Weathersfield to receive grant for road upgrade

By Mary Smith

Mahoning County will contribute toward the project.

MINERAL RIDGE — Weathersfield Township trustees have approved documents to set up oversight of the County Line Road Safety Upgrade project.

The documents will be forwarded to District VI of the Ohio Public Works Commission after the township learned it will receive a $445,000 state grant for County Line Road repaving.

Weathersfield and Mahoning County will each contribute $99,999 for the project, the total cost of which will be $645,000, trustee Chairman James Stoddard said. Responsibility for the road is shared equally by the towship and Mahoning County. The township expects to receive the funds in July.

Trustees learned in October, just a month after they submitted paperwork for the grant, that the commission had ranked the project high enough to be approved.

Paperwork approved at a special meeting Tuesday named Stoddard as chief executive officer and township clerk Fred Bobovnyk as chief fiscal officer for the project. MS Consultants of Youngstown is project manager.

County Line Road runs from Four Mile Run Road to state Route 46. It was last repaved in 1996 using state Issue 2 funds. The stretch of road to be repaved is 1.5 miles. The project also provides for construction of stormwater-control safeguards.

The Mahoning County side of the road is in Austintown Township but is considered a county road. The street also is known as Ohltown-Girard Road.

Mahoning County agreed to help pay the local share for the project as long as Weathersfield was the lead agency applying for the grant, which is being handled under the state Issue 1 program administered by the Ohio Department of Public Works.