Village applying for funds to install sewers

About 400 homes will be connected to the new sanitary sewers.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- The village is applying for two loans and a grant to construct sanitary sewers on the East Side.
When the work is completed, in three years or less, the entire village will be serviced with sanitary sewers rather than home septic systems, said Ron Barnhart, director of planning and zoning.
The total project will cost $10 million with some revenue from the village income tax increase being used to pay for it.
Village council approved, effective July 1, an increase in the income tax from 0.5 percent to 1 percent that will generate between $2.2 million and $2.7 million annually.
Barnhart said the village is applying for two zero percent loans for a total $1.5 million from the State Capital Improvement Program.
If approved, the $1.5 million will be used to construct 11/2 miles of sewers on the Northeast Side of the village.
Work would begin next summer and take three to four months to complete, Barnhart said.
CT Consultants Inc. of Youngstown, the village's consultant engineers, is applying on behalf of the village for an $8.5 million, 2.75 percent loan from the Ohio Water Pollution Control Fund.
Reciprocal project
Because the village has a small population and was involved in a reciprocal project with Mill Creek Park earlier this year, the rate could be as low as 2.55 percent, according to CT. The village had helped Mill Creek MetroParks by sponsoring its application to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency so the district could purchase 168 acres at the southern end of Mill Creek Park.
The $8.5 million will be used to construct sanitary sewers on the balance of the East Side.
When complete, about 400 homes will be disconnected from septic systems and connected to sanitary sewers, the planner explained.
The lack of a sanitary sewer system on the East Side is holding back residential development and the sale of existing homes, Barnhart said.
Developers, he pointed out, don't want to build houses with septic systems. They can't sell them because prospective buyers know that sanitary sewers will become available.
In existing homes, Barnhart said, the Trumbull County Board of Health has rated septic systems as inadequate because the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has increased its septic system standards.
He explained that, if a property owner wants to sell a house that is only five years old, a new septic system must be installed if the current one is failing or deemed inadequate -- which is costly.
Sewer lines are not the only improvements the village plans to make.
Plans for repaving
Barnhart said the village is applying for two grants totaling $1 million to resurface a one-mile stretch of Hallock-Young Road, from state Route 45 to Bailey Road.
A grant from the Federal Highway Administration would fund 80 percent of the project, and funds from the State Capital Improvement Program would fund the balance. There would be no local share.
Also, the village is applying to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for a $35,000 grant to construct a $70,000 gazebo in Central Park at Route 45 and Salt Springs Road, behind Sky Bank.
Barnhart said the gazebo would be off the road some distance so it can be used for concerts.
yovich@vindy.com