New water tank will improve pressure for South Side, Boardman customers

By David Skolnick

The work on the water tank will begin in April or May.

YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s board of control approved a $2,655,000 contract for the construction of a 1.5-million- gallon water tank to improve water pressure to its customers on Youngstown’s South Side and in Boardman.

The board awarded the contract Thursday to Caldwell Tank Inc. of Louisville, Ky., which submitted the lowest proposal. The other proposal, for $2,686,000, came from CB&I, a company based in the Netherlands.

The work will begin in April or May and take 16 to 18 months to complete, said Gene Leson, the city water department’s chief engineer.

The water tank will be built on Erskine Avenue in Boardman on land the city is leasing from Mahoning County.

The new tank will replace a 3-million-gallon tank on Indianola Road, built in 1912, and a 500,000- gallon tank on Erskine, built in 1966.

The Indianola tank is too old and inefficient, and there’s no need for such a large tank, Leson said. The current Erskine tank is too small for customer needs, Leson said.

The new tank will provide better water pressure to city water customers on the South Side and in Boardman, Leson said.

The city received a no-interest loan from the state, to be repaid over 20 years, to build the new tank, Leson said.

“This is a good investment in our water system,” said city Finance Director David Bozanich, a member of the board of control.

City officials have talked about building a new water tank since the fall of 2006.

It was delayed because Boardman officials objected to a request by Youngstown to buy the Erskine Ave- ue property. The issue was settled in the summer of 2007 when the city agreed to lease the land.

Also, it took time to obtain the loan from the state as well as to design the project.

skolnick@vindy.com