Hubbard Mayor Magee right in battling ODOT over road

There's only one way to interpret the Ohio Department of Transportation's attitude toward a $1 million state resurfacing project in Hubbard: The city has no choice but to live with it.
But Mayor Arthur U. Magee isn't willing to turn a blind eye to what he calls "a bad job," and that has set the stage for a major clash between the city and ODOT.
Adding fuel to the fire, which was ignited several months ago when the mayor criticized the work by The Shelly Co. of Thornville, was a comment from ODOT spokeswoman Jennifer Richmond last week. Richmond, responding to Magee's pledge to look at other options if the deficiencies of the resurfacing project aren't corrected, said that she knows of no alternatives the city can pursue.
Those are fighting words for a veteran officeholder such as Magee. The former Trumbull County commissioner has been in many a battle with state and federal government bureaucrats, and has not fared too badly. While commissioner, he even took on then-Congressman James A. Traficant Jr. of Poland, D-17th, at a time when most area elected officials were intimidated into silence by the mercurial former Mahoning County sheriff (and now federal prisoner).
"It's a bad job and they [ODOT] know it's a bad job," the mayor says of the repaving of West Liberty Street (state Route 304) from the square to Jacobs Road; East Liberty Street from downtown to the city limits; and North Main Street (state Routes 7 and 62) from the square to the city limits.
The state is paying The Shelly Co. $896,312, while the city has put up $144,002 as the local share.
Rubberized asphalt
The mayor and his staff, including Service Director Al Patrick and city street Superintendent Paul Collins, aren't indulging in some Quixotic fantasy in their battle with the state agency. They spent an inordinate amount of time reviewing the project and in July sent the state a list of work that they think was below standard. The mayor was especially critical of the rubberized asphalt compound used for resurfacing. Shortly after the work was completed, the new surface began peeling all the way down to the subsurface.
An ODOT official contended that the surface peeled in some spots because cars were on it prematurely. Well, whose fault was that? This wasn't a city job. If ODOT inspectors didn't think the road was ready for traffic, they should never have opened it.
The solution that the state approved also troubles the mayor: Shelly merely heated the areas to repair them. Magee says that work has made the surface even worse to drive on.
Things came to a head Aug. 24 when Patrick and Collins walked out of an inspection meeting after concluding that ODOT officials weren't interested in listening to the city's grievances.
The state agency did send a letter to Shelly saying the company would not be paid until five areas of corrective work were completed, but the mayor contends that those areas don't address the major problems.
It's time for ODOT's District 4 Director Mohamed Darwish to visit Hubbard and see for himself what the Magee administration is complaining about. It may be necessary for the state to hire an outside consultant to provide an unbiased opinion as to the quality of the work performed by Shelly and detail what needs to be done to bring the project up to the standard the city is demanding.