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Linda Harris DISCUSSIONS – Steubenville City Manager Jim Mavromatis, left, and General Council Kimberly Hahn discuss grant applications in a private moment ahead of the council meeting on Tuesday.
STEUBENVILLE – Now that they’ve received the $ 761,000 grant they spent years researching for a new fire truck, Steubenville officials are hoping to donate another large enough to cover the cost of hiring six additional people.
Fire chief Carlo Capaldi was told on Friday that they had received $ 761,000 for the cost of a new fire truck. The city’s local match amount is around $ 40,000, and Capaldi told council he plans to withdraw the money from the 0.7% tax revenue budgeted for his department. He told the council the truck should be available in about a year.
City manager Jim Mavromatis said he hoped they could land a Staffing Grant for Proper Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, to go along with it.
“We have tried the last four years on the SAFER grant,” he said. “We desperately need it. “
Mavromatis said the department had to absorb the cost of its new ambulance service, quickly approaching the first anniversary of its launch.
“We were lucky to have been able to buy ambulances with recovery money (COVID), but we cannot use it (for) the posts”, said Mavromatis. “With a SAFER grant, we could replace the positions that we had to remove for the ambulance service. “
He said they were seeking funding for six positions, adding, “I hope we get it.”
Capaldi, meanwhile, told legal director Costa Mastros that there is little they can do with the truck they are replacing as they are using the grant money to replace it, “We can’t sell it like a working fire truck,” he said. “It should be more of a scrap or collectors’ market. It’s been used quite a bit, so it’s not really a collector’s item.
In the remaining cases, the council temporarily added a post to the police department, voting 5-0 in favor of an emergency law allowing the police department to rob an officer before a captain’s mandatory retirement in November. Once the official retirement, the organization board would return to its normal number.
Council also voted 4-1 on an emergency law allowing the purchase of properties needed for Phases 3 and 4 of the Lovers Lane widening project. The dissenting vote was cast by Ward 1 Councilor Asantewa Anyabwile, who asked why the legislation referred to an attachment stating “How much is spent on this parcel of land” but it was not in the package given to the council before the meeting.
“I don’t know if people in the public know how much is being spent on this piece of land,” she said.
Five plots are involved – 3.5 acres stretching from Fort Steuben Drive to Theresa Drive (phase 3) and 0.5 acres at the corner of Sinclair and Lovers Lane (phase 4), with a prize of $ 120,000.
Phase 3 would be “Should be started in 2024”, City Engineer Mike Dolak said, adding that the Phase 4 expansion is “Just in concept plans right now, we haven’t started anything. There is no deadline for anything yet.
Councilor Kimberly Hahn also announced that the group Big Red will perform at Beatty Park on Thursday at 6:30 a.m. Participants should take something to sit on.
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