BELLVILLE — The clock is officially ticking on a $4.2 million wastewater improvement plan designed to aid increased economic development near the Ohio 97/I-71 interchange.
But Richland County officials said Tuesday they believe the project is on track to meet timelines established in the American Rescue Plan Act funding the project.
That means contracts for the work must be approved and the money appropriated by the end of 2024 and the work completed by the end of 2026.
The next phase in that effort came Tuesday when the Richland County Board of Commissioners approved seeking bids for the project, designed by Richland Engineering Ltd., giving contractors one month to apply for the job.
Bids are scheduled to be opened Sept. 17 for the project.
“We’re hopeful that this project is well-received by contractors,” county administrator Andrew Keller said. “We need to be under contract with a contractor by the end of the year and we’re on track to do that.
“We’re confident that’s going to happen,” he said.
“We’ll (then) have two years to complete the project. Our engineer has designed this project so that substantial completion is in April of 2026. We believe that’s being generous, it’s just depending on contingencies.
“So we’re on track,” Keller said. “We’re ready to get started.”
“The commissioners continue to be true believers in industry and business in Richland County. This project is foundational for the development and the growth that we expect in this corridor,” he said.
Commissioners approved seeking bids after meeting with Keller; Patrick Schwan, principal engineer for REL; Amanda Miller, the county’s wastewater treatment director.
Schwan agreed with Keller.
Commissioners approved a $358,571 contract with Richland Engineering Ltd. in October to do the final engineering design for the project in a corridor that’s expected to be an emerging large growth area in the county.
“I think the project’s big enough that I expect a pretty good turnout for bidders. We can never predict. There’s a lot of construction going on right now. So you never know when we go through the public bidding process, what it will look like,” he said.
“We feel comfortable with the (cost) estimate. We’ve done a lot of research and and collaboration to come up with what we have. Hopefully, contractors feel the same way,” Schwan said.
The wastewater project will stretch along Ohio 97 from east of Bellville-Johnsville Road to Kochheiser Road on the west, near the site of the planned $22 million YMCA of North Central Ohio Sports Complex, a 100,000-square foot site on 35 acres on the south side of the state highway.
Officials hope the new complex is open by the end of 2025.
In February 2023, commissioners approved a $43,344 contract with the Mansfield firm to do the preliminary design phase of the project. Nearly two years ago, commissioners approved a “significant” sanitary sewer infrastructure proposal.
The actual agreement approved by commissioners in September 2022 was an addendum to a 1981 agreement between Richland County and the Village of Bellville that had the county-owned sewer system handling the sites near the interstate and sending it through the village’s wastewater treatment facilities.
The area was not incorporated into the village until 1995. The now plan calls for the sewage system, built by Richland County in 1980, to be improved and then transferred to the village’s control.
“I am very, very thankful for all the assistance that we had in the collaborations that we have done to try to get this project off the ground,” Miller said, describing a project that will install new pipe, re-line existing pipe and create a new above-ground lift station at Kochheiser Road.
The current lift station is in the ground at Bellville-Johnsville Road and Ohio 97, an area often impacted by localized flooding.
“At this point, I’m excited and can’t wait to get started,” she said.
more coverage related to the wastewater improvement plan
Schwan said the project is also designed for future improvements as needed during additional developments.
“(It was done) with some thought for some future upgrades that can happen in the future as things change or develop down through the corridor, which is always thinking ahead, rather than just planning for today. That’s one of the things that we spent a lot of time working through and making sure we were very thoughtful in what we were trying to develop and incorporate and prepare the plan for,” Schwan said.
“So it’s not just for today, it’s for tomorrow (and) the next generation as well,” the engineer said.
Commissioner Tony Vero had said the use of ARPA funds for the entire project is appropriate.
“If you recall when the (ARPA) regulations came out, water and sewer was a specific allowance for the use of those funds and that makes sense. Far be it from me to often say the federal government makes sense, but they wanted to direct funds to infrastructure projects,” he said in October.
“What we’re doing with this investment today falls in line with the philosophy that our office has had with these funds. These are generational funds and we’re going to try to use them for generational projects,” Vero said.
“What we’re doing is upgrading the system and improving it in order to accommodate the development that is absolutely certain to happen in that Lexington-Bellville corridor for a couple reasons,” he said then.
