YOUNGSTOWN — City council will consider legislation Wednesday to buy numerous small parcels for a traffic light project on Mahoning Avenue and to remove several street lights along Front Street so they can be replaced with new ones.

Council’s finance committee voted Monday to recommend passage of both proposals.

Council plans to allow the board of control to spend up to $84,400 for right-of-way purchases of several pieces of land — some as small as a few feet — along Mahoning Avenue in order to have locations for new traffic lights at 10 intersections, said Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works.

The intersections are between Meridian Road, the city’s western border with Austintown, and Oak Hill Avenue, where the street ends at the Spring Commons Bridge and becomes Fifth Avenue.

The city is using federal funds for the property purchases, Shasho said.

The actual acquisitions will start in the spring and should take until August to finish, he said.

The street light replacement project is supposed to start in spring 2023 and be done in the summer or fall of that year, Shasho said.

The replacement project could be delayed because of a national supply chain issue that has left traffic lights in short supply, he said.

“But we’ll put in concrete and conduits and be ready to install the poles next year when they arrive,” Shasho said.

Also, council is expected Wednesday to support paying $57,945 to FirstEnergy to remove steel street light posts and fixtures along Front Street from South Avenue to Marshall Street.

The city will install new decorative LED street lights along that street that it will own as part of a major improvement project to Front Street, Shasho said.

“The new lights will provide better lighting for pedestrians,” Shasho said.

It’s part of a $27.65 million SMART2 (Strategic and Sustainable, Medical and Manufacturing, Academic and Arts, Residential and Recreation and Technology and Training) Network project that is improving several downtown streets.

The current phase is on Front Street from Vindicator Square to Market Street and includes paving, new lighting, streetscaping, adding a bicycle path and reducing what is now two to three lanes in each direction to one in each direction with a turning lane in places.

The work has closed the road westbound since last month, and the project is not expected to be finished until October.

OTHER LEGISLATION

Council also will authorize the board of control Wednesday to apply for a grant of up to $650,000 to get four fast-charging electric vehicle charging stations at a parking lot off Phelps Street, near the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre and the city hall annex.

The city would seek the funding through a program administered by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency through the diesel mitigation trust fund grant program.

“The project will provide fast electric-vehicle charging in the central business district and spur economic development by creating new travel to downtown Youngstown off the I-680 corridor,” the legislation reads.

The deadline to apply for the grant is the end of this month, Shasho said.

Also Wednesday, council will consider renewing the contract of Hunter Morrison as the city’s planning consultant for 2022 for up to $75,000, at $75 per hour.

Morrison was first hired for the job in August 2019 for $25,000 per year.

His contract was renewed in 2020 and 2021 for $75,0000 each year.

Morrison’s work includes the planning and development of the city, urban design and capital improvement planning, project management and interagency coordination.

Morrison also runs the meetings of the city’s design review committee and planning commission / board of zoning appeals.