$4M in projects likely to get OK
YOUNGSTOWN — City council is expected Thursday to give the go-ahead to more than $4 million in capital-improvement projects, including the extension of Hazel Street to connect downtown to Youngstown State University.
Most of the funding for the projects will come from the state.
Construction on the Hazel Street extension, first proposed about four years ago, is expected to start as early as April and take six months to be done, said Charles T. Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works.
The $1.17 million estimated cost for the expansion is to be paid through state grants.
The work would extend the street from West Wood Street, where it ends, to Lincoln Avenue, where YSU is building its $34.3 million college of business administration. Hazel between Commerce and West Wood streets is also being realigned as part of the extension.
City and university officials say it’s important to tie YSU to downtown to develop a stronger working relationship between the school’s business students and downtown businesses.
City council, which changed the date of its meeting from Wednesday to Thursday, expects to give its approval to borrow $580,028 from the state to install about 700 to 800 feet of sanitary-sewer pipes in the Kirkmere area of Cornersburg. The state loan carries no interest.
That neighborhood has experienced years of flooding and sewage backup because of the broken and damaged pipe system, Shasho said.
That project will begin sometime in the spring and take three to four months to complete, he said.
Also Thursday, council will consider spending about $1.32 million for road resurfacing, guard-rail improvements, and storm-sewer work, most notably on Youngstown-Hubbard Road near the city’s border.
That work is expected to start in June and take about 75 days to finish, Shasho said.
Of the estimated cost, the state is providing $912,000, he said.
Also on council’s agenda is approval to move ahead with the rehabilitation of lower Market Street, just south of the Market Street Bridge between Woodland and Williamson avenues.
The project is estimated to cost $950,657. There is no timetable on this job, which is expected to begin in either the fall or as late as spring 2011, Shasho said.
skolnick@vindy.com