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Youngstown, state officials meet today to discuss sewer project funding
YOUNGSTOWN
City officials meet today with various state agencies to discuss possible funding, primarily low-interest loans, to get a head start on its $146 million project to eliminate sewer discharges into Mill Creek and other waterways.
The city contingent will talk with officials from the state Environmental Protection Agency, the Ohio Water Development Authority, the Ohio Public Works Commission, and the Appalachian Regional Commission, among others.
“We want to find out what we qualify for and learn about the most-effective financial opportunities we have,” said city Law Director Martin Hume, who will be at today’s meeting.
Also expected to join Hume are Mark D’Apolito, assistant law director and the city’s contract monitor; Kyle Miasek, deputy finance director; Charles Shasho, deputy director of the public-works department; and Thomas Mirante, wastewater superintendent.
The city is seeking state financial help for about $15 million of work that would divert sewage discharge from Mill Creek.
Under an agreement reached last year between the city and the EPA, the work is to start in July 2020 and finish in December 2033.
Eliminating sewage discharges has become the center of local attention since one of those discharges during a heavy rain in late June caused a massive fish kill in Lake Newport.
That was followed by the indefinite closure of lakes Newport, Cohasset and Glacier at Mill Creek MetroParks because of high E. coli sewage bacteria levels.
The levels measured this week were higher than in the previous two weekly testings at Mill Creek.
Mayor John A. McNally recently sent a letter to Gov. John Kasich asking for the $146 million for the entire project from the state’s $2 billion-plus rainy-day fund.