MANSFIELD — Bob Bianchi was a busy man Tuesday night at Mansfield City Council.
The city engineer provided information on eight projects or pieces of legislation involving his department, all of which were unanimously approved by council.
One of the projects, which is expected to be completed by the end of the summer, is a new $400,000 storm sewer system in the area of West Third Street and Linden Avenue.
It’s near Mansfield Senior High School and Kingwood Center Gardens and Bianchi said the project will reduce localized flooding that often occurs there during heavy rains.
He said the current storm sewer in that area, built in 1947, is undersized, crumbling and needs to replaced. The engineer showed council members a slide presentation that showed videos of cars moving through high water in the area.
“You can see the water shooting out of the catch basin there, filling this land, going down through there and impacting some properties,” Bianchi said.
The work, which will be paid for from the city’s sewer fund, will begin “very soon.”
The engineer said the city would like to have the work complete by the end of the summer before school starts again because it’s likely Linden Road will need to be closed during at least a portion of the work.
Another $135,000 project described by Bianchi will provide a new, free-parking lot with 29 spaces in downtown Mansfield that could be ready for vehicles by the middle of June.
The city entered into a 10-year lease at $1 per year with First English Lutheran Church, 53 Park Ave. West, which owns the largely unused lot on the west side of Mulberry Street along Park Avenue West.
The Downtown Improvement Advisory Board, an organization formed after voters approved an additional $5 license plate fee in 2018, recommended the project and earmarked $100,000 for the work. Bianchi said $35,000 would come from the city’s permissive sales tax revenues.
Bianchi said the project, including landscaped borders, will be a benefit to the planned Imagination District currently under construction, includingthe Little Buckeye Children’s Museum and the Renaissance Performing Arts Association.
A third project Bianchi outlined will provide updated aerial and topographic information for the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS) base mapping that is used by various city departments, including the water and sewer departments.
He said the cost would be about $260,000 for information that should be updated every three or four years.
In other action Tuesday, City Council:
— approved the final 2022 appropriations budget.
— heard AFSCME Local 3088 President Lance Cook announce the union, which represents about 165 city workers, will exercise the “me too” clause in its contract to re-open labor negotiations.
— approved a $500 damage claim for Clark Jefferson, 392 Harmon St., through the city’s sewer assistance program.
— approved spending $9,629.93 to purchase four Dell desktop computers for the city’s IT department using American Rescue Plan Act revenue replacement funds. The city set aside $5 million in 2021 from its federal pandemic relief funds as allowed under the rules as “lost revenue.” It has now spent $1,132,855 of those funds.
— approved spending $340,000 to replace roofs at the wastewater treatment plant. The money will come from the sewer fund and the work will be done this spring.
Also on Tuesday, the city council claims committee voted to approve a payment of $4,302.23 to Martin Rawls for musical equipment he owned that was inadvertently discarded during a clean up of the Johns Park Shelter in August 2021.
