2 groundbreakings set today

Staff report

struthers

City and state officials will celebrate the start of two projects at ceremonial groundbreakings today.

Officials were meeting at 10 a.m. at the city’s waste-treatment plant for a groundbreaking of the methane-gas- generator project.

The city received $5.4 million from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which distributed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants for communities’ environmentally friendly projects.

Two generators will be built to capture methane gas the plant now burns off. The gas will be converted to energy that will be used to help run the plant at a cost savings for the city.

The Lower Connector Bridge project will be commemorated at 11 a.m. at the new span’s site off Bob Cene Way.

The bridge will connect Struthers to Campbell and eventually to an access road through the brownfields that will be built by Campbell and Youngstown, said Struthers Mayor Terry Stocker.

The road will let truck traffic from businesses in the brownfields get to the Center Street Bridge and then to Interstate 80 easier, Stocker said. The project will make the brownfields a more desirable site for businesses, he said.

The bridge, being built with $1.9 million in stimulus funds, is part of the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative’s Master Plan.

Expected at the groundbreakings are U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th; state Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Canfield, D-33rd; Ken Carano, regional director for the office of Gov. Ted Strickland; and other state and city representatives.