CONNEAUT — Money earmarked for economic development could be used instead to repair miles of Conneaut’s secondary roads, city officials said.
At a Wednesday night City Council public works committee meeting, council agreed to ask the Ohio Department of Development to release $100,000 from the city’s Revolving Loan Fund strictly to fix unpaved roads.
Council will make the request official at Monday’s regular meeting. At that time, Finance Director John Williams will be asked to petition the ODD for the money.
“We have to go through the state of Ohio,” said Council President Thomas Udell. “We have to make a formal request.”
If approved, the action would cut the city’s loan fund nearly in half. Some $204,000 now sits in the fund, Williams said.
Many years ago, the ODD gave Conneaut seed money to be used to lend a financial hand to businesses in need. To date, several commercial and retail businesses have taken advantage of the program.
Revolving Loan funds can be for a variety of purposes, from industrial equipment purchases to downtown building repair. Interest paid on the loans has helped the account grow.
Demand for development loans has dwindled, Williams said. “We’ve had very few (applications) the past several years,” he said —save for one local company which recently expressed interest.
Ward 1 Councilman Dave Campbell, who led the campaign to tap into the loan program for road repair, was ecstatic with the news. “I’m as happy as a kid at Christmas time,” he said Thursday.
Some of the money, if approved, will be used to pulverize city-owned asphalt grindings into a size suitable to serve as road filler, Cambell said. The hundreds of tons of grindings, when treated and mixed with other material, could create a base two or three inches thick on most of the secondary roads, he said.
The city has had its revolving loan fund tapped before for non-economic development purposes, Williams said. In one case, money was used to assist a sewer project, he said.
In another instance, the state removed some money, saying the fund wasn’t being used enough, and applied it to a housing program, Williams said.
An answer from the ODD could come within a few weeks after receiving the request — plenty of time to factor the funds into Conneaut’s 2010 road repair program, Williams said. However, the final word rests with the ODD and there’s no guarantee the state will play along, he said.
“They may or may not grant it,” he said.
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