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Contract awarded for Boardman and Austintown road-paving projects
BOARDMAN
Work soon will begin to resurface several miles of road in Boardman and Austintown after Boardman’s board of trustees voted to award a $956,383 contract for the joint paving program.
The contract, on which the two communities go in together to save money, went to RT Vernal Paving and Excavating Inc. of North Lima after the vote Wednesday. Austintown trustees also will affirm the award at an upcoming meeting. That contract figure includes only the estimated cost of asphalt, not the cost of milling.
Boardman’s estimated project cost, including 12 days of milling, is $383,826 – $150,000 of which is covered by grant funds from the Ohio Public Works Commission. The township will repave roughly 3.5 miles of road.
Austintown will resurface about 7.5 miles of road, at an estimated cost of $780,000 including six days of milling, according to township Administrator Michael Dockry. The township received $75,000 in OPWC funds.
Boardman’s paving list includes Windel Way, Forest Lake Drive, Simon Road and others.
The Mahoning County Engineer’s Office plans to pave two stretches of road in the township: Indianola Road from state Route 7 (Market Street) to South Avenue, and Mathews Road from Southern Boulevard to state Route 170.
Austintown’s list includes sections of Virginia Drive, Bowman Avenue and Pineview Drive, among others. The county plans to repave Lanterman Road from North Raccoon Road to its dead end.
Officials from both communities have raised concerns about paving, due to factors such as funding being diverted to rising road-salt costs, cuts in state funding and increases in the cost of resurfacing materials.
“We’re not going down the right path here. We’re going to have to find a new way to generate funds for roads,” Boardman Township Trustee Larry Moliterno said.
Township officials discussed how crumbling infrastructure could change Boardman’s role as a retail destination in the Mahoning Valley. “We’re not going to be the place [businesses] want to come,” road Superintendent Larry Wilson said.
Austintown township officials are putting two five-year replacement road levies, combined at 2.5 mills, on the ballot in November. If approved by voters, those replacement levies would bring in an additional $850,000 annually for roads.