Two projects around the city of Mansfield are moving forward after being brought to City Council on Tuesday evening. Council authorized Safety-Service Director Lori Cope to apply for and accept a grant for improvements at the Mansfield Lahm Municipal Airport, and to advertise for bids for the construction of sanitary sewer mains across the city.
Caucus opened with City Engineer Bob Bianchi explaining the funding requirements to be used for projects at the Mansfield Lahm Municipal Airport. Construction on said projects would not begin until 2015.
“We’ve had previous discussions about major improvements at the airport, mainly the resurfacing of Runway 5-23,” said Bianchi. “The runway is long and wide, so it’s very expensive.”
The total project cost comes to about $5,927,000, 90 percent of which will be taken care of via a federal grant. This leave approximately $592,000 to be taken care of by the city, and Bianchi explained a large portion of the cost is already covered via previous grants and leftover funding.
Bill 14-132, approved unanimously during regular council, authorizes the Safety-Service Director to apply for and accept a grant from the Office of the Ohio Adjutant General in the amount of $100,000 to be used at the Mansfield Lahm Municipal Airport, including as the local share of Federal Aviation Administration Runway 5-23 Rehabilitation Project, Taxiway “D” Rehabilitation Project and Taxiway “C” Removed Project. The grant was obtained by work through State Representative Mark Romanchuk and the governor’s office, said Bianchi.
“If you subtract all (other contributions) out we need about $8,600,” said Bianchi. “In a competitive market we’re going to get lower bids, so we think our local match should be lower than what we need.” If all else fails and the $8,600 is not met in local contributions, Bianchi said there would be a discussion in 2015 to appropriate that amount into the city’s budget.
Bianchi went on to detail the construction of sanitary sewer mains along West Temple Court, Hammond Avenue, Swanger Avenue, Minerva Avenue, Bradford Avenue and Schmidt Street.
“We’ve identified some critical areas,” he explained. “This project would replace those sanitary sewers from a six-inch pipe to an eight-inch pipe.”
Council unanimously approved Bill 14-133 after further readings of the bill were suspended, allowing the Safety-Service Director to advertise for bids and enter into a contract sooner. Bianchi noted the project will cost approximately $500,000 and there is money in the budget to complete the project. If the lines cannot be fully replaced this year, the project will be postponed until 2015.
