Stark County officials seek extension on federal grant for U.S. 30

Officials working on extending the U.S. Route 30 expressway east from Canton are conceding they cannot get funding commitments from private companies and investors in time to meet the deadline to keep an $18 million federal grant.

So they're more fervently seeking an extension of the Sept. 30 cutoff, which can only be granted by Congress, officials said during a virtual meeting Friday morning of the three-county Regional Transportation Improvement District.

The three counties are Stark, Columbiana and Carroll counties. They're having more conversations with the staffs of U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta; Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland.

More: U.S. Route 30 project facing important deadline

Time running out

Stark County Commissioner Richard Regula said he's spoken recently with staffers with Portman and Brown.

"We are going to move forward and ask for the BUILD grant extension for one more year," he said. "They seem to think it's going to be a heavy lift. And they think they can get it done."

The RTIP has submitted a request to the Ohio Transportation Review Advisory Council for $70 million to extend the U.S. 30 four-lane expressway about three miles east from Trump Avenue SE in Canton past East Canton to state Route 44.

The cost of construction is expected to exceed $100 million.

In November 2019, the RTIP got the $18 million grant for U.S. 30 through the program then known as the BUILD Transportation discretionary grant program. The acronym stands for Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development. The grant funds originally had to be used by September 2021. Congress extended the deadline until September 2022.

More: Route 30 expansion gets $18M boost

The RTIP's consultant Tony Urankar of MS Consultants said that the Federal Highway Administration expects financing for the entire project be lined up by the end of this month to meet that Sept. 30 deadline.

But in a meeting on May 25, members of TRAC said they were not comfortable approving the $70 million request until the RTIP has commitments by companies and investors to finance more than $10 million of the project.

So far, State Sen. Kirk Schuring, R-Jackson Township, said one company, whom he has not yet disclosed, has verbally committed to contributing $1 million over 10 years or $2 million over 20 years.

“So we’re making progress. The concept is working and we’re getting attention," he said. "It's a slow progress, however."

Urankar added that ODOT District 4 may be able to provide "safety funds" of $3 million to $4 million for the project. Plus, the RTIP is seeking a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to cover the cost of mine mitigation when extending the highway.

Meetings

Schuring, Regula and other officials associated with the RTIP have held a flurry of meetings to try to sway companies and private investors.

On Wednesday afternoon, Schuring, Regula, Canton Mayor Tom Bernabei and Michael Crawford, president and CEO of Hall of Fame Resort and Entertainment Co., met with representatives of a "national" company.

The officials sought to pitch an investment in extending U.S. 30. The meeting took place at the newly constructed Constellation Center for Excellence at the Hall of Fame Village.

Schuring in the RTIP meeting Friday declined to identify the company.

But he said last month at the last RTIP meeting and in an interview that he was set to meet with a vice president from the Chicago offices of Amazon on June 15, which was Wednesday.

"We made the presentation about the voluntary assessment," Schuring said Friday morning, referring to his campaign to ask local companies to voluntarily contribute money toward the U.S. 30 extension. "These are companies who would benefit from the logistical advantage they would have where we would cut the amount of time for them to get their products from one place to another by 30 minutes or more. This company is very well known and growing by leaps and bounds. They now have a new presence in Canton and that's why they're interested in the logistical advantages we can offer through the voluntary assessment."

Amazon last year purchased the former Skyland Pines golf-course property in northeast Canton and announced plans to build a fulfillment center on the site that would hire more than 1,000 employees. It had planned to open the center this year but announced in March it was postponing the opening to next year.

More: Amazon delays opening Canton facility until 2023; nearby road to be aligned

Schuring said he's also set to soon meet again with another company with its headquarters in Ohio and a presence in Canton that's also expressed interest in contributing.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Officials seek private funding of U.S. 30 extension