Mahoning leaders OK funding for 2 water projects

Staff report

CANFIELD

Before the 169th Canfield Fair kicked off, the Mahoning County commissioners met at the Ohio State Extension Office near the fairgrounds.

Commissioners then approved several agreements, including one with URS Corp. for consulting engineering services for the Boardman Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Improvement project in the amount of $97,714 to complete the second phase of major upgrades.

They also passed a resolution to award the Campbell Waste Water Treatment Plant Bypass Elimination Project Improvement to A.P. O’Horo Co. of Youngstown in the amount of $1,660,000.

The county has done improvements to the Campbell Waste Water Treatment Plant since it has owned it for the past 15 years, and this new project further allows for continued improvements, Bill Coleman, office manager at the Mahoning County Sanitary Engineer’s Office, told commissioners.

Commissioners also approved a resolution to employ the law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP to assist with the “City of Youngstown v. Mahoning County Board of Elections” for the amount of $25,000.

Last week, the city filed a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court asking it to compel the board of elections and the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office to place an anti-fracking citizen-initiative back on Youngstown’s Nov. 3 ballot.

The board of elections unanimously voted Aug. 26 to keep the charter-amendment proposal off the ballot, with its members saying it did so largely based on a Feb. 17 decision by the Ohio Supreme Court. That decision says the state constitution’s home-rule amendment doesn’t grant local governments the power to regulate oil and gas operations in their limits.

The next Mahoning County commissioners meeting will be at 6 p.m. Sept. 14 at Berlin Center Township Hall, 15823 Akron-Canfield Road in Berlin Center.