YOUNGSTOWN Over the next several years, Mahoning County will put $40 million worth of effort into the Western Reserve corridor to improve traffic flow and aid economic growth.
During the annual “Good Morning, Mahoning County” session with the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber on Friday, county engineer Pat Ginnetti said orange barrels associated with the various projects should be looked at in a positive way.
“When you see orange barrels, don’t look at it as a negative. That means growth,” he said, referring to business that is anticipated to come to the area once traffic is improved.
He didn’t shy away from the fact it will be frustrating as roads are widened and sewer lines are installed.
Feb 4, 2021
We can already hear the assorted moans, groans, gripes and snipes among irritable motorists attempting to wend their way along Mahoning Avenue in Austintown and Youngstown in the coming months and years.
To be sure, inconvenience will reign supreme as work begins this spring on a series of $8 million-plus repaving and improvement projects along the major artery of Austintown and the city’s West Side. That work will necessitate lane closures, traffic slowdowns and orange barrel-dodging before one of the largest and most significant road-improvement projects in recent years reaches its finish line.
Those nuisances, however, add up to little more than a classic case of short-term pain, long-term gain. The $5 million Austintown project, coupled with multimillion-dollar projects from 2022 to 2025 on the city’s share of the highway, represent a concrete investment in the future of the city’s West Side and its western neighbor.
YOUNGSTOWN Mahoning County Auditor Ralph Meacham says offering a buyout to auditor’s office employees with between 15 and 35 years of service, who are at least 55 years old, will save the county money.
Six of his employees took the buyout last year, the first year it was offered. The option was added in negotiations for the employee union’s most recent three-year contract.
“The county will save money, the department will save money,” Meacham said. “We’ll save money because people leaving make more than people coming in. We’ll save health care money because people leaving are using more health care. They are older than the people coming in.”
erunyan@tribtoday.com
YOUNGSTOWN Mahoning Avenue the entire width of Austintown will be repaved in 2021, which is “greatly needed” but will be a “major inconvenience,” Mahoning County Engineer Pat Ginnetti told the county commissioners Wednesday.
The commissioners authorized Ginnetti to go out to bid for the resurfacing, which will cost about $5 million.
Ginnetti said the repaving will improve the county road from the border with Youngstown at Meridian Road all the way to the west border at the Meander Reservoir.
Ginnetti said the project is likely to begin late spring or early summer, but the start will be dependent on the weather and when the asphalt plants open.