YOUNGSTOWN — A $1.2 million project to improve four city streets won’t start until next year.

The board of control on Friday awarded the contract to Shelly & Sands Inc., which has an office in North Jackson, for $1,226,625. The only other bid of $1,258,471 came from Karvo Companies Inc. of Stow.

The streets are Wood Street from Belmont Avenue to Wick Avenue; McGuffey Road from Jacobs Road to state Route 616; Sheridan Road from state Route 170 to Powers Way; and Powers Way from Sheridan Road to the Pine Hollow Bridge.

The project includes resurfacing, drainage rehabilitation, new curb ramps, signage and road striping.

City officials wanted to get the project done this year, but it won’t begin until around March 2026, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works.

“We were hoping for this year, but we ran out of time,” he said. “We’ll try to get it as the first project out of the gate in 2026.”

One issue is concern about the weather as the project is supposed to be finished in 90 days, and the other was additional dealings with the state, which is providing funding for the work, Shasho said.

“The timing just didn’t work out,” Shasho said. “Also, we’ve done a lot of road projects this year.”

The project won’t cost the city any money, Shasho said. The federal government is covering 80% of the cost with Ohio Public Works Commission funding paying the rest, he said.

The city’s board of control signed off July 3 on a project grant agreement with the OPWC.

SOBE WITNESS

The board on Friday also agreed to pay up to $30,000 for a second expert witness in its ongoing effort to stop SOBE Thermal Energy Systems LLC’s plan to convert rubber tire chips into synthetic gas at its facility near downtown.

The expert witness is JD Gibbs, associate director of consulting at BSI Group in Columbus. He has 33 years of experience with environmental services.

The board hired Ranajit (Ron) Sahu of Alhambra, California, on March 13 to provide testimony in front of the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission in the case filed against SOBE and the director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

The Ohio EPA issued a permit to SOBE on Feb. 14, 2024, to SOBE to move ahead with its plans to use pyrolysis, which is the gasification or combustion of tires, chipped tires, plastics and electronic waste into synthetic gas at its Youngstown plant. A draft permit was issued July 6, 2023.

The city objected to the permit and filed an appeal March 15, 2024, stating a decision by Anne Vogel, then the EPA director, to issue a final permit “is unreasonable and lacking a valid factual foundation, and / or unlawful and not in accordance with state law.” The city asked the commission to order the state EPA director to revoke the permit.

Attorneys from Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease of Columbus, who were representing SOBE in this matter, asked July 15 to withdraw from the case.

At an Aug. 6 status conference, commission staff ordered SOBE to file a notice of new legal counsel by Wednesday and for all parties to submit a joint proposed case management schedule by Sept. 3.

The city and the EPA requested the status conference after SOBE’s attorneys withdrew from the appeal and “have not received any further information from SOBE’s chief officer (David Ferro) regarding whether it is seeking new counsel or its further participation in the appeal,” according to a July 28 filing.

The hearing was scheduled to start Nov. 17.