YOUNGSTOWN — City council will accept two grants, totaling $65,000, at its Wednesday meeting to better educate the public about lead in its pipelines.

Council’s finance committee Monday recommended the full legislative body accept the two grants.

A $50,000 state H2Ohio grant will go toward Arcadis, an international firm that specializes in water and sewer analysis, to build an interactive website for the city that will provide information about lead and other hazardous items in pipelines at each address in Youngstown, said Water Commissioner Harry L. Johnson III.

“We have an older water system and some pipes to people’s homes have lead,” he said. “Our goal is to eradicate that. But it’s expensive to get rid of lead pipes.”

Once the website is complete, people “can look at any property in the city” to see if there’s lead in the pipelines, Johnson said.

The city spent $2.26 million last year on a project to replace lead pipes on and near Eddie and Roy streets and Hazelwood Avenue from its federal American Rescue Plan funding.

Overall, 5,840 feet of waterlines at 91 houses were replaced during that project on the West Side.

A $15,000 grant from the Healthy Babies Bright Futures organization will pay for educational materials about lead in pipelines that can be distributed to the community and school systems and would help pay for drinking-water filtered pitchers, Johnson said.

ARP FUNDING

Also Wednesday, council will vote on spending $372,551.20 in ARP funding for capital improvements to the play area and outdoor recreational facilities at Hillman Park, also called Falls Playground, on Falls Avenue in the city’s First Ward.

What pot of ARP money the funding will come from was a source of some controversy at Monday’s finance committee meeting.

The legislation was written for the money to come from the $2 million given to the First Ward by council for projects there.

Council decided last April to give $2 million in ARP funding to each of its seven members to spend in the wards.

But Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, said the money should be coming from the $10.5 million council gave last July for parks and recreation projects. Council’s finance committee on Monday recommended the legislation be changed to reflect what Oliver wanted.

Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward, questioned if council should be appropriating money and then telling the administration — in this case, Park and Recreation Director Clemate Franklin — how to spend it.

Oliver said he recently met with Franklin and officials with the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., which is handling the project, to decide on spending the money on Hillman Park and that it would come from the park and recreation’s $10.5 million ARP fund.

Council clerk Valencia Marrow said Oliver specifically told her the legislation should specify the money was coming out of the First Ward’s $2 million allocation. Oliver said if that was the case he miscommunicated the funding source and wanted it correct for Wednesday’s council meeting.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown also raised objections, saying if the money was coming from the parks and recreation’s ARP funding, it should have been sponsored by him and not Oliver.

“I’m at a loss,” Brown said. “This should have been (Franklin’s) legislation and not council’s.”

Brown later said: “Once they appropriate, we allocate. We need to tweak the process. Council can appropriate and work with the administration to make recommendations.”

Council’s approval of ARP funding needs to be finalized by the board of control — consisting of Brown, Finance Director Kyle Miasek and Law Director Jeff Limbian.

That has been a source of some troubles in the past with the board not agreeing with council’s legislation on ARP funding.

The city received $82,775,370 in ARP funding. It has earmarked about half of that and has spent considerably less.

dskolnick@vindy.com