Jan. 8—CONNEAUT — Wastewater superintendent Brian Bidwell presented road work plans for 2025 to council at a meeting Monday.
Bidwell presented possible chip seal projects for the the southern side of the city, saying work on country roads, like South Ridge Road, may cost more in later years.
“As soon as we can get a list together, then we can start working on it, figuring out the limits, fine-tune [it], and decide where we are at,” he said.
Bidwell said the city can use some dredged material for road projects, reducing costs.
The city could also market its dredged material for nearby communities’ roadwork, Bidwell said.
Harbor Street is not a contender for projects because the street’s sewers need to be lined to solve overflow issues, Bidwell said.
“The sanitary and storm [sewer] are in close proximity to each other, less then two feet from each other,” he said. “[It’s] all clay tile, turn of the century, some of the oldest sewers in town.”
Bidwell said any project on Harbor Street needs to tackle the big picture.
“It’s not something simple where we do two or three blocks a year, and get the stuff,” he said. “We need to do something more [similar] to what we did on Route 20.”
Bidwell said a Harbor Street project should be discussed for 2026.
Conneaut City Manager Nick Sanford said Harbor Street was last paved in 2001.
“I remember that, because my father used to live on Harbor Street, across from Pizzi’s at the time,” he said.
Bidwell said the city has to fix minor road damage on South Ridge Road East caused from the Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm
“There’s some spots as big as a desk or so toward the curbside, that we’re going to have to address,” he said.
Bidwell said he thought the road handled the storm well, despite its recent chip and seal.
The city is setting up a process for buying body camera footage for council, after Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill into law allowing it, Sanford said.
“It would align with what the law provides for — that would be my recommendation,” he said.
The city will interview three engineering firms to find a company to become the official city engineer.
The three firms are Verdantis, 12 Point Consulting and MS.
Choosing one firm will not disqualify the other two from working with the city on future projects, Sanford said.
“It’ll be a transition for the city of Conneaut,” he said. “Conneaut has been in a working relationship with what was CT Consultants since 1987.”
Sanford said he’ll recommend an ordinance to council to formalize requirements to connect to the city’s water system.
“It was administrative procedure,” he said. “This just codifies it.”
Sanford said he will soon open bidding for a company to study the city’s utility rates.
“I want to be sure that we’re doing this right,” he said.
Council approved Sanford to open bids in September 2024.
Council members decided to hear monthly department head reports at each work session through the year.
Council will codify 2024’s city ordinances at a later council meeting.