Metroparks system seeks grant for land

The Lakeshore Drive sewer project will have a public hearing Aug. 9.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Metroparks system has put in motion a plan to apply for state grant money to acquire yet another piece of park land, this one a 72-acre parcel along the Mahoning River near the Braceville exit on the Ohio Turnpike.
County commissioners, who will meet today at the county fair, are expected to approve a resolution in support of the Metroparks system's application for a Clean Ohio Fund grant of $280,500 to buy the land from Laraine DeCristofaro of Brookfield.
Trish Nuskievicz of the county planning commission told commissioners at their planning meeting Tuesday that the park would be for permanent conservation and public access to the Mahoning River.
The site is half a mile east of the Ohio Turnpike and just north of state Route 5. The site would be a couple of miles west of the recently acquired Thomas A. Swift MetroPark near the intersection of state route 5 and 82 at Center of the World.
Nuskievicz said the area is mostly wooded.
Commissioners are expected to approve a resolution to apply for the 270-acre park today.
On the agenda
In other business, commissioners are expected to:
Accept Magnolia Avenue and Republic Avenue into the Champion Township road system, with the township responsible for road maintenance.
Approve an agreement between the Trumbull 100 organization and the commissioners to use a $25,000 state grant as the commissioners portion of an $85,000 feasibility study to determine whether to build a resort at Mosquito Creek Reservoir. Gateway Consultants Group, Inc., of Westlake will conduct the study.
Announce a public hearing for 7 p.m. Aug. 9 at the Trumbull County Agriculture and Family Education Center, 520 W. Main St., Cortland, for the Lakeshore Drive sanitary sewer and Sterling Drive package plant improvement project. Gary Newbrough, county sanitary engineer, said the cost of the project to each of the 66 homeowners will be mailed to them before the hearing.
Commissioners also learned that two of the 66 companies that have active enterprise zone agreements for tax abatements with the county are asking for the agreements to be rescinded.
Alan Knapp, county planning commission director, said Champion Molded Plastics is requesting the elimination of its 2004 agreement for its plant in the Ivor H. Lee Industrial Park in Hubbard Township because the expansion project there is not going forward.
He said Dinesol Building Products of Niles wants to eliminate the 2003 enterprise zone agreement it has because changes in state laws having to do with personal property taxes have eliminated the need for the agreement.