Photo Provided Workers redo Union Local Schools’ athletic parking lot with tar, regrade and chip and seal and work on the drainage system to resolve the issue of standing water.

BELMONT — There will be no more drainage issues or ground asphalt on the road to the athletic complex parking lot at Union Local, thanks to the Ohio Contractors Association.

The Union Local School District received a donation from the Ohio Contractors Association, which was looking for a volunteer project, making the project cost zero dollars for the district and zero taxpayers dollars.

“I think the really cool part is, the budget is tight,” Superintendent Zac Shutler said. “This was done at a cost of zero dollars for the district, zero taxpayers dollars. People know that we have a bond on the ballot coming up, and we’re trying to do as much as we can. And in this instance, we were able to do it unexpectedly with the Ohio Contractors Association to get as much done as we can that isn’t going to cost the taxpayers any money.”

The OCA reached out to Union Local schools’ maintenance director Jim Hess and expressed interest in improving some of the roadways and parking lot areas at the schools, specifically the ones with ground asphalt.

“Jim was down there working with them,” Shutler said. “Jim was there helping. Jim was coordinating, and the Ohio Contractors Association was incredibly pleased with his communication and coordination. I think a lot of it happened to our benefit because of the relationships that he helped build and develop in the process.”

The project consisted of companies working to make the lot bigger by tarring the grass patch in the middle of the lot, regrading and chip sealing it. The OCA also made improvements and added drainage behind the grandstands, in front of the fieldhouse and on the side of the roadway to the parking lot with rocks for the runoff ditches.

Shutler said the school had standing water on the right side of the grass area when visitors entered the stadium. The issue was that the drains were not filtering water away from the stadium correctly. New drainage pipes were put in to resolve the issue.

Before, the roadway to the parking lot was made up of crushed asphalt, which produced a lot of dust, especially on football game days, and there were potholes, uneven areas and major drainage issues, Shutler said.

“The Ohio Contractors Association was interested in assisting us with that, and they were willing to grade it and put in the necessary runoff ditches to redo the drainage systems and then to tar and chip it, which was exceptionally nice of them.”

The OCA invested about $40,000 worth of materials for the project, which doesn’t include the number of hours that were put into the project by the workers, Shutler said.

The OCA started the project at the end of July and took three weeks to finish in August, making the school campus ready to go before classes started for the year.

“It benefits not just the look of the campus, it benefits the traffic flow,” Shutler said. “It benefits just when people visit it. You’re not walking through standing water, there’s not mud, your drive to park is smoother than it was in the past. And in general, we want our campus to be beautiful. We want it to be a place that’s aesthetically welcoming.”