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HUBBARD TOWNSHIP – While much of a recent meeting’s focus was on data centers, one trustee emphasized the importance of a renewal levy on the ballot in the Nov. 3 election.
During his road report at a meeting earlier this month, Trustee Eric Lamb noted the paving of Hubbard Masury Road may be pushed back by the county until the upcoming spring, and the department is still down a guy while one of their employees is out on leave.
Lamb used the time to acknowledge all the signs around the township, adding that residents will see a 1-mill, five-year renewal levy on the ballot Nov. 3, adding that it’s not a new tax or an increase if it passes.
“You keep paying what you pay today, so based on what the numbers are right now, one mill is about $24 per $100,000 value of your home,” Lamb said.
In terms of why it matters to officials, Lamb said the department’s fund spent $647,000 to keep the township’s roads safe and open, adding that the money covers three full-time employees, wages and OPERS pension contributions, as well as insurance, fuel, and the upkeep and repair of trucks, plows and machinery.
“Those same employees plow and salt our roads all winter, clean and repair our ditches, so water drains off the road instead of tearing it apart,” Lamb said. “What remains out of that fund that goes to repaving our roads. For perspective, a repaving project can wipe out an entire annual paving budget even with the (Ohio) Public Works (Commission) money.”
Lamb noted their 2026 Lincoln Avenue project as an example, for which the township had to kick in $132,000 even with the OPWC money.
“My plan, being over the road department, is to group roads and leverage our funding to repair roads by section,” Lamb said. “Do traffic studies, road condition assessments and useful life evaluation, so decisions are based on data, not guesswork.”
Lamb also suggested bundling neighboring roads into one project, so officials will get a better price, rather than paving one road at a time. He said he went to an OPWC meeting and he had two projects submitted, which are in the final stages of approval.
Lamb said the first, a Mount Everett Road improvement, had the highest score out of 60 projects between Mahoning and Trumbull counties, scoring a 71.
“The project’s total cost for Mount Everett resurfacing would be $146,000; we’re probably going to get approved for a 51% grant,” Lamb said. “So we would have to pay 49% of that project, which would be roughly $71,868.”
Lamb said he put a request in for a 0% interest loan for Beechwood, Morningside, Shadyside and Oakmont that would cost $575,000 spread over the life of the roads.
“Over 15 years, we would have to pay that back. Jen (Evans), our fiscal officer, invested our money at the beginning of the year,” Lamb said. “So the road department’s carryover money, the way I’m thinking about this is, we would owe $38,364 per year for taking that loan out for 15 years to do those four roads.”
Lamb said the account accrued $14,625 in interest, so trustees can do some roads by putting carryover funds into a compounding interest account so the roads can be paid for with interest funds, rather than asking taxpayers for help.