Eastgate tentatively OKs using federal funds for South Ave., Glenbridge

By Peter H. Milliken

YOUNGSTOWN — The tentative approval of $1.5 million in federal stimulus money for road paving and bridge projects in Boardman adds a major supplement to Mahoning County’s limited ability to pay for road improvements.

The Eastgate Regional Council of Governments has given tentative approval for $1.1 million in stimulus money to repave 1.53 miles of South Avenue between Presidential Drive and Mathews Road, Marilyn Kenner, chief deputy county engineer, told the county commissioners Thursday.

“That is one of the highest- traffic corridors in Mahoning County, so that’s why we picked that,” for submission for stimulus funds, Kenner said, noting that that section of South Avenue carries more than 25,000 vehicles a day.

The stimulus money would cover the full cost of that project.

Eastgate tentatively approved the other $400,000 in stimulus money to fill a funding gap for the Glenbridge rehabilitation project.

“It’s a bridge rehab, but we’re re-facing the bridge. We’re putting decorative rail and decorative lighting up, plus we’re adding sidewalks,” Kenner said. The bridge carries Glenwood Avenue over the Newport Drive entrance to Mill Creek Park.

Stimulus money for both projects must be approved by the Ohio Department of Transportation. In both projects, traffic will be maintained during construction.

Kenner said she expects the Glenbridge work to be done this summer and hopes the South Avenue repaving can be done this year.

In this year’s regular $1.3 million county resurfacing program, the county can pave only 10 miles of roads, county Engineer Richard Marsico said. That program is being funded by $1 million from the Ohio Public Works Commission, $250,000 from the county’s recycling division, and $50,000 in combined license plate fee and gasoline tax revenues.

Last year, the county paved 20 miles of roads in its regular resurfacing program, Kenner said, attributing the decline this year to the doubling of asphalt prices.

Squeezed between declining gasoline tax and motor vehicle license plate revenues and doubling road salt and asphalt prices, the county engineer’s office was forced to lay off nine employees Dec. 31.

But Kenner said a reorganization of the department has allowed her office to increase the number of workers on the roads despite the layoffs.

Sam Matheny of Jersey Street, Lake Milton, asked for reimbursement of $140 he spent to replace a tire after his car recently hit a large pothole on Mahoning Avenue at Lake Milton.

But Marsico told him the engineer’s office is legally responsible for such damage only if it receives prior notice concerning the hole and neglects its duty to fill it.

Kenner said the office didn’t have prior notice but patched the hole as soon as Matheny complained about it.

“This year, when it thawed, there were so many roads that broke up. We had all our men out on patching, and we’re still out there trying to patch,” Marsico said.

In other business, the commissioners approved a Fraternal Order of Police labor agreement with 17 civilian employees of the sheriff’s office, which mirrors the concessionary agreement already adopted by the deputies. The civilian group includes secretarial and payroll workers and those who process court papers, said Sheriff Randall A. Wellington.

The civilian workers, whose average pay is about $30,000 a year, will sacrifice the equivalent of one workday every two weeks under the agreement, which is effective through June 30, 2010.

The commissioners also hired Reynolds Inliner LLC of Hilliard for a $475,000 relining of three- quarters of a mile of a 70-year-old, 36-inch sanitary sewer near the center of Poland Village to prevent stormwater from leaking into it through cracks after heavy rains. That project is fully funded by an Ohio Public Works Commission loan.

The polyurethane liner that will seal the sewer will be installed through manholes, said Joseph Warino, sanitary engineer.

The project should start around April 1 and finish in June or July, Warino said. The sewer flows to the Struthers waste treatment plant.

The commissioners also approved the retirement of Julia Holland, a social service aide at the county’s Department of Job and Family Services, effective Feb. 20.