Trumbull engineer’s office to have truck washing facility by fall

Staff report

WARREN

The Trumbull County commissioners authorized a loan agreement Thursday for a $500,000 zero-interest loan from the Local Government Innovation Fund to help the county engineer build a centralized truck- and bus-washing facility at the engineer’s office on North River Road.

The total cost will be $1,127,044, with the other $627,044 coming from engineer’s funds, said county Engineer Randy Smith. The $500,000 loan will be repaid at a rate of $12,500 per quarter year.

Partners in the project are Howland Township, Howland Local Schools, Warren and Warren Schools. The facility is expected to be finished and operating by the fall.

The facility will be able to wash two more buses or trucks at a time.

James Pantalone, Howland fire chief, has said the facility will eliminate the need for firefighters to spend several hours each time they have to clean the undercarriage of a firetruck to remove salt.

The facility, which works a lot like a laser car wash, will enable departments to clean the underside of firetrucks and ambulances a greater number of times each winter and prolong the life of those vehicles. That type of washing takes only several minutes, officials said. Former Warren councilman Jim Valesky said the facility will allow operations workers in Warren to focus on other tasks besides cleaning garbage trucks and trucks used to plow roads.