BOARDMAN — The township road department is taking steps to curb excessive road cutting by utility companies.

At Monday’s regular meeting of the Boardman trustees, the board approved a motion by Roads Superintendent Kim Blasco to increase open road cutting fees from $250 to $1,000 for companies doing work along township roads. The approved changes also carry a $1,500 penalty for companies that make cuts without prior approval.

Blasco said the changes are to protect Boardman’s roads and cover the costs for the township to make repairs to the damage caused by the cuts, which she said can often be excessive and unnecessary.

“We’re just making some adjustments. Boardman never had anything like these, and the permits were not set up to cover stuff like that,” she said. “Enbridge and some of the fiber companies, any time they have the potential to hit another utility, they want to open the road to make sure they don’t, which makes sense, but in doing so they want to open-cut the road. They’re in bad shape to begin with. Any time you disturb a road base or create a way for water to come in, it creates a way for a road to fall apart.”

In addition to regular road upkeep, she said the department faces increased long-term maintenance costs because of the road cuts, and all too often must respond to emergencies caused while the work is still going on, if storm water washes out the base material.

“If we have a call out, with overtime, equipment, material to fix what they hadn’t finished restoring yet — or even cleaning up potholes that form three years later because of freezing and thawing — it doesn’t take much to spend $1,000 on any kind of road repair, especially on a call out for overtime,” Blasco said.

She said the companies operating all over the township for the past several years have created multiple headaches for the department and residents. Many residents have shown up to trustees meetings to complain about the work and what they feel is a lack of concern for their property, neighborhoods and township infrastructure.

Blasco said that on many occasions, Enbridge and the fiber optic companies have operated on multiple streets in a development, making countless cuts to the road and damaging the right-of-way along many residents’ property lines.

“You have Enbridge doing multiple areas where they are cutting through every driveway, like on Squirrel Hill, and a lot of companies disturbing many, many homes in one neighborhood,” she said.

The motion passed Monday increases the fee from $25 to $500 for any work in the right-of-way that exceeds 50 feet.

Blasco said the $1,500 fine is to discourage companies from making unapproved cuts, which she said also happens too often.

“These guys will go out and cut into a road without a permit just because they feel it’s necessary. It’s going to cost them $1,500,” she said.

Blasco said if companies run into unforeseen issues, they can always call her office and discuss the problem, but she wants to discourage them from making cuts without notice or making too many unnecessary cuts.

“Then we can look at a permit for something that maybe opened up that they hadn’t accounted for,” she said.

Blasco also asked trustees for their approval of a memorandum of understanding between the township, the Mahoning County Commissioners, and the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office for use of the 0.25% sales and use tax that contributes to the township’s ability to repave and repair roads.

The tax renewal measure is on May’s primary ballot, and County Engineer Pat Ginnetti has been making the rounds to local township meetings to impress upon the community the importance of continuing the program.

Ginnetti spoke in Boardman in February, and trustees expressed their support for the tax. Blasco agrees, noting that Boardman receives $947,000 each year that allows the township to pave an additional six miles of road annually.