Canfield town hall should be finished by fall
Trustees awarded a contract for a flood-control pond some residents oppose.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- The township is expected to begin building a new administration building and meeting hall in six to eight weeks.
Trustee Bill Reese said administrators could be moving into the new building in six to eight months. It will be built at the township's new 57-acre park on Herbert Road.
The 7,000-square-foot building will feature a hall in the basement and offices upstairs, Reese said. The township is paying for the building with money it receives from a lodging tax. The estimated cost is 800,000, Reese said.
Trustees hired an architect Monday -- Thomas J. Keller of Canfield. Once the design is finished, trustees will solicit bids for the project, Reese said.
The Canfield Historical Society has contacted the township about possibly buying the current township hall on South Broad Street.
Bruce Neff of the historical society said after the meeting that the group would likely use the building for meetings, administrative offices and a museum to display old Mahoning Dispatch newspapers and other Canfield artifacts. The building, which has always been the township hall, was built in 1884. Its second floor has been used for dances and roller skating. There was even miniature golf there in 1930, Neff said.
Reduced speed limit
Trustees also agreed to reduce the speed limit from 55 mph to 25 mph on three township roads. These are Ivy Lane, Chidester Drive and Curtis Avenue. Reese said residents complained about speeding on the streets.
Road department supervisor Gary Cook said the streets are short and narrow and that it is "ridiculous" to have a 55-mph speed limit on them.
Speed limits are 55 mph in the township, unless otherwise posted. Cook said the trustees don't change the limits unless residents complain of problems.
Trustees also voted to award a contract to Pro Quality Land Development to build a detention pond on township-owned land in a subdivision near Tippecanoe Road. The 1/3-acre pond will be on a wooded, 3-acre lot above Jamison Place. Some residents in the area have fought the proposal to build the pond, which is part of a larger township flood-control project.
Residents against it have said the pond won't help the flooding. They argued that the lot was designated as park land in the original deed and that the pond would interfere with wetlands, wildlife and old-growth trees.
The township sought a county prosecutor's opinion, and was told it would be OK to build the pond. The Army Corps of Engineers, which regulates wetlands, gave its approval also.
The pond will catch runoff from heavy rains and let it out slowly into drains that eventually feed Indian Run Creek. Between rainstorms, the pond will be dry. Reese said it will be fenced.