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Council to consider borrowing $7.75M
YOUNGSTOWN
City council will consider legislation Wednesday to borrow up to $7.75 million for two wastewater projects: to build a 1.5-million-gallon tank to store water during heavy rains near an intersection on the South Side and to replace a broken boiler at its treatment plant.
The city wants to borrow the money from the Ohio Water Development Authority and repay it, with an interest rate of about 3.8 percent, over a 20-year period, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the public works department.
Most of the money to be borrowed is for the tank near Meadowbrook Avenue and Youngstown Poland Road.
That area has had flooding issues for several years, which has forced the city, at times, to pump raw sewage into a nearby creek, he said.
The tank would hold up to 1.5 million gallons of water and sewage during heavy rains, which would avoid sewage backup and flooding problems in the area, and then have the water eventually flow through the current system to the city’s wastewater plant on Poland Avenue, Shasho said.
The city is borrowing up to $5.25 million for the project, which should be done in about nine months.
The project should cost about $4.5 million to complete, but if there are change orders that add to the cost, the city wants the ability to borrow more money, he said.
Also, the city plans to borrow about $2.5 million to replace a broken boiler at its wastewater treatment plant.
That project should take about a year to complete, Shasho said.
A contractor would have to disassemble the roof and take the broken boiler out and install its replacement with a crane, he said.
The plant’s other boiler, installed in the 1980s, still works, and the city can operate with just one boiler for a while, but not on a permanent basis, Shasho said.
City council will consider votes Wednesday authorizing the board of control to enter into a contract with the Ohio Water Development Authority to borrow money for the tank, and to have the board advertise for proposals for the boiler-replacement project.
Also, council will consider a proposal to give $85,000 to Exterran Energy Solutions, a company planning to build a $13.2 million natural-gas compression fabrication plant in the city’s Salt Springs Road Business Park.
Council will also vote on allowing the board of control to accept a $500,000 state grant for V&M Star to renovate a manufacturing facility at the Salt Springs Road Business Park. That project will cost about $5.2 million.