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Storm-water project set to begin
BOARDMAN
Donna Fry knows what it’s like to be under water.
She and her husband, Delbert Fry, housed her mother, Gladys Johnson, for six weeks after Johnson’s Melbourne Avenue home had 4 feet of water from a 2003 storm.
The couple spent that time draining the house, scrubbing mold and replacing furniture. They still have a photo album filled with pictures of the damage.
So Donna said she was grateful to hear that eight years after the massive flood, her mother’s street is part of a larger storm-water project being undertaken this year.
“The water runs so fast, you have no place to go,” said Donna, who now lives with her husband in an addition built onto her mother’s house.
The township recently received approval from the Ohio Department of Development for a 3-percent interest loan of about $250,000 to undertake two storm-water projects, said Administrator Jason Loree.
One project is a series culvert replacements on West Parkside Drive, Melrose Avenue and Applecrest Drive, said Road Superintendent Larry Wilson.
The other project, which should benefit Donna and her neighbors, will be the widening of the Boardman Lake detention basin and installation of the Aylesboro Avenue storm sewer, Wilson said.
The culvert project received a $173,535 grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission, and the storm-water project received $222,000 from the same agency, Loree said.
The low-interest loan will pay for the township’s contribution to both projects, he added.
“There’s some flexibility in the repayment plan. The plan will be optimized to fit Boardman Township’s needs and keep extra cash on hand,” Loree said, noting that the “cash on hand” could allow the township to begin demolition of vacant homes.
The township could take up to 20 years to repay the loan, but plans to do so in less than 10 years, Loree said.
The Aylesboro Avenue storm-sewer portion will be bid out in the coming weeks.
“We’re going to replace all the culverts under the existing roads [Aylesboro, Melbourne, Brookfield] and clear the ditches,” Wilson said. “We’re installing another detention basin ... adjacent to the bridge on Brookfield Avenue.”
Wilson said part of the reason the township received the grant money was residents such as Donna came forward with photos and voiced their concerns.
Donna said the house hasn’t suffered from severe flooding since 2003.
“A couple of times it got close, and we were sweating it out,” she said. “I hate to say it, but we’re due for another one.”