Youngstown prepares $1.4M project to pave 80 city streets

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The city is paying $1,454,408 to a Girard company to pave 80 streets, primarily in residential neighborhoods.

Diorio Paving, the company hired by the city for the street improvements, will begin the job in mid- to late June, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public works department. The work should take 75 days to complete.

This is Diorio’s first time doing the city’s annual summer street paving project.

Diorio’s proposal was the least expensive among the four companies seeking the work. One of the other companies was Shelly Co. of Twinsburg, which did the city’s street paving work the last four years.

The 80 streets are equivalent to 29.2 lane miles, Shasho said. A lane mile is 1 mile long and 12 feet wide, he said.

The city is spending about $300,000 more on this summer’s street paving program than last year, and is improving 23 more streets than last year to have a larger impact on residential streets, Shasho said.

None of the money for the work comes from the city’s general fund, Shasho said. The general fund is currently facing a $2 million shortfall between its anticipated revenues and expenditures.

Most of the money for the paving will come from a federal Community Development Block Grant and the city’s $5 motor vehicle license tax fund. Also, about $167,000 will come from the city’s water and wastewater budgets because a portion of the project includes grading water valves and manhole covers.

Read the full story Tuesday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.