Mark Finchum Excavating of South Charleston submitted the lowest bid of $71,000, one of two companies to bid on the project.
As part of the third phase, Finchum crews are expected to provide 800 feet of new storm sewer pipe, three new catch basins and three new man holes along West North and North Persimmon streets, said Dean Fenton of the Clark County Engineer’s Office.
Once the contract is approved, the project is expected to take about 30 days to complete, Fenton said.
Catawba Mayor Mark Skiba said the flooding problems in the northwestern part of village were magnified in 2010 or 2011 after severe rain storms.
Skiba said water swelled as high as six to eight inches in his garage and was higher in other areas of the village.
He said drainage pipes along North Persimmon are too small to handle heavy rain runoff and water backs up and rises up throughout the area.
“It backs up the storm sewers in that whole section of the village,” Skiba said.
In previous years, improvements have occurred along East Pleasant, South School, East South and Lorraine streets.
Fleck said the project involves storm sewer system and catch basin improvements.
“They have had a lot of draining issues and that’s why we’re doing a complete overhaul of their systems,” Fleck said.
CDBG funding is provided through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered through states.
CDBG programs help communities improve and repair public infrastructure and public facilities; improve central business districts; eliminate slum and blighted structures; fund economic development activities; and improve and provide affordable housing for low- and moderate-income Ohioans, according to the Ohio Department of Development.
The funds have declined considerably over the last 10 years.
Clark County applied for $168,000 in CDBG money this year, down nearly 50 percent from the $317,000 the county was awarded just a decade ago.
The $168,000 the county will apply for later this month is 5 percent less than the $177,000 officials received in 2013 and nearly 30 percent less than the $239,000 allocation in 2012.
Fleck said New Carlisle, Bethel Twp., Enon and Catawba sought CDBG funds for road projects, but the county can only submit a grant application later this month for two of the four communities due to the limited funds available.
He said the county may have to consider having communities such as New Carlisle, Bethel Twp. and others alternate applying for CDBG money as the funds continue to shrink.
Skiba said CDBG funding is critical to the village.
“We can’t afford a $40,000 to $50,000 project on our own. For us, the CDBG funding has been very important. We wanted to try to apply for a $45,000 project this year, but were denied. It’s unfortunate that the funding has shrunk,” Skiba said.
He said officials will seek CDBG funding again next year.
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