Trustees approve contract for stream restoration project

by Dan Holland

July 28 township trustees meeting

Richfield Township trustees voted to approve a design-build contract with EnviroScience for the Furnace Run at Wheatley Road Stream Restoration Project.

The township received notice in fall 2025 that it had been awarded a $362,800 EPA grant to restore Furnace Run, which currently flows through a pond near the intersection of Wheatley Road and Glencairn Forest Drive.

Trustees applied for the grant on behalf of the Glencairn Forest Homeowners Association and are tasked with administering it. The township and Glencairn Forest Homeowners Association established a memorandum of understanding regarding the grant earlier this year.

“We ran this [contract] by legal counsel and they were good with it, and the Glencairn Forest Homeowners Association is good with it,” said trustees Chair Don Laubacher during the meeting. “Their biggest challenge is getting enough dirt in there as they need a huge amount of dirt to fill in that pond. They thought they had an agreement [with a developer], but it apparently fell through; I think due to the timeframe.”

Dave Koontz, of the Summit County Engineer’s Office, joined the meeting remotely to discuss the project. He advised trustees to have legal counsel sign off on the contract and noted that an upcoming stream restoration project in Bath Township could potentially provide needed fill dirt for the Furnace Run project.

“We want to start [the Bath Township project] as soon as possible, but we haven’t advertised it yet,” said Koontz. “I’ve corresponded with EnviroScience; it’s just that we only recently became aware that the township was involved in this project, as we thought it was an HOA project.”

Koontz said he would send updates on the Bath Township project to Richfield Township Administrator Mindy Lott in an effort to coordinate the projects.

Funding grant deadline

Laubacher noted that the August trustees meeting was moved to July 28 to allow time to seek engineering services for assistance with an Ohio Public Works Commission Small Government Grant application and to obtain road-resurfacing cost estimates from the Summit County Engineer’s Office. Applications for the grant program are due Sept. 11.

An engineering study would be used to determine resurfacing costs for Killarney Drive and Dewey, Oviatt, Newton, Harter and Scobie roads for either the township’s 2027 paving program or a project seeking 2028 OPWC funding. Trustees approved the engineering study.

Trustees also approved a $3,500 purchase order to CT Consultants/Verdantas to assist township staff with preparing an OPWC grant application. The money will come from the general fund. The firm will help identify a viable road project and assemble the application package.

“The OPWC has three funding programs: capital improvements, local transportation and the small government grants, and we hope to obtain funding for a road project,” Laubacher told The Richfield Times.

“The small government grant program is only for communities with less than 5,000 people, which might elevate our chances. Verdantas has made a proposal of $3,500 to help us navigate that program.”

In other business, trustees approved:

  • Payment of $4,000 to Allied Corporation for asphalt for road repairs.
  • Payment of $3,460 to Dom Olivo Excavating for asphalt road repairs.
  • Payment of $5,500 to Cardinal Asphalt for concrete curb and road repairs on Glencairn Forest Drive due to a water line break.
  • Payment of $242,058 to Barbicas Construction Company for 2026 road resurfacing.
  • Acceptance of $2,693 from the ReWorks Community Recycling Access Grant into the waste-hauling fund.
  • A motion to declare a 2006 Brother laser printer as scrap.

Photo caption: Richfield Township and the Glencairn Forest Homeowners Association collaborated to apply for a $362,800 EPA grant to eliminate the pond on the corner of Wheatley Road and Glencairn Forest Drive. The pond was created when Furnace Run was restricted to form the pond when the development was created in the 1990s. In recent years it had large growths of algae. Furnace Run is a tributary of the Cuyahoga River. When the pond is eliminated, Furnace Run should be restored to its natural state in that area. Photo by Sue Serdinak.