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Plan to re-route King Graves Road unlikely to be used, officials say
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Though the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office and federal officials now have a completed feasibility study showing how King-Graves Road would be re-routed for expansion of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, it’s not expected that the plan will be used.
Gary Shaffer, deputy engineer with the county engineer’s office, and Col. Don Renn of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station agreed Thursday that the study is likely to “sit on a shelf.”
Shaffer led a discussion in the county commissioners meeting room for people interested in the proposed relocation of King Graves Road to the north of its present location.
The re-routed road would travel though parts of Vienna and Fowler townships between the north leg of Ridge Road and a point west of state Route 193.
The federal government authorized the study about a decade ago and paid for it, Shaffer said.
Its purpose was to identify the best way to relocate King-Graves to create a greater clearance between a building at the reserve station and the road and to provide additional space for potential expansion of the base.
The feasibility study identified a preferred route that would cost $4 million to build, add 31 acres to the reserve station, and transfer 7.6 acres of current farmland to the base.
Additional acres of brush and woods would be acquired from the Western Reserve Port Authority.
But Renn said the air base is also studying ways “inside the fence” of the reserve station that would provide the necessary buffer.
“It’s unlikely” that the relocation of King-Graves Road will occur, Renn said.
Brian Waddell of King Graves Road, one of three people whose home is within the area of the feasibility study, said he is satisfied with the conclusions of the study. Engineers have been talking to him for about a year about the proposal, he said.