Retiring roads super to continue serving after her retirement
BOARDMAN — Boardman’s road superintendent is retiring in early 2025, but won’t be going far.
Marilyn Sferra Kenner said she will take a part-time position as a coordinator with the ABC Stormwater District to help the township progress through the first leg of a $47 million federally funded flood mitigation project.
“I am thankful for the Boardman Township trustees for giving me a chance to work for Boardman,” she said. “It was a lot of fun and I was able to do many things I could not do if I was still at the county’s engineer’s office.”
Kenner worked for the county engineer’s office for 32 years, spending the last 23 as chief deputy engineer before retiring in 2012. In 2013, she began working for Boardman as assistant zoning inspector before taking the road superintendent job in 2016.
Kenner said she has enjoyed running the township’s land bank, dealing with housing demolitions, and working with Township Administrator Jason Loree and the ABC Stormwater District to find solutions to the township’s flooding woes.
She said she will continue to coordinate all of those efforts through her new position with ABC. In September, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a $35.83 million Flood Mitigation Assistance grant to Boardman, beginning with a $3 million award for planning and design.
The stormwater district will contribute about $11 million to $12 million toward the overall project, which aims to eliminate flooding in central Boardman, along and around Cranberry Run Creek and Boardman Plaza. The main thrust of the project involves installing a conduit running north along Glenwood Avenue to carry stormwater to detention basins behind the plaza.
“We have to hire a consultant, so we’re just advertising for engineering firms, to get started on the planning stages of the project, and then we’ll move into the design phase,” Kenner said.
Other projects in the township include the completion of the Forest Lawn Stormwater Park on the site of the former Market Street Elementary School, which should be completed in the spring.
Bidding began in November for phase 1 of a $472,000 project that runs from Colleen Drive to Lockwood Boulevard, to replace a triple-barrel pipe system and eliminate flooding problems around Lockwood Village.
Phase two of the Colleen project will partially remove a stormwater pipe behind several residences, and line other portions of the pipe. Phase two is in design and budgeted for about $1.5 million.
Other projects along Baymar Drive, Pierce Drive, St. Albans Drive, and Pennsylvania Avenue all are underway or have been completed.
“Transitioning to ABC will just mean coordinating all the grantwork I’ve already laid out and I’ll just continue to do that work,” Kenner said.
Loree said the township has interviewed and agreed in principle to offer the road superintendent job to Cortland City Service Director Kimberly Blasco.
“We have to determine if we can work out a deal she’s comfortable with,” he said. “The offer is contingent upon that. But she’s very qualified for the job and is actually a Boardman resident.”
Kenner will retire from the township on Jan 30. Her work at ABC will focus strictly on Boardman’s projects.