1st phase of expansion of sewer plant finished

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Construction is complete on a $741,000 sewer project that will begin serving a former Kraft dairy plant in Kinsman and a few other customers within about 30 days.

The project involved upgrade of a small sewage plant that formerly served the Kraft cottage cheese plant and installation of about 2,000 feet of sewer lines on Burnett East Road near the former Kraft plant.

The sewage plant will treat sewage coming from the former Kraft plant, now owned by Smearcase LLC of Andover, plus a couple of residential customers, said Scott Verner, county sanitary engineer. The former Kraft plant now provides space to a woodworking company.

Verner noted the Kinsman area is one of several places around Trumbull County identified as “unsewered areas of concern” by the Environmental Protection Agency — areas the county promised in a legal document called a consent decree to provide sewers so that sewage discharges into the environment could be eliminated.

The project made use of a $340,000 federal grant, $340,000 from a county loan fund and $111,000 from Smearcase.

Clemson Excavating Inc. of Chardon earned $700,779 for the main part of the project, and B&J Electric of North Lima earned $40,604 for electrical work.

The package plant is capable of processing about 25,000 gallons of sewage per day, Verner said, and will use only about 1,000 gallons of that capacity at first.

More of that capacity will be used if a nearby industrial park or other homes or businesses are developed in the area and for a later phase of the project, Verner said.

Another business was planned to be served by the sewer line, Vinyl Color & Grain, but it has since gone out of business, said Bill Durst, the sanitary engineer’s wastewater collection superintendent.

The sanitary engineer’s department will now continue to make plans for the second phase of the project, which is to use the plant to extend sewers to the village of Kinsman and a one-mile area between Kinsman and Farmdale.