Road workers Chad Kelly (left) and David Ice (right) stand with Kenny Biacco, chairman of the board, Yellow Creek Township Board of Trustees in the township’s first salt barn which was funded with grant money from the state.(Photo by Kristi R. Garabrandt)

YELLOW CREEK — With assistance from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which awarded Yellow Creek Township $67,800 in grant funding during the first round of grants issued from the H2Ohio Rivers Chloride Reduction Grant Program, Yellow Creek Township was able to construct the first known salt barn in the township.

According to Kenny Biacco, chairman of the board, Yellow Creek Township Board of Trustees, the township as far as he knows has never had a salt barn to house the salt used for the township’s roadways during the winter. The township has always just had the salt piled on the ground and covered with a tarp, with tires to keep the tarp in place.

“So, when our guys needed to get salt, they would come out at 2 or 3 in the morning, cold, snow, ice, they had to take the tarp off and then take what they need and put the tarp back on,” Biacco said. “It was a lot of work for these guys.”

Biacco noted that they did this for years and there was always snow and ice on top of the tarp they had to deal with before they could remove it. The township learned about the grant in early January and had just a couple of weeks to put an application together. The application was submitted in January. Biacco followed up with a phone call to the EPA asking if they received the application and was told the grant was being looked at then. Biacco noted that the person he spoke to at the EPA during that phone call looked at the photos of how the township stored its salt and said, “Oh my God.”

The township was notified on May 2 that it was one of the 31 award recipients out of over 260 applicants to receive a portion of the $1.6 million available in the first round. They were the only ones in Columbiana County to receive an award during the first round. East Liverpool would be the second one to receive a grant award from the program for a salt barn. East Liverpool was the only municipality awarded a grant from the second round of disbursements.

Each municipality receiving an award could claim up to $75,000 to build a salt barn, and the bid for the one constructed in Yellow Creek was $67,800. Groundbreaking for the township’s new salt began on Aug. 6, and work was completed on Aug. 25 with the pouring of the concrete and sealing it to prevent the salt from eating through it. The work was done by Josh Hartley Construction LLC of West Point. Biacco gave a hearty laugh when he said the guys on the road crew love the salt barn and can’t wait until winter.

He also noted they were going to let the concrete sit for now due to the contractor telling him the longer it sits, the better. He said he looks to start taking delivery of salt from the state and filling the salt barn near the end of October. A press release from the Yellow Creek Township Board of Trustees said the “Ohio EPA is excited about Yellow Creek Township’s commitment to reducing salt in their community and protecting Ohio’s waterways.”

“We are all happy to have it,” Biacco said. “I really didn’t think we would ever get one.”

Lack of funding was the reason the township never had one.

“The trustees: Biacco, Noah Allison, Dan Galeoti; Fiscal Officer Debbie Lyle and road workers David Ice and Chad Kelly are very appreciative of this grant,” Biacco said. “This will save the township money and make the job easier.”