Official: Majority favors project

Today is the final day for written comments.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
BAZETTA -- Some 95 percent of the 150 affected property owners favor a $2.2 million project to provide sanitary sewers for parts of eight streets near state Route 305, McCleary-Jacoby Road and state Route 46.
The property owners are being asked to pay for the total project.
Gary Newbrough, Trumbull County sanitary engineer, said today is the final day for written input on the project, which is in the east central part of Bazetta Township. Newbrough said comments on the project will not be counted if they are postmarked later than today.
Newbrough said his office will tally results of surveys, comments from last week's public hearing and letters, and present the information to county commissioners.
Newbrough said all of the input suggests that the project has support from enough property owners to move forward, and he would expect commissioners to vote to proceed at a meeting on or around July 12.
The project will serve Northview, Williams, Circle and Morrow drives, Wilmar Street and sections of Route 46 and McCleary-Jacoby Road.
Newbrough said the 150 property owners received notices a few weeks ago indicating the estimated amount the project will cost them depending on their front footage.
No property owners spoke against the project during the public hearing, and about seven or eight spoke for it, Newbrough said.
He said not every property owner is required to give a yes or no vote on the project; those who do not give the county an answer are presumed yes votes, he said.
Sanitary sewer projects
In another effort, a public hearing is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Niles McKinley High School for the $2.6 million McKinley Heights Phase II sanitary sewer project in Weathersfield Township. That project will serve 154 customers. There will be grant funding available for this project.
Also, Newbrough said his office is hoping to set a date in late July or early August for a public hearing on the sanitary sewer project being proposed for the Lakeshore neighborhood. This is on the other side of Mosquito Lake, also in Bazetta Township.
That project would cost about $1.5 million and provide sanitary sewers for around 60 property owners on Lakeshore and Westlake drives and the adjacent Mosquito Lake State Park campground. Property owners will pay for the project.
The neighborhood has been the focus of many discussions by state and local officials about the areas without sewers that are of greatest concern. The neighborhood's failing septic systems are allowing contaminants to enter the lake, source for Warren's drinking water.
runyan@vindy.com