By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County commissioners voted to advertise for bids for replacement of the Division Street bridge over the Mahoning River in Youngstown.

In the $2.4 million project, the contractor first must bore under the river to relocate an 18-inch water- supply pipeline serving the Vallourec Star pipe-making complex. The supply line now crosses the bridge.

Once that is accomplished, the bridge will close on or after Feb. 1 for the nine-month demolition and replacement project.

The structurally deficient, 1939-vintage steel-truss bridge is “functionally obsolete” because its 22-foot-wide roadway is too narrow for the area’s truck traffic, said Randy Partika, county bridge engineer.

The new bridge will feature a concrete slab deck with a 30-foot-wide roadway supported by steel beams.

In other action, the commissioners Thursday approved spending $6,000 from the county’s hotel bed-tax revenues as a sponsorship grant to support the Ohio Athletic Committee’s March 2015 Ohio State Boys Wrestling Championships at the Covelli Centre.

The OAC, whose annual wrestling event has taken place at the center since 2011, has signed a contract with the downtown Youngstown arena that will keep the event there through 2017.

The two-weekend tournament draws more than 2,000 wrestlers and nearly 16,000 spectators annually from around the state, giving local hotels and restaurants a predictable boost in business.

The commissioners also voted to spend $5,000 from bed-tax receipts to sponsor a special exhibition in May and June next year at the Butler Institute of American Art, which will feature the work of Op-artist Richard Anuszkiewicz, an Erie, Pa., native, whose work has been exhibited previously at the Butler.

The commissioners voted to apply for up to $100,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission for a water-supply line installation along Miley Road in North Lima.

Dennis O’Hara, county emergency-management director, urged motorists this winter to keep in the back seats of their cars a winter emergency kit containing blankets, gloves, bottled water and granola bars, and to remain with their cars if they become stranded.

Cat litter, sand or salt can be stored in the car’s trunk to gain tire traction in case the car gets stuck in snow, he added.