lordstown Council: Continue legal action

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

Village council has authorized paying up to $30,000 to Atty. Charles T. Riehl of Cleveland to continue legal action related to the East Side sewer project.

The village has a pending lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that names James Farina of North Lima, the former project engineer, as a defendant.

But Riehl is being paid to work out issues related to Marucci and Gaffney Excavating Co. of Youngstown, the contractor on the sewer project, said Arno Hill, Lordstown mayor.

Council also this week agreed to have the local company CT Consultants carry out the engineering to remove and replace the part of the sewer line along Hallock-Young Road that doesn’t work correctly.

Hill said Tuesday the cost of replacing as much as 4,000 feet of the line could be around $200,000.

Officials have met with frustration for several years in trying to repair the part of the sewer line that isn’t working correctly, Hill said.

“It’s gone on long enough,” Hill said. “We tried to be patient.”

The project was initially scheduled for completion in December 2008, Hill said.

Recent tests indicate that the Hallock-Young portion of the sewer line is operating at a flow rate of 104 to 106 gallons per minute, and it should flow at 150 gallons per minute, Hill said.

A call to Marucci and Gaffney on Wednesday afternoon was not returned.

Officials believe the reason for the problem is that the lines were bored horizontally underground in such a way that the lines are undulating instead of straight, Hill said.

Such undulations create air locks that slow the flow of waste, Hill said.

It is believed that between one-third and one-half of the 9,700 feet of sewer line under Hallock-Young Road will have to be replaced, Hill said. The area is east of state Route 45.