SPRINGFIELD TWP. Petersburg sewer construction expected to begin next year

State and federal grants helped bring the project together.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ground should be broken next year for the installation of a sanitary sewage collection system in Petersburg in Springfield Township.
Mahoning County Sanitary Engineer Joseph Warino told the county commissioners Thursday the Ohio Department of Development has approved a $500,000 grant, the last piece of the financing puzzle of the $3.2 million project.
Warino thanked the commissioners because seed money for the project came from the half-percent sales tax, which is due to expire the end of the year.
The project consists of a collection system and a pump station that will move the sewage to a treatment plant in New Middletown, which is operating at only 40 percent capacity.
The area is from Honey Creek south on state Route 170, then south on state Route 617 to the Columbiana County line, west along Garfield Road to Unity Road, then Unity Road north to the treatment plant.
Funding sources include the Mahoning County Solid Waste Management District, $300,000; Springfield Township trustees, $100,000; Springfield Township county sales tax allocation, $108,572; and Mahoning County Community Development Block Grant program, $100,000.
Ohio Public Works Commission and U.S. Agriculture Department funding completes the package.
In the 1970s, township residents opposed construction of a sewer system because of the cost. In 2000, however, township trustees asked the county health district and county sanitary engineer to investigate wastewater problems in Petersburg and revisit the feasibility of a sewer system, county officials said.