MAHONING AND SHENANGO VALLEYS Efforts to prepare for deluge

MERCER CO.
Mercer County, Pa., and some of its individual municipalities are expected to ask the federal government for at least $1.5 million in aid.
There were washed out bridges and roads and a lot of other damage they hope to get reimbursed for fixing.
Applications for the assistance are being filed with FEMA and cover a damage period from July 21 through Sept. 4. Both the state and federal government declared Mercer County a disaster area during that time, thereby entitling the municipalities to reimbursement of about 75 percent of their costs. That reimbursement can also cover employee overtime.
Hermitage and Sharon are after big chunks of that $1.5 million.
HERMITAGE
Hermitage officials have estimated damage to municipal property at about $400,000, with the biggest part of that damage to a stream running through the municipal sewage treatment plant property on Broadway Road.
There were also some road washouts, catch basin damage and sewer pump damage, said city Manager Gary Hinkson.
He outlined 14 improvement projects at a meeting Aug. 19 and said Sept. 18 that six of them had been completed.
The list includes new catch basins and piping some ditches in the Richmond/Parkview Drive area, stream bank stabilization on Baker Avenue, cleaning out a culvert on Woodside Drive, repairing a damaged catch basin on Morefield Road, replacing a cross pipe and adding a catch basin on Sample Road, and replacing frontage pipe and adding a catch basin on Greenwood Drive.
All of those projects were on the city's list to be completed within 30 days.
A seventh on that list, cleaning a stream from Sunset Drive to the Shenango Valley Freeway, started Sept. 22.
Hinkson said the list includes an additional seven projects that will start soon. They deal with stream bank stabilization, replacing storm drains with larger pipe, opening some clogged ditches and adding catch basins at various locations.
There are four other projects still on the drawing boards, most of them dealing with building retention basins to control the flow of run-off storm water, he said.
Hinkson said the city continues to examine sanitary sewer line backups caused by the flooding, backups that left some people with raw sewage in their basements.
The city had more than 40 complaints in the Pleasant Drive, Donald Road and Saratoga Drive areas.
The initial investigation is complete, he said, explaining the goal now is to identify homeowners who could make use of "back-flow preventers" that can be installed in a sanitary line to prevent sewage from backing up through the line into a basement.
There could be about two dozen homes on that list, and the city will pick up the tabs for the purchase and installation of those preventers.
That's a short-term solution, giving the city time to take a look at possible long-term causes of the backups such as improper downspout connections or damaged lines allowing surface water infiltration, Hinkson said.
SHARON
Sharon is looking for reimbursement for about $11,000 in employee overtime costs as well as about $200,000 for damage to its sewage treatment plant along the Shenango River.
The county itself is looking for $46,556 for repairs to 11 bridges and culverts it owns.
Damage to roads and ditches in Shenango Township are expected to reach about $75,000, and Greenville has estimated its losses and employee overtime costs at about $25,000.