YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s board of control approved a $1,974,317 contract for a riverfront project on the lower West Side.

The board voted 3-0 Thursday to enter into the contract with Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. of Youngstown. The company submitted the lowest bid among six that were opened Nov. 7 by the city’s public works department.

The board of control consists of Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, Law Director Lori Shells Simmons and Finance Director Kyle Miasek.

The project is from Spring Commons Park to West Avenue, along the Mahoning River. The work is expected to start next month and finish about six months later.

The work includes new floating docks for canoes and kayak use, parking lot improvements, a concrete walkway from Spring Commons Park — behind the B&O Station Banquet Hall — along the Mahoning River to the West Avenue boat launch, new picnic areas and gathering spaces, stone retaining walls, resurfacing of B&O Station Drive, a small pergola, utility upgrades and a new restroom.

The city in May 2024 received a $3,891,475 grant from the Ohio Department of Development’s Appalachian Community Grant Program, funding through the federal American Rescue Plan, for this project.

The Eastgate Regional Council of Governments initially administered the project, paying for design work and to clear a number of trees to make space for the riverfront park. The city in August signed a contract with Eastgate to handle the rest of the project.

WATER CONTRACTS

The board also voted 3-0 on a pair of water department contracts.

One will look at changing the billing structure from cubic feet to gallons and the other for a risk and resilience assessment and emergency response plan.

Requests for proposals weren’t sought for either contract.

A $45,000 contract with R2O Consulting of Cleveland will review the water department’s billing structure to go from 100 cubic feet of water to gallons. About 748 gallons are in 100 cubic feet of water.

In some cases, people don’t use 100 cubic feet of water in a billing month, but that is the minimum charge. A number of those customers are lower-income so this would help reduce their water expenses, said Water Commissioner Harry L. Johnson III.

The study will take about six months to finish and any changes made won’t impact the department’s revenue stream, Johnson said.

The city water system has about 52,000 customers with about half in Youngstown and the rest in surrounding areas, including Austintown, Boardman, Liberty and Canfield townships.

The $49,998 contract with Burgess & Niple, based in Columbus, is for a variety of services, including a risk and resilience assessment, and an updated emergency response plan.

The first part would look at the water department’s assets and determine the value of them as well as the cost needed for replacement.

That work is required to be finished by June 30, 2026, by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Johnson said, to ensure the water department is following quality standards under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and to assess potential security issues.

The updated emergency response plan is required to be finished by Dec. 31, 2026 under state law.

The water department last did a plan a few years ago and it needs to be updated to make sure the system can respond to various emergencies.