Amsterdam sewer project closer
STEUBENVILLE — Jefferson County commissioners on Thursday signed paperwork that will allow the design of the Amsterdam sewer project to begin.
The project involves about 400 homes in Jefferson and Carroll counties. About 53,000 feet of sewer lines will be installed and a sewerage treatment plant will be built.
The county water and sewer department received $1.7 million from the U.S. Corps of Engineers for the project. The county also has applied for funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Michael Eroshevich, county water and sewer department director, said the county is seeking additional funding sources.
Construction, estimated at around $9 million, will start in late 2017, and the sewer system will be in service in the fall of 2018.
Amsterdam’s current septic tanks aren’t functioning and dumping sewerage into Yellow Creek. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is mandating that Amsterdam officials install the sewer system.
Village officials asked the county to build and maintain the new sewer system.
County Commissioner Tom Gentile said the faulty septic tanks are the largest polluter of Yellow Creek, and county Commissioner David Maple said Amsterdam is one of the larger communities in the state with failing septic systems.
Tom Hartwig of Arcadis, the county’s water and sewer consultant, said the commissioners are excited about the project and what it will do for the village.
Gentile noted Amsterdam may experience economic development as a result of the sewer project.
“Economic development won’t come to areas without sewers,” he said.
Maple noted the flat area around Amsterdam could result in businesses coming to Amsterdam.
County Commissioner Thomas Graham noted the funding from various sources.
“It points out the cooperation of government agencies helping Jefferson County and its communities. It is nice to have the cooperation on the federal and local levels,” he said.
Eroshevich added Bergholz was asked to join in on the project but refused.
The Amsterdam sewer plant is being designed for future expansion if the Ohio EPA mandates that Bergholz to join the sewer system, Hartwig said.
Commissioners were informed work on demolition of the courthouse annex will begin next week. A contract was signed with B&B Wrecking & Excavating of Cleveland in the amount of $93,300 to tear down the building. Ernest Dellatoree of McKinley & Associates, the consultant on the project, said the contractor believes it will take three days to tear down the building.
Commissioners will build a parking lot for the public visiting the courthouse once the annex is demolished.
Commissioners were informed there is an 80 percent occupancy at the Towers building on Market Street, compared to 40 percent when the commissioners purchased the building in 2014.
In other matters, they proclaimed November as Adoption Awareness Month. Tracey Dailey, county Job and Family Services, Children Services Division adoption assessor, said the agency has completed 11 adoptions so far this year, with four pending. She said it is the largest amount of adoptions in the past 12 years.
Commissioners also agreed to allow the data processing department to purchase routers to allow public wireless Internet on all four floors of the courthouse.
(Law can be contacted at mlaw@heraldstaronline.com.)
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