An Austintown paving project may start in August

July 26, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

AUSTINTOWN

Austintown Township trustees, in conjunction with Boardman and Canfield townships, awarded a $737,295 contract Monday afternoon to R.T. Vernal Paving & Excavating Co. of North Lima for the 2016 road-resurfacing program.

The township is paying up to $400,000 for its portion of the paving, at $142 per cubic yard of asphalt for 4,700 cubic yards and $13,000 per day for milling.

Township Administrator Mike Dockry said there will be a pre-construction meeting today, and the project will begin in mid-August.

In other business regarding the road and police levies added to the November ballot trustees announced in June, the police levy was revised to be continuous rather than a five-year levy.

The 1-mill levies still will generate the same $614,966 annually, and owners of a $100,000 home will pay an additional $35 per levy per year.

The road levy will remain a five-year levy.

Austintown has four continuous police levies generating $4.3 million annually and two five-year road levies generating $1.1 million each year.

Also Monday, Bob Williams, Austintown Fire Department assistant chief, announced firefighters are starting to get back to normal after firefighter John Fritz died on-duty in June.

“It’s been a hard month, but we’re slowly working back into a normal routine,” he said.

Trustee Jim Davis said he, Chairman Ken Carano and Trustee Rick Stauffer tasked themselves with going to city and township meetings of Youngstown, Boardman, Canfield, Howland and Weathersfield to thank their firefighters for filling in for Austintown, allowing Austintown firefighters to grieve.

“We often joke about the rivalry between Fitch and Boardman, and joke among elected officials that one entity is better than the other, but for those communities to step up and send their firefighters over to protect our community meant a lot,” he said. “It speaks volumes to John Fritz, the work Fire Chief Andy Frost III and Mr. Williams do, the men and women of our fire department and others of those communities.”