aid for rural development.
Roy Dray of the county engineer's department said after meeting with commissioners that it appears the project will start in March. Work will take about six months, Dray said.
About 100 households, businesses and churches will be affected by the project, which is being prompted by orders from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The OEPA is requiring that a municipal sewer be installed to replace aging septic systems that are posing a pollution and health risk.
Funds
Besides the USDA grant, the county also has lined up a $500,000 community development block grant and a nearly $200,000 state grant to help pay for the work.
The grants will leave about $700,000 of the project still unfinanced. That money must come from loans that will be repaid by the system's users, Dray said.
County officials have calculated that the average monthly residential sewer bill will be about $44, Commissioner Jim Hoppel said.
That amount will pay for building, installing and operating the system, Hoppel said.
An additional tap-in fee for the system may be avoided if bids for the project come in low enough, county officials have said.
Construction bids are to be opened in early January, Dray said.
Any house or business within 200 feet of the sewer will be required to tie into the system.
Plans call for pumping sewage to a county-owned treatment plant along state Route 172 near Guilford Lake.
The plant will not have to be enlarged to handle the additional sewage, county officials said.