Loans for upgrading sewage systems available

Interest rates may be reduced up to 5 percent through the Linked Deposit Loan Program.

STAFF REPORTS

YOUNGSTOWN — Low-interest loans are available to home and business owners who intend to upgrade or replace their sewage treatment systems to current standards or to connect to public sewer systems, said Mahoning County District Board of Health Commissioner Matthew Stefanak.

Over the past 10 years, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Pollution Control Loan Fund and local lending institutions have made more than $300,000 in reduced interest rate loans to homeowners and businesses in Mahoning County through this loan program, Stefanak said.

The program is designed to improve water quality by making it easier for individuals to improve their home sewage treatment systems or use public sewers, he said.

Collectively, inadequate sewage treatment systems are a major source of nonpoint source pollution in Mahoning County. Nonpoint source refers to polluted runoff reaching streams, rivers, lakes and underground aquifers and results from a variety of activities and sources, including failing or failed sewage treatment systems, Stefanak said.

After obtaining a permit, which details the proper installation, operation and maintenance of the on-site systems, from the district board of health, applicants will be issued a certificate which they can take to KeyBank, Home Savings and Loan, or Farmer’s National Bank of Canfield, the three local lending institutions participating in the Ohio EPA’s Linked Deposit Loan Program.

The lending institution uses its own loan criteria in deciding whether to offer an applicant a loan and will set the interest rate and term of the loan. The lending institution will notify Ohio EPA of the loan, and the OEPA will then deposit the amount of the loan in the institution at a reduced interest rate which the lender passes along to the loan recipient. Interest rates may be reduced up to 5 percent through the Linked Deposit Loan Program.

Stefanak said more information about the Linked Deposit Loan Program is available at these local KeyBank branches: Austintown, 1737 Raccoon Road; Boardman, 5712 Market St.; Canfield, 4030 Boardman-Canfield Road; Liberty, 3198 Belmont Ave.; and Poland, 100 S. Main St.