Well-driller must fix any damaged roads


By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vvindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County commissioners have approved an agreement with Halcon Operating Co. and Jackson Township, under which Halcon agrees to repair at its expense any roads it damages as a result of traffic to and from its Davidson Well Pad for oil and gas drilling off West Bailey Court in Jackson Township.

One well already has been drilled at the site on the west side of Bailey Road just north of Interstate 76, and five more may be drilled there, said Patrick Ginnetti, county engineer.

On Tuesday, the commissioners also bought a 1987 Chevrolet bucket truck from the Auglaize County Engineer’s Department for $6,500.

The Mahoning County Engineer’s Office, which has been without such a truck for several years, will use it to trim high tree branches overhanging county roads, where necessary, Ginnetti said.

“It runs well. ... Everything works on it. It’s in very good shape,” he said of the 26-year-old truck.

Heavily shaded areas of roads tend to have more pothole damage than areas that get more sunlight because ice melts and water evaporates more slowly in the shade, he explained.

Ginnetti said Crum Road in Austintown, which closed Sept. 28 for reconstruction, should reopen in late November or early December.

The commissioners also approved spending of $6,336 by the county recycling division for a fence to be installed around the recycling drop-off site at the Mill Creek MetroParks Farm to avoid having overflowing recyclables blown by the wind into the farm fields or across state Route 46 into the Canfield Fairgrounds.

The park district provides that recycling site free of charge to the county. The fence will be paid for by landfill disposal fees.

The commissioners retroactively approved one-year leases beginning Jan. 1, 2013, for recycling drop-off sites in Green and Coitsville townships at $9,000 and $11,000, respectively, also paid for by landfill disposal fees.

By eliminating a $4,000 annual lease and site at the Canfield Baseball Association’s McCune Park and cutting the other leases, the financially troubled county recycling division will cut this year’s $268,800 total countywide drop-off center lease costs by 41 percent in 2014, said Lou Vega, county recycling director.