By Mark Shaffer
The Ironton Tribune

On Monday night, Ironton officials gathered outside the Public Works building to break ground on long-delayed waterline project on South Third Street.
“I am absolutely glad to see it underway,” said Ironton Mayor Sam Cramblit.
The project includes replacing over a mile of pipes along South Third Street to alleviate flooding that occurs when the aging pipes break.
It will also include paving the road from VFW Post 8850 hall to Icy Creek, which has some 90-100 patches on the three-quarter mile stretch of road. The repaving will most likely be done in the spring when the project is completed.
Cramblit said the contractor, Allard Excavating, is expected to start work on the waterlines in the next couple of weeks.
“We anticipate that the work is going to go on until next spring,” he said.
He doesn’t expect major closures of the South Third Street although there are times it will be down to one lane of traffic or rerouted.
“It will be down to one lane a lot of the time,” Cramblit said. “If the road is closed, there will be alternate routes for people to take on Commerce Drive and Lorain Street.”
He said they hope to do the road closures during off peak traffic hours in the evenings.
“Where this is in an industrial area, we won’t be disturbing the peace because there isn’t too much residential area,” Cramblit said.
The project is $3.3 million.
“That number has changed because the longer it has gone on, the price of materials has gone up,” he said.
The project got its start Cramblit’s predecessor, Katrina Keith, when the mayor’s office got a $300,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) for the economic development in that area. Cramblit started searching for federal funds. In April 2023, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced Ironton would be getting $2 million in federal funding to improve the roads and water lines in the area around the city’s industrial park.
When the city accepted the $2 million grant, the original ARC grant had to be repurposed because of a law that prevents two federal funding sources paying for the same project. However, they can use state funds, so they got over $300,000 in state grants for it. Local matching funds were also used making the total funds available for the project around $2.8 million for the road and water line repair and replacement. The ARC grant was used to pave other roads around Ironton.
Cramblit said they will replace just under a mile and half of 10-inch water lines will go down South Third Street, cut through the alley behind Discount Tire Service, go up to Fifth Street and then down Fifth Street to McGovney Street and then loop back to South Third Street.
The lines are old and prone to breaking when the ground freezes and thaws. That has led to some residents facing frequent basement flooding.