Officials turn valve on new Canfield Township water tower

September 18, 2018 at 12:08a.m.

By JUSTIN DENNIS

CANFIELD

County, township and Aqua Ohio officials on Monday marked the opening of a new 500,000-gallon water tower along Raccoon Road near the U.S. Route 224 and State Route 11 interchange in Canfield Township.

The tower increases water service availability and reliability in that area.

The near-$2 million project was financed through an $800,000 grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission and a 20-year bond. Aqua Ohio will operate and maintain the 164-foot, 40-foot deep county-owned tower and its land parcel and pay down the tower bond. Once paid, the tower will be titled to Aqua Ohio.

Officials expect the bond interest rate at somewhere between 3.75 percent and 4.25 percent, though a management agreement has not been finalized.

The new in-service tower could also push the rate down.

There will be no rate increase for Aqua customers, as the tower project was included in the provider’s capital improvement rate schedule, said Jennifer Johnson, Aqua Ohio area manager.

Construction on the tower began last year.

The project includes 3,500 new feet of water main which will serve an additional 21 properties in the township, according to a release from Aqua Ohio.

“Not only will this provide residential water service, but it’s also going to help with commercial growth,” Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said during a press conference Monday.

Johnson said the area between Tippecanoe and Raccoon roads and U.S. Route 224 has seen “rapid” commercial growth in its Westford developments.

Planning for the tower began in 2011, about a month after the nearby True Value hardware store was claimed by a fire that responders found difficult to control with the water volume available in the area at the time, Cardinal Joint Fire District Chief Donald Hutchison said. He said fire crews laid a hose connected at the Raccoon Road Sheetz across State Route 11 to reach the building and employed a tanker shuttle, but could not save the building.

The area was a “dead end” on the water line network Hutchison said, meaning any water line breaks between the interchange and Boardman that led to a shutoff affected that part of Canfield Township.

The new tower allows for a 24-hour water reserve, he said.

“One thing [firefighters] need is volume of water,” Hutchison said Monday. “We’ve been waiting for this to be a reality and today it is.”