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LEETONIA -- Leetonia recently received a boost from the Ohio Water Development Authority (OWDA) as it continues to upgrade its infrastructure and move the village into the future.
The OWDA awarded $159,074.54 at 1.52% for 15 years for the construction of 1,600 feet of waterline along Cherry Fork, Wilson, and Home avenues (known as the Cherry Fork Waterline project). Council passed a motion to approve the OWDA loan during its last regular meeting on Feb. 21.
"We are replacing $250,000 worth of water lines this year and that's a big thing for Leetonia," Mayor Kevin Siembida said earlier this month. "We want to make Leetonia a place that people want to stay and that means improving things like the water lines. If people want to stay here, that will pay for the other projects."
The State of Ohio created the OWDA to provide funding for construction of public water and wastewater infrastructure in Ohio. Since its creation in 1968, OWDA has pursued borrowing that assure the OWDA the lowest cost of funds in order to maintain low borrowing rates for the local governments of Ohio. These low borrowing rates allow local governments to construct necessary water and sewer improvements while minimizing the impact to user charges.
All together the OWDA awarded $38.1 million this month to improve wastewater and drinking water infrastructure and make water quality improvements for Ohioans. For the month of February, the Authority funded six other projects besides Leetonia's Cherry Fork Waterline project that will provide improvements and replace aging infrastructure. Other Ohio communities receiving funding from OWDA's Fresh Water Loan Program are Avon Lake ($32,396,776.40, with $25,000,000.00 at 3.56% and $7,396,776.40 at 4.07% for 30 years for the construction of wastewater treatment plant improvements, including new chemical storage, disinfection upgrades, a new fluoridation system, and filtration upgrades), Columbus($3,988,637.81 at 3.72% for five years for the preliminary design of stormwater improvements at the Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant to support the next 20 years of construction projects at the treatment facility), Columbus ($562,030.32 at 3.26% for 20 years for the construction of a 9,000 feet of water line to replace aging waterlines), Doylestown ($170,595.00 at 3.26% for 10 years for the construction of a 3,700 feet of water line to replace aging waterlines), London ($639,569.00 at 3.26% for 20 years for construction of sludge handling improvements to replace equipment that has exceeded its useful life) and Utica ($343,620.00 at 3.72% for five years for the design of wastewater treatment plant improvements, including a new sequencing batch reactor, disinfections upgrades, and digester modifications, to replace equipment that has exceeded its useful life.)
More information about OWDA's financing programs is available at www.owda.org.