Staff report

GIRARD

City council moved to a second reading a resolution that seeks professional engineering services for the city to survey the Girard Upper Lakes at Tuesday’s council meeting.

The city plans to put the 728 acres at the Girard Upper Lakes up for sale because the city hasn’t used the property since it was acquired in 1995.

At a previous meeting, council members decided to maintain the Girard Lower Lakes property.

Also at the meeting, Mayor James Melfi said there was a hearing last week in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court on litigation that began in 2006 between the city and the Youngstown Belt Railway Company to acquire unused railroad property in the city.

Visiting Judge David Fuhry may have a decision Nov. 21 regarding the property, the mayor said.

Melfi said the city wants to use the property to develop bike trails. The property is adjacent to the former Ohio Leatherworks property and is near the Mahoning River.

In other business, the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant deadline will expire Thursday. The city already sent a rejection letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency last month regarding the $281,247 grant that would have increased the fire department’s staffing levels.

FEMA awarded the city the grant in September. Melfi decided to reject the grant because of costs the city would have had to pay over the grant’s three-year cycle.