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Woodsfield hopes to secure nearly $200,000 CDBG grant

Funds targeted for replacement of 14 fire hydrants

T-L Photo/CARRI GRAHAM ABOVE: Monroe County Commissioner Tim Price, right, reviews a map of fire hydrants in need of replacement throughout Woodsfield at Monday’s commission meeting. The village hopes to secure a grant to replace 14 hydrants in residential areas. Also pictured are, from left, Mary Jo Westfall of the Monroe County Extension Office and Commissioner Mick Schumacher.

WOODSFIELD — A local village is working to help ensure the safety of its residents by securing a grant to replace dilapidated fire hydrants.

The village of Woodsfield is hoping to secure funding through the Community Development Block Grant Critical Infrastructure Program in order to replace 14 fire hydrants. Monroe County Extension Office Associate Mary Jo Westfall met with the Monroe County Board of Commissioners to discuss the grant application at Monday’s regularly scheduled commission meeting. The meeting was considered the second public hearing regarding the grant; the first was held Dec. 2.

“We are wanting to submit an application on behalf of, that would benefit the village of Woodsfield, to replace 14 fire hydrants at various locations throughout the village. The project is necessary for the safety of the residents. These hydrants are dilapidated and nonfunctioning, and they pose a risk to the residents,” Westfall said.

The total cost to replace the 14 hydrants is estimated to be $216,550. Westfall said the village of Woodsfield has committed $21,650 of the amount, while the remaining funding hopefully will be in the form of the critical infrastructure grant. The CDBG grant would cover the remaining cost of $194,900.

“I don’t know when we will hear back (about the CDBG grant). It is still a competitive process, meaning that they do have to score high enough to get funding,” Westfall said.

The hydrants in need of replacement are located throughout the village in residential neighborhoods, Westfall said. Most are in very poor condition, she added.

“Some of them don’t work at all,” Westfall said. “You can’t even hook up to them. The others are old and just need replaced before they can stop working.”

Westfall said she hopes to hear about the grant’s approval by February. The number of applications the program receives will determine how much time it will take before the village hears whether it was successful. If the grant request is approved, the project may get underway in late spring or early summer, she said. The grant allows 20 months to complete the allotted project; however Westfall said it should not take that long to accomplish.

“The critical infrastructure program, it has to be critical, that is key to being funded. It can’t just be a road full of potholes that you want to pave. It has to be something that your community needs that is critical, and I think this fits the bill because when you have fire hydrants that don’t work that poses a real safety risk to the residents of Woodsfield. So we’re going to try it and see what happens,” she said.

Westfall then asked commissioners to sign a resolution in support of the application in order to move forward with the funding. Commissioner Tim Price made the motion to approve the resolution, with a second by Commissioner Mick Schumacher. The resolution passed unanimously.

Commissioner Carl Davis was absent during the vote. Davis recently was elected president of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio and had to leave Monday’s commission meeting early for a solid waste budget meeting in Caldwell.

Chief Mike Young of the Woodsfield Volunteer Fire Department went through the village and determined which hydrants needed to be replaced, Westfall said. Following the meeting, Young said there are more than 100 hydrants around the community. The 14 selected hydrants are between 50 and 60 years old, he said.

“They are the 14 that are the oldest and the ones we are having issues with right now. You can get water out of them, but some are cracked — normal wear and tear from the outside elements,” Young said.

He said he “tips his hat” to the Woodsfield Water Department and its staff for their diligence regarding the situation. The water department rechecked the hydrants the fire department deemed faulty.

“We are on track to getting these new hydrants put in and making things 100 percent correct,” Young said.

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