Brookfield and Trumbull County officials said they’ve gotten the calls, texts and social media messages, and seen the social media posts.
“We’ve gotten a lot of complaints on that road (Brookfield Avenue), as far as being rough, and we know it’s rough,” said Tom Klejka, county highway superintendent.
Brookfield Avenue is a county road, and officials with the county engineer’s office would love to pave it, but they have not been able to line up the money to do it.
“It’s a priority,” said Deputy Engineer Gary Shaffer at a Feb. 22 meeting with the Brookfield trustees. “It’s an expensive one.”
County officials said they will continue to pursue funding for paving. In the interim, they plan to mill and pave over short stretches that are “extremely bad” this summer, Klejka said. He acknowledged that defining “extremely bad” will differ from person to person.
“It’s, like, where do you stop,” he said.
Klejka said he expects the work will “generate more complaints, because they’ll say, ‘Why didn’t you do the whole thing?’ Until we get some funding in place to pave it, we’re gonna do what we can to make it a little bit better.”
Stewart Sharon road between Route 7 and Broadway Avenue will be paved this spring, Shaffer said. A contract was awarded to Kirila Contractors of Brookfield last year but “By the time we got it awarded last year, the snow was ready to fly,” he said.
Shaffer said Kirila has not provided a timetable when the road will be paved, but he expects the contractor will get it done pretty soon after the asphalt plants open in mid-April.
“By the end of May, I really expect Stewart Sharon to be done,” Shaffer said.
A contract will be awarded to pave Addison Road between Route 62 and Route 82, but Shaffer said it is most likely the actual paving will be done next year.
It is anticipated that the Brockway Sharon Road (also known as Orangeville Road) bridge in the extreme northeast corner of the township will be replaced this year, Shaffer said. In recent years, officials have reduced the weight limit on the bridge to three tons. Bids will be received for the bridge replacement soon.
Shaffer added he will talk to South Pymatuning Township officials about a culvert on the Pennsylvania side of the road that he believes is in bad shape.
There are two other Brookfield bridges that the engineer’s office will work on this year, on Bedford Road and Albright McKay Road. They are essentially corrugated metal culverts under the road.
“We’ll design those in-house and get those replaced,” Shaffer said. “We’ll do those with county forces.”
Klejka said he plans to finish the tarring and chipping of Merwin Chase Road this summer, and do some repairs on the bridge on that road.
He said he also is getting cost estimates to replace the traffic lights at Brookfield Avenue/Yankee Run Road and Warren Sharon Road.
“It’s an old incandescent-type of light,” Klejka said. “We have newer LED, higher-visibility lights. If the cost isn’t too out of line, we’re gonna change that.”
