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Austintown trustees approve joint paving program
By Josh stipanovich
austintown
Trustees unanimously approved a joint paving program Monday that will allow Canfield, Boardman and Austintown to work with one another to have more roads paved in each township.
Mike Dockry, township administrator, said he hopes the unit price for paving in three townships will be better than what each township could get individually.
Dockry told trustees Tuesday the decision to establish a joint venture comes from local-government efforts to do more with less. He said he talked to officials in Boardman and Canfield earlier this year.
Larry Wilson, Boardman road superintendent, will be in charge of the bidding for each of the townships.
Dockry said $1.1 million to $1.2 million between the three townships will be bid through the program.
That money is the total budget after each of the townships’ paving budgets is added together. Austintown budgeted $440,000; Boardman budgeted $691,000; and Canfield budgeted $328,000.
“It’s going to increase the volume that the vendors will be looking at bidding,” Dockry said. “Because of that volume, we’re all three hoping that we’ll get a lower unit bid than either one of us could ... With a lesser unit bid, we’ll be able to do more roads.”
Dockry said he’s unsure of how much money will be saved through the program, but he expects to see at least a $30 difference in unit price for the asphalt.
Austintown Trustee Jim Davis said that this year the cost to pave per mile is $100,000. Without this joint program, Austintown would be able to pave only 4.4 miles of road. Davis said that if the program works as planned, Austintown, for example, would spend less on the budgeted 4.4 miles, leaving money for more roads to be paved. That leaves an additional $60,000 for other road work throughout the township.
“We might get it for $380,000,” Davis said. “Any time you have collaboration between townships, it’s a win, win.”
“As they bid, it’s working with all phases of the $1 million work. We know what we’re willing to put out there,” Wilson said. He added that when a large bidder comes in, the cost of the project would be driven down.
Marie Cartwright, Canfield trustee, said it would also save taxpayers money.
“It allows us to resurface more areas,” Cartwright said. “It’s a win, win for everybody..”
Canfield approved the joint paving program April 23. Cartwright said. Boardman is expected to approve it tonight. This is the first time the three townships have worked jointly on paving.