Saturday, November 23, 2013
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
CAMPBELL
Six blighted structures within the city will be demolished by year’s end, and more than five miles of the city’s streets will be resurfaced next year — all with minimal use of general-fund dollars, city officials say.
Mayor William J. VanSuch, who has been the city’s mayor since January 2011 and was sworn in Thursday for a second term, said the city has been making progress. He added that this trend will continue, thanks to a group effort by city administrators and members of council, among others.
“Progress will be made every year,” VanSuch said. “Money is being spent wisely.”
For example, most of the funding for the six demolitions — about $43,000 — comes from the Ohio attorney general’s program for the demolition of blighted structures, with the funding distributed through Mahoning County by the treasurer’s office.
Although the city submitted those six properties for consideration, funding was allocated for only four of them. Recently, however, the city discovered that leftover Community Development Block Grant funds could be applied to demolition of the remaining two structures.
The city’s contribution was only a few hundred dollars, VanSuch said.
The structures that will be demolished no later than Dec. 31 are at 16 Coitsville Road, 260 Robinson Road, 76 13th St., 84 13th St., 191 Tremble Ave. and 174 12th St.
In addition, the largest of the city’s street-resurfacing projects, at a cost of approximately $2.3 million, is the repaving of state Route 289 (Wilson Avenue). The project also will include the replacement of some curbing and repairs to some catch basins along the almost two-mile stretch that goes “from one end of the city limits to the other,” said VanSuch.
Funded by the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Program, which also provides financing for road and bridge reconstruction or resurfacing projects, among other work, the state Route 289 repaving project is scheduled to begin in the spring.
Engineer Chris Tolnar, of GPD Group, noted that the state program also will mostly fund the repaving of Warhurst Road, about 1.3 miles, from Tenney Avenue to Struthers-Liberty Road; and Robinson Road, about 1.5 miles, from Wilson Avenue to state Route 616. These will cost approximately $600,000 and $700,000, respectively.
The city must contribute a local share of 20 percent to the Warhurst and Robinson roads projects, but is pursuing grants from the Ohio Public Works Commission to offset these costs, Tolnar said.
He added that 14th Street from Robinson Road to Tremble Avenue also will be repaved at a cost of about $50,000, from the CDBG program. Construction drawings, estimates, bid-proposal forms and technical specifications must be submitted to Mahoning County for review and approval by Feb. 28.
The Warhurst Road, Robinson Road and 14th Street repaving projects likely will start by late summer, Tolnar said.
VanSuch added that he anticipates the repaving of each road to take between two and three weeks.
“I hope to enjoy them enough before the roads have to be plowed,” VanSuch said with a chuckle. “But once you get started, when you have your ducks in a row as we do, it shouldn’t take all that long.”
Roads resurfaced in 2013 were Blossom Avenue, Eastern Avenue, Penhale Avenue, Piccadilly Street, Porter Avenue, Sanderson Avenue, Sixth Street and Whipple Avenue, along with the entrance to the city’s fire station. Five streets were resurfaced in 2012.