Upgrades set to begin in Girard

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

The mayor said funds will be used to make much-needed repairs.

GIRARD — City officials have laid out plans to use more than $300,000 in neighborhood revitalization federal grant money — and are hoping to get more money for additional improvements in the coming years.

The $300,000 in funding comes to the city as part of a competitive grant program through the Ohio Department of Development’s Community Development Division. Under the grant program, 10 communities will share more than $2.5 million.

The breakdown for using the grant funds in Girard will be $145,600 in sidewalk improvements, $75,400 in street improvements, $12,000 in demolition and clearance, $22,000 in sewer facilities, $16,000 in flood and drainage, and $29,000 for administrative purposes on all the projects.

The city has not received the actual funds yet, but Mayor James Melfi said improvements will start immediately.

“The money should be in by the end of the month, but we are running out of construction time, so what we are trying to do is use some of the paving dollars to do some of these of things this season. The majority of the work will be done in 2009,” he said.

The city has received the state funding twice in the past, using the funds to complete revitalization projects in the Parkwood area five years ago and more revitalization projects in the U.S. 422 area from Gordon Street to Hancock Street two years ago.

“The previous two areas to receive funding were determined to be low to moderate income areas. We believed there were more low to moderate areas that could receive funding, so we did an income study,” said Melfi.

The study, which cleared the way for the most recent grant, was conducted between U.S. Route 422 and Highland Avenue, and from Morris Avenue to Church Hill Road. The area was ultimately deemed low to moderate and will receive the $300,000 in upgrades.

Melfi said a major benefit is the ability to make costly improvements to sidewalks in that area of the city. To that end, improvements will be made to the following sidewalks:

UNorth Avenue from Churchill to Prospect

UProspect Street from North to Washington

UProspect Street from St. Clair to Ward

UWashington Street from Olive to Prospect

UHazel Street from Lawrence to St. Clair

UMain Street from Stewart to Ward

UWilson Street from Stewart to Ward

UCrumlin Avenue from State to St. Clair

UMorris Avenue from State to St. Clair

The project will include drainage improvements at the intersection of Ward Avenue and Prospect Street as well as at the intersection of Crumlin Avenue and St. Clair Avenue.

There will be a sewer project on Forsythe Avenue and demolition of houses at 443 North Ave. and 611 North Ave. Resurfacing will be done on sections of Broadway Avenue, Crumlin Avenue, Prospect Avenue and North Avenue.

Melfi said making the improvements to the area comes at just the right time with a new senior citizen facility in the making.

“We wanted to improve that section of the city, but we also knew the new senior center is going to be built in that area and we wanted to boost that,” he said. “That is a $6 million project going into that area.”

The city has entered into an agreement with Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority and Dr. Chander Kohli for the demolition of the run-down school building on North Avenue owned by Kohli.The housing authority will place a midlevel senior complex with about 40 units on one parcel of the property.

Melfi said the city will try to receive the state funding again next year. The focus, he said, will be the Parkwood area, including Emma Street and Maple Avenue.

jgoodwin@vindy.com