Liberty approves contract for flood-control project on Mansell

January 10, 2014 at 12:02a.m.

By jeanne starmack

LIBERTY

Trustees voted unanimously to award a contract for a flood-control project on Mansell Drive, said township Administrator Pat Ungaro.

Trustees voted to do so at a special meeting Monday, Trustee Jodi Stoyak said. Trustees did not sign the contract yet, however, she said.

Trustee Chairman Jason Rubin said the township’s new fiscal officer, Steve Shelton, will go through the budget to make sure the township can afford its share of the $80,000 project without hurting other budget funds.

Stoyak said the township’s law director advised that trustees could pass the contract without signing it.

The township’s share is $12,500. The rest of the money is coming from a state grant.

The project involves a culvert and a pipe under the road, Ungaro said.

The lowest of six bidders for the project was S.E.T. Inc. of Lowellville.

The township will solicit bids for another flood-control project on Goldie Road in the spring, Ungaro said, adding that backyards and basements in the area flood as water drains from Belmont Avenue toward a creek below them.

That project will cost $190,000, and the township will borrow money from the state at no interest to be paid back over a 20-year period, Ungaro said.

There were nine township areas the road department identified as needing flood control, Stoyak said.

“If we don’t take care of them, we can’t get FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] funds for flood relief,” she said.