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East Main Street sidewalk progresses as neighborhood reacts to project
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
A sidewalk project along U.S. Route 224 in the city is about two weeks away from completion, if the weather cooperates.
Canfield City Manager Joe Warino said the East Main Street sidewalk project has progressed faster than he thought. “They’re already on the south side” sidewalk and “ ... the north side is pretty much complete,” he said.
Foust Construction Inc. of Youngstown was unanimously approved for the $247,945 project in June. The project includes sidewalks on both sides of East Main Street from the Get-Go service station at Hillside Drive to the Village Green at state Route 46.
Warino said Foust said the project will finish in two weeks if the relatively dry weather continues. Warino explained the work is 80 percent funded through the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration and the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. The other 20 percent of the cost is picked up by the city.
“Everything has run really smooth,” the manager said. The workers were “moving the barrels off [the road] for the weekend, but it’s gone really well. It hasn’t snarled traffic, and I haven’t gotten any complaints.”
Barrels had shifted traffic into two lanes with a third lane reserved for construction work.
“They seem to be doing a thorough job. They work like crazy. I’m fortunate I have a side street to get out” if I need to, said Harriet West, 90, a resident on East Main Street. “They’re trying to keep the town looking neat” and she plans to “walk the kids on it with their strollers.”
West has lived at her home on 224 since 1949 and smiled as she played with one of her great-grandchildren on a recent sunny day.
Down the road, Dick Lazar, 85, has lived off of 224 for 50 years, 25 years on each side of the road. “There’s always an inconvenience when they’re building anything and it takes people and equipment,” Lazar said. “It’s better than walking on the grass.”
He added the sidewalks are being widened. “The idea is that two people could walk side-by-side, and here in Canfield we get a lot of walkers and runners and joggers. So I’m sure that people will appreciate that.”
Bill and Elizabeth Crombie, 79 and 72 respectively, were happy to see their side of the road finished. “We didn’t know we needed new sidewalks,” Bill said. They criticized the project because they said they had to move their vehicles from their driveway while both have health concerns.
“They did do a really nice job finishing it up,” Elizabeth said.
On the other side of the road, Debbie Morgan, 62, said the sidewalks will be a lot nicer and said the construction work hasn’t been “unusually noisy.”
“I think it will be a great thing,” said Morgan.
She and her husband moved into their East Main Street home in November and have a 2-year old Golden Retriever named Kenzie. “I’ve used them because I walk [Kenzie] and it will just be nicer.”