YOUNGSTOWN — City council agreed to permit the board of control to finalize a $5.5 million contract with a Youngstown firm to provide construction administration for the first two phases of a sewer interceptor effort and to design the latter two parts.

The contract with MS Consultants Inc. is part of a major wastewater improvement project mandated through a 2014 federal consent decree.

Council voted 6-0 Wednesday on the contract. Councilwoman Amber White, I-7th Ward, was absent.

The first two phases of the Mill Creek project will start next month with Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. of Youngstown doing the work for $42,771,942. It will be finished no later than May 29, 2028.

The first two phases will be to Lake Glacier. It will eliminate four sewer overflows, replace about 8,000 to 9,000 linear feet of sewer lines that range in size from 36 inches to 60 inches with a new 96-inch sewer line as well as bridge work, river crossings and lowering of the lake’s water level to help reduce overflows and the relocation of utilities.

Council’s legislation authorizes the board of control to enter into the contract for up to $5.5 million with MS to serve as the city’s construction administrator and field representative for the first two phases of the project.

As part of the $5.5 million contract, MS will design the final two phases of the Mill Creek project.

Those two phases will eliminate 10 sewer overflows into the park’s Lake Cohasset.

It will take more than a year for MS to design those phases with work expected to start in April 2028. The work is supposed to be finished by September 2032.

In addition to eliminating the sewer overflows at Mill Creek Park, the city made major improvements at its wastewater treatment plant.

It will also construct an 80-million-gallon-per-day wet weather facility. The city was initially supposed to build a facility that held 100 million gallons per day, but successfully negotiated with the federal government in court to reduce that amount.

The city plans to have all of the work done by Oct. 1, 2035.

FIELDHOUSE SALE

City council voted 6-0 Wednesday to permit the board of control to sell 1840 Erie St., the address for the former South High Fieldhouse, to Valley Legends Sports Complex Inc. for $64,460, its appraised value.

Council had voted in June to sell the property to the complex, which is run by Valley Christian High School, which wants to raise $5 million to develop it into a new football field and track facility.

But the board didn’t approve the sale, wanting to amend the deal to include project milestones.

The updated deal requires Valley Legends to break ground within two years from the date of the title transfer and to have the project “substantially complete” within five years of the transfer. Valley Legends has to break ground on at least the football field and track improvements, the football field bleachers on one side of the field or the entranceway on Erie Street, under the contract.

While an extension of time can be made by written agreement between the city and Valley Legends, if one of the three projects isn’t finished in time or the project isn’t “substantially complete” in five years, the contract permits the city to buy back the property for the $64,600 sale price or “a market value appraisal of the property conducted no earlier than the expiration of the milestone date that triggered seller’s written notice to buyer.”