Staff photo / Dan Pompili New Boardman Township Administrator Mark Ragozine and Assistant Township Administrator Stephanie Landers, seated at table, and State Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Canfield, front right, watch while State Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, signs a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel. The letter, also signed by Boardman trustees, requests the state’s formal support for Boardman’s $47 million FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance project that will seek to alleviate massive flooding problems within the Cranberry Run watershed that have plagued the township for years.

BOARDMAN — Mark Ragozine’s first meeting as township administrator seemed to have a little bit of everything.

Boardman trustees covered regular business, honored a local celebrity, welcomed state legislators to discuss funding for Boardman’s biggest project, and heard from residents about local concerns and community events.

He didn’t have much to say about administrative matters, but he’s also only been on the job for seven days.

“I’ve really gotten a feel for some of the township operations over the past week or so. I can’t compliment the staff enough for welcoming me in and making me feel right at home. It’s been really impressive to see all the work that they do,” Ragozine said. “I want to be able to solve the issues that come my way and work closely with the board and the department heads to accomplish all that as we go forward.”

He said he attended a Rotary Club luncheon with trustee Matt Gambrel and will attend a Lions Club event soon.

Ragozine was hired three weeks ago to replace ailing longtime administrator Jason Loree, who is battling polycystic kidney disease, and expecting to receive a transplant in the near future.

But when it came time to discuss the biggest item on the agenda, it was Loree who spoke from the gallery.

Trustees welcomed State Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Canfield, and State Sen. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, to sign a letter addressed to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, requesting the state’s formal support for Boardman’s $47 million project to eliminate major flooding in the township, which is funded by a $35.83 million FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance grant.

“There is a grant match and that’s what we’re looking for help with,” Loree said. “That’s about $10 million. The first $4 million, we have, we’ve got $500,000 from the state and the ABC Water and Stormwater District is going to provide another $500,000 and that’s for the engineering and planning, to finish and finalize. The rest of the money, we’re hoping for some help.”

FLOODING WOES

Since 2018, Boardman has endured three 500-year to 1,000-year storms.

The flooding they cause does not just affect the roads. Parking lots and stores are flooded, residents’ basements and garages back up, and the water is not all rainwater, either.

Loree said that rainwater gets into the sanitary system through its many connections that exist there, and the system cannot handle it. In the decades since the township expanded around the watershed, the streams have failed to keep up with the excess runoff, and blockages caused by erosion make the flooding worse.

The concept summary the township submitted — First to Ohio EMA, which approved it and passed it onto FEMA — states that the problem originated with the township’s expansion in the 1940s and 1950s, when the plaza and the homes around Cranberry Run were constructed with no stormwater detention. Houses were built right next to or directly on top of the streams, which were either channelized with block walls or completely piped.

As Mahoning County’s population grew and many Youngstown steel mill workers moved to Boardman, Route 224 was widened from two lanes to six, again with no stormwater detention plans in place, and the same for the construction of the plaza and Southern Park Mall.

The houses and buildings also were constructed before regulations prohibited tying in footer drains with sanitary systems. Loree said when the FEMA grant was announced, 80% of the homes in Boardman are built with that flaw. The multi-pronged project itself aims to solve most of these issues by diverting water down Glenwood Avenue and into Mill Creek Park.

THE PLAN

“We’re hoping to literally disconnect some of that flooding that happens at the plaza, sever it from the neighborhoods, give it its own path forward, relieving the pressure and doing some improvements in the neighborhoods to help with flow,” Loree said on Tuesday.

One of the biggest challenges, Loree explained, is that there is a great deal of asphalt in the area, and when ODOT executes construction projects like the upcoming $20.3 million overhaul of U.S. Route 224, it fails to implement any type of drainage and flood control mechanism.

“It runs off and goes into our neighborhoods, but they are not required to hold it back and slowly release it. It’s just ‘here you go, here’s your water,'” he said.

The project will redirect the flow of water onto an easement owned by First Energy, which will hold the flood runoff and release it slowly on its way into Mill Creek Park.

“First Energy recognizes that if we don’t take care of that problem, their high power lines could be in danger. So they actually signed on with support for the project,” he said. “So, really, it will impact not only Boardman property, but also First Energy and alleviate rushing waters into Mill Creek Park, so it’s a very huge project.”

Loree said the path to this point has been a long and expensive one for the township.

“We can talk about three back-to-back years of 500-year storms, and footage of the Boardman Plaza flooding was pretty traumatic to a lot of people. It caused a lot of damage and really went through the center of town and wreaked a lot of havoc,” he said.

Loree said the insurance claims alone were astronomical for both businesses and many of the roughly 1,500 homes in the Cranberry Run watershed that the project aims to fix.

Then there was the upfront cost for the project. Loree said the application process itself — first for Ohio EMA, whose approval of the project is necessary for federal consideration, as well as engineering consultation, survey work, and other due diligence — cost Boardman about $250,000.

Trustee Larry Moliterno took an opportunity to praise the township’s long-term efforts.

“This is a testament to the foresight to create the water district but also long-range planning and not just trying to have short victories but looking at… putting plans together to benefit the community in the long run,” he said. “And I think it’s also a testament to how we have really built strong relationships and we have strong leaders like Sen. Cutrona and Rep. Fischer, who support Boardman Township.”

Fischer said that he and Cutrona worked to get $500,000 into the state’s operating budget last year to help with the project and intend to seek more this year.

“I think this has been one of the higher priorities I’ve had since I got into office,” he said. “I lived in Boardman for eight years and I really understand the impact this is going to have, not just on people’s quality of life in the neighborhood but also the economy. We all know how much economic impact Boardman drives in the county so whatever we can do to make this work we’re going to do it.”

“Thank you guys so much for the work you’ve put forward on this. We’ve had this conversation for six years since I joined the legislature,” Cutrona said. “It’s not just a one-person project, it’s not just the house, it’s not just the senate, it’s everybody coming together, recognizing a massive problem we have and saying how can we fix it? I will continue to go to bat for you guys every day and twice on Sunday. We’ll fight the good fight down there in Columbus and try to bring back those dollars.”

Cutrona, Fischer, and the trustees all signed the letter to DeWine and Tressel. Loree said DeWine is aware of the project, given its size and that no other township in the state has ever received the award.

He said the township has been working to stay in communication with DeWine and Tressel through the Ohio EMA, which has sent representatives to Boardman in person to see the problem and discuss the project.