Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has granted Trumbull County a permit to install a new sanitary sewer line extension that would connect much of Yankee Lake and part of Masury, but the county still is short of funds to start the project, said county Sanitary Engineer Gary Newbrough.
Newbrough had asked for $500,000 toward the $4.3 million project from Ohio House Bill 168, which made federal COVID-19 relief funds available for local projects. The state granted $3 million toward the construction of a new water tower and pump station in Mineral Ridge.
“I put in a dozen projects there (HB 168 funds) and got one,” Newbrough said.
Newbrough is now putting in the unfunded requests, including the Yankee Lake project, to the Trumbull County commissioners, who have been awarded $38 million in American Rescue Plan funds. Newbrough said he is requesting half of the $38 million available from the county for sewer and water projects.
If Newbrough is successful in securing money for the Yankee Lake project, he will have 80 percent of the money he needs through grants. His goal, he said, is to limit the capital charge to new customers who will tap into the sewer line to $25 a month, which is in the neighborhood of what other sewer extensions have cost new users. That money would pay off a $300,000 EPA low-interest loan.
The project is designed to provide sanitary sewer service to many of the homes and businesses in Yankee Lake by running lines from the village through woods to the intersection of Custer Orangeville and Yankee Run roads, south on Yankee Run Road and Brookfield Avenue to existing connections to the Brookfield Waste Water Treatment Plant on Standard Avenue. Eighty-three homes and businesses will be added to the sewer system.
PRIME AE Group Inc. in Akron has been revising the design to meet the requests of property owners, Newbrough said.
Once the final piece of funding is secured, the county will hold a public meeting to discuss the project and gain property owner support, he said.
