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Youngstown got a $112,847 bill from a company that made emergency repairs last year to Mahoning Avenue
YOUNGSTOWN
City council will consider legislation Wednesday to allow the board of control to pay $112,847 to a Youngstown company that made emergency repairs last fall when a sewer line collapsed, causing a sinkhole that closed Mahoning Avenue for 15 days.
The city received a state grant to pay 80 percent of that expense. Also, the 80 percent applies to about $100,000 in purchases of materials by the city and the paving expense, about $8,000 to $10,000, for that project.
Overall, the city will spend about $45,000 from the sewer fund for the emergency repair work.
The original estimate was $260,000; the final amount is about $220,000.
The city purchased materials to keep the cost down, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works. That material included pipe, slag and concrete, he said.
The state grant was for 80 percent of the work up to $213,479, but Shasho said because of the reduced cost of the project, the city will get about $175,000 from the state.
“We estimated contingency expenses because that project could have gone south between the weather and unforeseen circumstances,” he said.
The city closed the Frank Sinkwich Bridge on Mahoning Avenue between Glenwood and McKinley avenues Oct. 28, 2014, to make repairs after the sinkhole — about 25 feet across and 15 feet deep — developed. The work was finished Nov. 12, closing off one of the main streets on the city’s West Side for 15 days.
The broken lines and sinkhole, along with heavy rain, caused sewage backup in the basements of a dozen houses on nearby Whitney Avenue on the city’s West Side.
In addition to the $220,000, the city paid for cleanup work and the expense of replacement furnaces and water heaters — about $70,000.
Also Wednesday, the administration is asking city council to allow the board of control to enter into an agreement with the state for a $2.3 million project for road resurfacing. The roads are U.S. Route 422 from the Girard city line to Wirt Street, and along Wilson Avenue between the Campbell city line and Himrod Avenue.
The state Department of Transportation is overseeing the work on those two streets. The city is being asked to provide $292,300 from its license-fee fund as a local match.
“Those roads are definitely in need of paving,” Shasho said.
The paving work on the two streets should start in June and be finished in August, he said.