POLAND Township rejects grant for sidewalk project

A $100,000 set-aside came from a contract with BFI.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- A long-awaited township sidewalk project will keep waiting.
After applying for and receiving a $163,989 transportation enhancement grant from Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, township trustees decided to turn it down.
The money was for a $263,989 sidewalk along state Route 170 from the village corporation limits to Poland Seminary High School, in the township. The one-mile stretch could be used by walkers or bicyclists.
The township was to kick in $100,000 for the project.
But Trustee Chairman Mark Naples said that amount was to include costs of engineering and potential overruns.
The grant application was completed by a consultant and indicated the $100,000 was the township's contribution for construction.
"We talked to some folks and no one could give us an exact number for what it was going to cost to do it," Naples said.
BFI agreement
Since 2001, the township has had $100,000 set aside for the pedestrian path 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.
Poland's decision not to go through with the grant means that money may be available for a project in another community.
Kathleen Rodi, Eastgate's transportation director, said 15 projects were submitted for the transportation enhancement grants and six were selected. The subcommittee that made the selections will likely reconvene later this month to decide whether to award that money for another project.
The transportation enhancement grants are generally pedestrian projects, Rodi said.
"We would have had to dip into the general fund to do it," said Trustee Robert Lidle Jr. "I agreed with my colleagues that this wasn't the best use of taxpayers' dollars."
Withdrawing from the Eastgate grant doesn't mean the project is dead.
Both Naples and Lidle said there are other possible grant avenues the township can explore for the path project.