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EAST LIVERPOOL -- Bill Cowan, East Liverpool Planning Department director, was given the green light by East Liverpool City Council Monday night to apply for a grant to rebuild state Route 39 from Mulberry Street to the Ohio/Pennsylvania state line.
The U.S. Department of Transportation Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant is for a minimum of $25 million. If approved for the grant the city will have to pay matching funds. The matching funds will be a percentage of the grant amount. The percentage is unknown at this time.
Cowan told council that three to four months ago, engineers out of Columbus were hired to prepare and submit the grant application on the city's behalf. The grant will be submitted on Aug. 18, three days ahead of the grant deadline.
The city will be applying for the Rural Surface Transportation Grant with 90% of the grant being through the Rural Funding Program which the city meets the criteria for, Cowan said.
"This is a big life changing event for the city if we get awarded this money," Cowan said. "It would lead to a complete reconstruction of state Route 39. If we are successful with the grant, that will just transform all of the east end."
Council President John Torma said the grant would be city changing and if the grant goes through that end of town would start getting built up to the way it's meant to be.
Council member Fred Rayl said the reconstruction would also include replacement of water lines, storm sewer lines, sidewalks, lighting and the addition of a roundabout. It will also include some land acquisitions to cut corners and get rid of some of the 90-degree bends for easier flow of traffic.
Cowan said the final cost to do this project is still unknown and they are in the process of putting the numbers together and have some preliminary drawings and ideas for the roadway. He reminded council that the project will have to cost a minimum of $25 million to be eligible for the grant.
The council also approves six other ordinances declared an emergency with all-in-favor votes.
One ordinance was to pay certain vendors who supplied goods or services to the city without the issuance or authorization of a purchase order. The payment was to Zashin & Rich for $71, 646.26 for legal advice regarding Chris Green pending litigation.
The next ordinance was to amend the budget ordinance by adjusting appropriations. Appropriations were adjusted to change the wages paid to the manager of the mayor's office because she is currently performing work for two positions, with appropriations being reduced for her increase in wages and $75,000 for improvements for the building purchased by the city to be used as a car barn, along with other changes.
An ordinance passed allowing the creation of a new fund and new line item for the Workforce Grant 2023 for $360,000. As long as the grant allows, $322,525.95 of that will go toward the hiring of additional employees and $37,474.05 will be for office supplies, both for the health department.
Council voted to adopt the city's 2024 tax budget of $4,427,309. Council is required every year to pass a new budget which is to be a tentative guideline for the city and has to be in place by Aug. 16.
Cowan was authorized to enter into and execute a a federal Local-let Project Agreement for the Columbiana/East Liverpool Riverfront Trail phase 1.1 project. The first phase will be to design the trail for East Liverpool. The design cost is $221, 921. The cost is 100% grant funded through Omega Regional Transportation Planning Organization.
According to Rayl, there will be no cost to the city for any of the proposed trail.
Safety/Service Director David Dawson was given authorization to enter into and execute an agreement with JCNR Billing Services to provide claims and billing services for ambulance service provided by the East Liverpool Fire Department. The billing service will invoice customers for ambulance service and charge between six and seven percent of what is collected for their service.
Mayor Greg Bricker presented his three appointments for the recently recreated Board of Public Utilities. Appointments which were unanimously approved by Council include William Cowan for a two-year term, Jim Swogger for a four-year term and Ray Sullivan for a six-year term. Bricker told council he thought it was a good thing they did in bringing the board back and he thinks the appointments will do good work.
Bricker also said he wanted to thank Councilman John Mercer who spent a lot of time last week with him and a developer with ties to Pittsburgh. Mercer spent half a day with him driving him around and showing him the east end and the Maryland Avenue site which the mayor said will be shovel-ready once the demolition is complete. He also showed him Riverview and all around the town. Bricker said they were pretty interested in downtown as well and that was good news.
Bricker gave an update on the property at 606 Dresden Ave. and said through working with the County Land the demolition for that location was put out to bid and it should be coming down within the next two months.
"We worked hard with them to get that property and get it down," Bricker said. "It's a very unsafe structure."
Bricker also noted the timing was good because the Dresden Avenue construction project will be starting in approximately two weeks.
The Licensing/Economic-Development Committee will meet Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. in council chambers. The Safety/Rules Committee will meet immediately after at 6:30 p.m.
The Finance/Labor Committee will meet Aug. 29 at 3 p.m. in council chambers.
The East Liverpool City Council meets the first Monday of each month at 6 p.m. in council chambers located on the third floor of City Hall. September's meeting date will be changed due to Labor Day and will held Sept. 5.
Kgarabrandt@mojonews.com