POLAND Trustees seek funds for walkway

The path could be used by walkers or bicyclists.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- Trustees are trying again for grant funding for a pedestrian path that would connect the village and township.
The township has had money set aside since 2001 for a pedestrian pathway along state Route 170. The $100,000 came as part of a contract with Browning Ferris Industries of Ohio, which operates a landfill here.
BFI gave the township money in exchange for an increase in the long-haul trash amounts allowed to be brought into the landfill.
Grant applications
James Scharville, township administrator, said the township has applied and been rejected for grant funding through the transportation enhancement program administered by Eastgate Regional Council of Governments for the last few years. The township will seek 2006 funding from the Ohio Public Works Commission.
The township had contracted in 2001 with E.S. & amp; C., a Youngstown consulting firm, to prepare the grant application and perform engineering for the project. The contract was for $25,000, and $10,000 was paid upfront. The remaining $15,000 will be paid when the grant is received.
That contract also will be paid for out of the grant funds.
"No tax dollars are going toward this," said Robert Lidle Jr., trustee chairman.
The one-mile stretch would go along state Route 170 from the village corporation limits to Poland Seminary High School, in the township. It could be used by walkers or bicyclists, he said.
"What we're hoping it will do is to join together the township and the village," Lidle said.
Township residents would be able to walk to events in the village, and village residents could walk to high school football games or other sporting events, he said.
Estimates for the total project have run about $325,000, Lidle said, the bulk of which would be covered by the grant.