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Raccoon Road closing OKed
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County commissioners have voted to close North Raccoon Road between U.S. routes 224 and 62 for about two weeks beginning Monday.
The closure is occurring as part of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s improvement project at the interchange between U.S. Route 224 and state Route 11.
Ohio Department of Transportation District 4 spokesman Justin Chesnic said the project has remained on track, even with a rainy June. He said weather impacted work “a little bit, but nothing that has really put us that far behind that we weren’t able to make up.”
The commissioners also approved spending $45,000 from the county’s landfill dumping-fee revenue on maintenance of county roads used by trucks hauling waste to the Carbon-Limestone Landfill in Poland Township and the Mahoning Landfill in Springfield Township.
They also approved a resolution Thursday in support of the online voter registration proposal backed by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and contained in Ohio Senate Bill 63.
The bill’s supporters say online voter registration is accurate, secure and low cost.
“Thirty states in the United States already have online voter registration, and we’re trying to fuel the fire to get younger people to vote,” said Joyce Kale-Pesta, county elections director. “Anybody under 40 uses a computer,” she observed.
“Why has online voter registration spread to so many states, red states and blue states alike? Because it is one of those rare win-wins in government,” David Becker, election initiatives director for the Pew Charitable Trusts, said at a hearing on the bill last month.
The commissioners also announced they will break ground at 10 a.m. Monday at the Purple Cat facility, 4738 McCartney Road, for a 2,700-foot sanitary sewer extension funded from local, state and federal sources.
Rudzik Excavating Inc. of Struthers plans to start construction on the $599,040 project Monday.
The project will allow Purple Cat to create 15 jobs.
Purple Cat’s tentative plans include creation of a camping area with up to 12 cabins, a shower house with restrooms, a cafeteria and a swimming pool, according to Annemarie DeAscentis, the county commissioners’ grants manager.
Purple Cat provides jobs, job training and other services to disabled people.