AUSTINTOWN — The township’s bid for federal dollars for a sewer line was again rejected, but that does not mean the trustees’ trip to Washington, D.C., was unsuccessful.

Austintown officials learned Thursday that their request for a $5.4 million Congressional Direct Spending grant failed to advance past a House of Representatives subcommittee, but their visit with Ohio’s U.S. senators and local U.S. congressional representatives leaves them better prepared for future efforts.

All three trustees — Robert Santos, Bruce Shepas and Monica Deavers — along with township Administrator Mark D’Apolito visited Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We realized it was a big ask, asking for over $5 million,” Shepas said. “However, it was extremely educational, and what we learned down there, through the staffers and Senators (Jon) Husted and (Bernie) Moreno, Congressmen (Michael) Rulli (R-Salem) and (David) Joyce (R-Bainbridge), they educated us on how to ask for additional funds and about different projects in the upcoming years, what keywords to use and how to write it up.”

The money would have been used to extend a sewer line about 1.5 miles from Meanderwood Court, down Kirk Road, into the park. The township asked for $5.4 million for the project after being told last year that its request for $1.8 million was not ambitious enough.

That grant request proposed to tie the proposed sewer line into the existing line at Ridgeview Avenue, off South Turner Road, and run southeast through the park to the Stacey Pavillion.

The main objective is to improve the accommodations in the park, adding new bathrooms to the pavilion, and getting rid of unsightly and expensive portable toilets. But by running the sewer line along Kirk Road, it would open up the southern portion of the township for residential and commercial development, trustees said.

“The biggest thing is to get development in our area. One of the biggest things that developers do not want to fund is getting a sanitary line in place. So if we were able to get another avenue to put the sanitary line in place, that would draw more developers,” Santos said. “All those areas are on a septic tank and a lot of developers will not develop where there’s a septic tank, as well as they don’t want to incur the cost of getting that line put in place.”

Santos and Shepas said that in addition to better understanding about the Congressional Direct Spending application process, they learned of other funding opportunities that may help support the project.

“There’s always other options, one of them is the EPA, and as soon as they make that available, we will reach out to them,” Santos said. “One of the things we will do, is we’ll set meetings up with the staffers of these legislators and the legislators themselves to see what we can do with our project to make it more marketable to the subcommittee for next year.”

Santos said that if and when the sewer line is funded and installed, there could be costs for residents, but the trustees intend to offset those.

“It would be (a cost to residents to tap in) if we did nothing, but I guarantee you this board definitely would reach out, and there definitely are a lot of funding opportunities to help tap those residents in so they’re not incurring that cost,” he said. “That is something we looked into prior to initiating this project, because the last thing we want to do is cause any resident to incur any more financial burden and we will advocate for that if this gets approved next year.”

POLICE FUNDING

Shepas said the trip also taught them about opportunities to fill other gaps in the township. The most pressing of those needs, of course, is the township’s police department, which is struggling financially and will likely require more than $1.3 million in general fund transfers to maintain operations this year.

“While we were down there, we thought what better time to ask for police funding or task force funding, or for some other issues that we have here in Austintown,” he said.

He said congressional and senate staffers told them about funding for everything from new radio systems to offsetting the salaries of officers who serve on regional task forces.

“Even though we’re pulling back task force officers and they’re working the roads here in Austintown, we do understand and respect the value of what the task force does and we would like to continue to be part of that, and if we can get federal dollars to help offset those costs, why not ask,” he said. “There are pots and allocated funds for these issues already, so let’s try to tap into them and get a piece of that pie here in Austintown.”

Shepas said they already have started preparing for next year’s Congressional Direct Spending application and investigating how to obtain other funding for police and other needs.

“We started working on it today,” he said. “We’ve made the contacts, we’re typing up the information, our township administrator, Mark D’Apolito took extensive notes and we will continue to submit through the year and not just wait for the CDS funding next year. We’re applying now, we need these monies now.”