AUSTINTOWN — The township has lost out on a grant to support bathroom repairs in Austintown Township Park on Kirk Road.

Trustee Robert Santos told attendees at Monday’s regular meeting that a $1.8 million request for federal funding, through Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office, was denied. Santos was notified last week, he said.

The award would have covered the cost of replacing the existing septic systems that services the park by extending a sanitary sewer line from Ridgeview Avenue to the Stacey Pavilion.

The bathrooms at the pavilion have been out of service by order of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency since before the COVID-19 pandemic because the septic system had exceeded its natural life and failed to meet state regulations.

The township has since spent between $15,000 and $20,000 to provide portable toilets for public use in the park, Santos said.

He said the township is still working with the EPA to determine what is necessary to replace the septic system.

Trustees approved a proposal at Monday’s regular meeting for $7,250 to be paid to Buckeye Civil Design for the engineering and permitting of a commercial septic system, which would cost about $60,000. Santos said on Tuesday that because the soil composition at the park is so high in clay, they will need to support a new septic system with a small-scale water treatment plant nearby.

Santos said the sewer line extension is still the preferred long-term solution, though it will cost more than $1 million to complete. In discussing the grant last month, he said he requested $1.8 million to cover the costs of additional upgrades to the bathrooms and to leave room for the unknowns that are expected in large-scale projects.

“As soon as I found out, I reached out to Jordan (Pennell) at Sherrod Brown’s office, and there are multiple doors we could go through to seek funding for this,” he said.

Santos said he’s requested another meeting with Brown to determine what may have led the Senate Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies to deny the township’s application.

He said he also has reached out to State Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and State Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, to explore other possible funding opportunities. Santos said the township is resolved to fund the fix, whatever it may be, with external funds, and not making it a greater burden on township taxpayers.

“If we have to go another year with portable toilets, and wait to apply again next year, then that’s what we will do,” Santos said. “I want us to be fiscally responsible for the taxpayers and use their money the best way we can.”

Santos said he suspects that one problem the township faced with the grant was that it normally is supposed to be submitted to a U.S. Congressional representative, not a senator. But at the application deadline, Austintown did not have a U.S. representative to present it to, because Bill Johnson had left to become president of Youngstown State University and Micahel Rulli had not yet been elected to replace him.

“I had spoken to Senator Rulli about this, when I went to D.C.,” Santos said.

Santos joined the delegation of Valley officials on the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber’s Washington D.C. Fly-In in late June. He said Monday that he provided information packets on the project to every member of Congress he could reach.

“By that time, it was in the senate and it was beyond his reach. But he’s very receptive to assisting us in solving this issue,” Santos said of Rulli.