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Alternate restoration plan heard
NEW SPRINGFIELD
Springfield Township residents heard an alternate plan Monday for restoring an area in the northeast section of the township in the wake of Essroc’s cessation of mining operations.
The area to be restored includes vacated portions of Western Reserve, Kansas, Felger, Donaldson and Rapp roads.
Township trustees, their engineering firm and assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Tim Tusek said they want resident input before they decide what to demand of Essroc in fulfilling its contract with the township.
That contract calls for Essroc to rededicate and reconstruct Western Reserve Road from Kansas Road to State Line Road as well as Rapp and Donaldson roads from Felger to Western Reserve.
Though the meeting filled the township administration building, residents did not reach any consensus on what should be done. Trustee Gerald Guterba said there likely will be more meetings to discuss a solution.
Engineers John Evan and Carmen Congolese of The Howland Company of Youngstown described the reality of the situation, which includes a large void left from limestone mining which will not be filled in. According to Ohio reclamation law, it only will be graded so that the walls are not so steep.
“It won’t be filled in to make it level. It will be like a bowl,” Congolese said.
Although the contract calls for the roads to be restored once mining operations ended, the engineers explained there might be a better solution than restoring the roads to their original locations. Evan explained that if Rapp Road, for example, is restored to county road standards, it could eventually sink because it would be built right over the “void,” costing the township expensive maintenance work.
The engineers said they believe a better solution is to slightly alter the existing slagged bypass road which starts on Rapp Road and goes north. It could be redone to avoid a wetland area and upgraded to county standards at a cost of about $650,000.
The approximately 6,000-foot-long, 18-foot-wide road would be paved and have a 3-foot berm on each side. The road would avoid the quarry pit area and so would not be subject to sinking.
They said one other problem is that the pit cannot simply be filled in because the state requires a passive drainage system remain in the pit for protection of water quality. Though the cost of restoring Rapp, Western Reserve and the other roads vacated by the mining operation has been estimated at $5 million to $6 million, officials said at Monday’s meeting that it might be more prudent to use whatever money remains from the settlement after building up the bypass road to improve other, more viable sections of the township.
Township Road Superintendent Richard Kennedy agreed, stating, “I see no advantage of putting Rapp and Donaldson back.”
A woman who lives near the mining operation objected, however, that since the mining operation made its money in that section of the township, any settlement money should be spent there.
During the meeting, Tusek said that the original contract with Carbon Limestone in 1978 was succeeded by an amended agreement in 1994, at which time Essroc was added as a party. At that time, an original requirement that the company donate 100 acres to the township for a park once it ceased mining was removed. Carbon Limestone was the original owner but later sold the mining rights to Essroc. The current owner of the land is Republic, with BFI holding revisionary rights, Tusek said.