Engineer questions action on road project

Commissioners also approved giving $160,000 to the Office of Elderly Affairs.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- Trumbull County Commissioner Jim Tsagaris and county Engineer John Latell conducted an exercise in the political process before a room full of senior citizens at the SCOPE Center here.
Commissioners sometimes hold their meetings outside of the county administration building to bring county government to various locations around the county.
As the meeting was concluding Wednesday, Latell asked commissioners why they tabled two resolutions last week that would have allowed a change order for a road project on Aero Park Drive in Vienna.
Tsagaris said there had been no planning meeting this week, so commissioners would address the matter at next week's planning meeting. Tsagaris had raised questions last week about the project because the road had only been built in 2000 and now needed $100,000 in repairs.
But Latell wanted it known that the original project had been done by the Regional Chamber, not by his department, that his department was only overseeing the state grant for the Regional Chamber, and wanted to know what the commissioners wanted in order to get the project moving.
"How many projects have you seen done two times in four years?" Tsagaris said, his voice rising. Then he added that he thought Alan Knapp, the county's planning commission director, was "just in a hurry to do it to satisfy the chamber."
What's being done
Latell persisted in asking what would be needed to get the project back on track. Tsagaris said Commissioner Dan Polivka had asked for soil samples to help determine whether the road had eroded because of poor soil.
Then he added that maybe the companies using the industrial-park road, Timken-Latrobe Steel Distribution and Delphi Packard, should pay for it. "It's their road, too," he said.
Polivka said commissioners want to look into the project a little further to know for sure what caused the road to deteriorate so quickly before they sign off on the project. Latell said an Aug. 23 deadline is approaching for the project to be completed.
Office to get levy proceeds
In other action, commissioners approved giving the county's Office of Elderly Affairs $160,000 of the proceeds of the senior citizens levy approved last November.
Gary Engstrom, director of the office, said he had talked with Jack O'Connell, chairman of the Senior Citizens Advisory Council, which was appointed to oversee the spending of the levy funds, and he was in agreement with giving the funds to the office.
Engstrom said the office had its budget cut from $210,000 in 2003 to $50,000 in 2006. Commissioner Paul Heltzel said the payout would provide the office the money to begin carrying out the goals of the seniors levy until the advisory council is organized enough to begin spending the money on its own.
The advisory committee's spending recommendations require final approval from commissioners.
Engstrom said the money would be used to expand programs delivering meals and providing medical transportation to lower-income senior citizens.