Lorain County approves $3.18 million engineering amendment and accepts $648,000 CDBG award to advance northwest sewer project

Lorain County commissioners on Feb. 13 authorized a series of infrastructure moves designed to advance a long-stalled northwest sanitary sewer and support countywide community development projects.

The board approved Amendment No. 1 to a consulting agreement with K.E. McCartney & Associates for the Corey Road Sanitary Trunk Sewer — described in the agenda as the Northwest Lorain County Sanitary Sewer — in a not-to-exceed amount of $3,179,200 to be paid from the sanitary engineer professional services account. County staff described the work as civil engineering and construction documents needed to go to bid and said the design and permitting work will take roughly 12 months with a planned bid window following that timeline.

County administrators and the sanitary engineer presented a multi-phase timeline for the project, saying property negotiations and site evaluation work are under way and that construction could begin in stages in 2027, with plant operation planning oriented toward 2030–2032. The county said advanced expenditures may be covered initially and reimbursed later through bonding when financing is available.

At the same meeting the board accepted $648,000 from the Ohio Department of Development under the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The transcript lists specific uses: a public-service meals-on-wheels allocation ($97,200), a sewer-line improvement project in the Sheffield Lakes Maple Grove subdivision (Low- and moderate-income area), waterline replacement, limited-clientele services for the Haven Center homeless shelter, a courtyard playground installation, a fair-housing program ($23,000), and $106,000 for general administration of those projects. The agenda language excluded the cities listed on the application (transcript names appear inconsistent). The commissioners voted to approve the CDBG contract and the outlined subprojects.

Commissioners and staff framed the sewer project as both an economic-development measure and an environmental compliance step tied to Lake Erie water-quality objectives. Officials referenced coordination with the EPA and H2Ohio efforts to reduce sewage discharges into waterways, and said a larger regional wastewater treatment solution would reduce the cost burden on smaller communities such as Vermilion, which the county said faces significantly higher replacement costs if it builds alone.

The board also approved smaller engineering and construction-administration items tied to local road work and other sanitary projects.

The county administrator said the sewer map provided to commissioners was partially redacted in the public packet because negotiations are ongoing with landowners. The administrator reiterated a goal of finishing plant planning and being in position for bonding and construction decisions in the next several years.

Next steps: staff said design documents will go out to bid after the engineering phase and that the county will seek financing and coordinate required approvals; no specific construction contract was awarded at the Feb. 13 meeting.