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GIRARD -- After visiting a mountain bike trail last month in Lake Milton and meeting with members of the Rust Belt Revival Trail Coalition, some members of city council will travel to Girard Lower Lake this week to see if it is suitable for such a trail.
Councilman Todd Latell, D-at Large, said at Monday's council meeting that he and members of the Rust Belt Revival Trail Coalition will travel by special fire department vehicle to the lake property to assess the land.
"We will have them look at the property, which will help us see if it is even feasible to have a mountain bike trail there," Latell said.
He said their recommendation will help the city decide whether to proceed with the mountain bike trail.
Latell said the fire department has a vehicle that can have five people on it to travel on uneven and wet terrain, which officials expect to find at the lake property.
"We will be limited on how many people we can take to the site," Latell said.
Latell said it was eye opening to see how mountain bike trails operate. He said Rust Belt Revival Trail Coalition members volunteer to do all the work to create the trail.
"A mountain bike has, I guess it's not as easy to maneuver as you would think just riding a bike, but it was a pretty awesome experience. We were told by this coalition that a lot of the people that travel to Lake Milton to do this are from Trumbull County. They get a lot of people from this area. They get a lot of people from out of state to come,'' Latell previously said.
Officials have said that if they can do something like what Lake Milton has, there would be very minimal to maybe no cost to the city.
"This is primarily all volunteer work,'' Latell said.
Council passed legislation Monday to work with the Rust Belt Revival Trail Coalition to see what property would be viable for having a mountain bike trail.
Latell said if it is determined a trail would work at the Lower Lake property, the city could apply for state or federal grant money.
EPA INSPECTION
In other business, city officials said they will determine the cause of a finding by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency of 53% water loss at the water distribution plant.
Safety Service Director Glenn Holmes said Monday that he finds the 53% in the EPA citation following an inspection of the water distribution plant higher than he and other officials believe is the possible loss of the public water.
"We feel 53% is extremely high and will contest that. With any system there is some water loss," Holmes said.
He said officials are having all the meters and pipes checked at the water distribution plant to make sure they are not antiquated and are functioning properly. Holmes said they will check the pipes to make sure there are no breaks and that everything is metered properly in the distribution system.
Holmes said he will provide a followup to officials once the inspections are completed.
Holmes said if necessary, the city will look at a capital improvement project.
"I take this as a challenge and will see if we can find anything,'' he said.