ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Township Trustees Association heard from a pair of guests Thursday evening about possibilities for future road paving in Belmont County.

The meeting was led by Bellaire Village Administrator and Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer and was attended by 15 of the 16 township representatives. The association heard from two guest speakers, Dominici Caminiti of Strawser Construction of Columbus and Tim Mohney from Youngblood Paving of Wampum, Pennsylvania. Both speakers came to tell the trustees about a wide variety of potential materials that could be used to improve the roads in Belmont County. Shaffer briefly spoke before introducing the two speakers.

Caminiti spoke first and mentioned how a lot of the roads in the community are rural and use a paving method called chip seal, the goal of which is keeping water away.

“We offer micro surfacing, and that’s kind of our bread and butter,” Caminiti said while talking about different strategies Strawson Construction offers.

He went on to explain exactly what micro surfacing is. According to Caminiti, micro surfacing is about a 3/8 inch thick wearing product that can go down over a chip seal product. He suggested that the lifespan of the micro surface is about 10 years.

“We do a lot of work with micro surfacing. I have probably 40 to 50 cities, townships and counties that I’ve worked with that do micro every day,” Caminiti said.

Those counties’ projects are funded through the Ohio Public Works Commission, which will also potentially make funding available for Belmont County townships as well. The company also offers a “rap micro,” which is a recycled micro surfacing which tends to have longer results while also staying black longer. The micro surface provides a good return on investment for the public, he said, noting that once it is set on the road the public is able to go back onto it in 30-45 minutes. Strawson Construction works all over Ohio and does a lot of work on Interstate 70.

Tim Mohney of Youngblood Paving spoke next. He said Youngblood has worked with a majority of the townships in Belmont County.

“The bottom line is you can only use what you have. If you’re the cook, you can only use whatever groceries you have,” Mohney said while speaking about using different types of stones in the paving process.

Mohney said Youngblood used 18,000 tons of slag rock for a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation job last year. He praised the slag rock for the skid resistance and durability it provides. He also said that with slag, the road surface will stay a little darker. He passed around a few pictures of examples of past paving jobs Youngblood Paving has done to display the results that the townships could get.

Townships are responsible for construction and maintenance of hundreds of miles of rural roads in Belmont County, so trustees are always considering ways to improve road conditions. Some townships have also been working with municipalities in recent months to propose joint paving projects for OPWC funding.