LISBON — Bids for the long awaited Elkrun Township water and sewer line extension project will be opened at 9 a.m. Jan. 29 in the Columbiana County engineer’s office.

“We’ve been working on this for over three years now,” county Commissioner Mike Halleck said.

Commissioners agreed Wednesday to advertise for bids for the project at the request of county Engineer Bert Dawson, with the specifications, plans and bidding requirements available online at bidexpress.com. The bids will be submitted electronically.

The idea of extending water and sewer to the Elkton area was discussed two years ago when two Elkrun Township residents came to commissioners to ask what surveyors were doing in their area.

That’s when Halleck explained that the company Global Pak on Elkton Road was expanding and he thought they’re going to need water and sewer, so the idea was being explored and was in the preliminary stages through the county engineer’s office at that time.

The water and sewer line extensions will serve Global Pak and a dozen households in the Elkton area.

County Chief Deputy Sanitary Engineer Troy Graft previously said the county received approval to install a utility bridge to bring the water and sewer lines over the Little Beaver Creek, which has the designation of a Wild & Scenic River.

The project will include 2,400 feet of force main for the sewer which will be pumped to the county’s treatment plant near Elkton and a water line extension stretching 6,000 feet from Scroggs Road out to Elkton.

In other business, commissioners gave permission for Dawson to advertise for bids for the Calcutta-Smith Ferry Road realignment project, with electronic bids set to be opened at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 29.

The engineer’s office has been working on a multi-phase project to rehabilitate County Road 430, which is known more commonly as Calcutta-Smith Ferry Road, with some of the previous work including eliminating a curvy section of the road just west of Vernon Dell Tractor, along with widening, curb and gutter improvements, and correcting horizontal and vertical alignments.

Chief Deputy Engineer Mary Browne said this latest project is known as Phase 5 and will cover .35 miles of Calcutta-Smith Ferry Road at the intersection of East Liverpool Road and will include a water line relocation at the intersection.

Commissioners also approved the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development Community Facilities Grant Agreement involving $1.5 million for the county engineer’s garage expansion project.

Commissioners made corrections to the terms for appointments to the Columbiana County Port Authority Board and the Buckeye Water District Board, with the corrected end date Dec. 31, 2028 for the CCPA and Dec. 31, 2030 for the BWD.