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MOUNT VERNON — If you’ve driven on Ohio 3 recently, you might have seen Fairgrounds Road is closed.
Here’s why.
A joint city and county project aims to add roughly one mile of storm, sewer and waterlines on Fairgrounds Road right off Mansfield Avenue. It also includes resurfacing.
According to a letter sent by city engineer Brian Ball to Fairgrounds Road residents, “This project will allow the city to construct a water main and sanitary sewer on Fairgrounds Road to better service the Mansfield Avenue neighborhoods and then the county will improve the stormwater system and pavement conditions on Fairgrounds Road.”
The letter also states city sanitary sewer will only be available to a few Fairgrounds Road homes. Contact the city if interested.
Stated twice in the letter, the Fairgrounds Road project doesn’t include service availability fees and the city will not require a resident to connect to city water or sewer.
If a resident lives outside the city limits, the monthly water rate is $28.69, according to the letter. Wastewater rates combined with metered water services are $34.30 per month. In total, regular customers can expect to pay $82.99 per month for both water and wastewater services, while a 65-year-old and older is available too.
The approximate $1,661,461.55 million project is partially funded by a $721,074.31 Ohio Public Works Commission grant and $750,000 of county American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Who’s funding the project?
- City Wastewater
- Ohio Public Works Commission
- City Water
- County Water (under the city co-contract)
- County Wastewater (under the city co-contact)
- County Stomwater
- County Road funds
- City Stomwater ( future mod to fix a problem at Mansfield Ave)
- American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
- ARPA county $750,000
“I would remind readers that because of OPWC funds, we are able to leverage more value for the investment. This is relating to State Issue 2 which reestablishes OPWC to oversee infrastructure projects like this one and others in the community,” Mount Vernon Mayor Matthew Starr said.
“A very important part of this is that ODOT typically does not fund road projects in the townships–OPWC does,” Starr said.
Starr said he was told the project timeline was to take two months.
“Of course, we never know what we are getting into for sure when we start digging. Fingers crossed, we will be done in two months,” Starr said.
Regardless if the project is complete, Fairgrounds Road will be open for the Knox County Fair, assistant engineer Quentin Platt said.
A Fairgrounds Road resident Rodney Waldron noticed fellow homeowners driveways being grounded up due to construction, wondering if it would be replaced or repaired once the project is completed.
Platt stated the driveways would be returned to their original condition after the project was completed.
Residents can access the road, regardless of the project’s status.