Trumbull regains authority administer projects

By Ed Runyan | January 13, 2010 at 12:06a.m.

Trumbull County Engineer David DeChristofaro

The current county engineer says the move will save the county money and allow projects to be completed faster.

WARREN — The Ohio Department of Transportation will again allow the Trumbull County engineer’s office to serve as project administrator for jobs such as the completed North Road improvement project and Newton Falls Covered Bridge restoration.

Eric Czetli, ODOT District 4 deputy director, wrote to county Engineer David DeChristofaro on Dec. 30, notifying him that he’s restoring the Trumbull Engineer office’s ability to administer federally funded projects being done in Trumbull County.

ODOT had notified former county Engineer John Latell in September 2007 that ODOT would no longer allow the office to administer such projects because the engineer had been unreceptive in the previous four years to ODOT advice on various jobs, failed to properly administer such projects and failed to comply with federal requirements.

ODOT said at the time it was unhappy with the way Latell and his staff had handled the North Road and Newton Falls projects.

ODOT said it had advised Latell not to terminate its contract with BECDIR Construction of Berlin Center when the engineer and BECDIR got into a dispute over the Newton Falls project, but Latell and his staff did anyway.

The project was eventually finished by another contractor, and DeChristofaro settled a lawsuit earlier this year that had resulted from the conflict.

ODOT said the North Road project was delayed by the lack of a process for dispute resolution with the contractor. Randy Smith, deputy engineer under Latell, said the project started on time and was done ahead of schedule. Smith said he believed ODOT’s actions were politically motivated and that losing the ability to administer federally funded projects would have no adverse effect on the county.

DeChristofaro defeated Smith for the engineer’s job and took office one year ago.

ODOT said only two other engineer’s departments in the history of ODOT had ever had their participation in federally funded projects cut off.

DeChristofaro, in a press release recently, said being able to administer federal projects again “will result in a significant cost savings to the county as the county engineer will not need to pay [ODOT] to administer all its projects. Additionally, projects can be expedited and completed in half the time.”

David Rouan, DeChristofaro’s director of administration and governmental affairs, said administration fees are paid to whatever agency administers a project, so having the county administer it will bring dollars into the county engineer’s office.

Justin Chesnick, a spokesman for ODOT’s District 4 office, said projects could possibly be completed faster by having them administered by the county engineer because the county engineer then has control over what priority the project gets, when it is bid out and when it is built.

DeChristofaro met with ODOT officials early in his first year in office and established policies and procedures to assure local compliance with federal and state laws, DeChristofaro said.

runyan@vindy.com