City will recoup material costs of crack sealing work

NORTH ROYALTON – City officials learned Monday that they have been awarded $48,029 from the county to put toward crack sealing county streets this year.

In 2014, the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works offered a program to reimburse those municipalities who conduct their own crack sealing in house for material costs and labor spent on county routes. In years past, the city typically handled the crack sealing upkeep of these roads, along with city and state roadways.

The city was ambitious and applied for all the county routes within city limits.

This included both Wallings and Royalwood roads from Ridge Road to the eastern border; Akins Road between Edgerton and Bennett roads and from Route 82 to the eastern line; Cady Road between Ridge and State roads; Boston Road between West 130th Street and Ridge; the northbound lane of West 130th between Boston and Sprague roads; Sprague’s eastbound lane between West 130th and York; both Abbey and York roads between Route 82 and Sprague; Albion Road between West 130th and Ridge; and Wallings between York and Ridge.

Due to the high volume of applicants and budget constraints, the county informed those who applied that only a limited number of projects would be funded this time around.

Fortunately for North Royalton, all the projects the city submitted were selected for funding. Material costs will be recouped; however, labor costs will not due to the funding limitations.

Mayor Bob Stefanik said every little bit helps.

“We will take the $48,029. Anytime someone can help us out, it’s worth it. Obviously, that opens up funding for other service-related work elsewhere in our community. We’ll get the crack sealer out as soon as the weather breaks,” the mayor said.

Service Director Nick Cinquepalmi said he, too, is thankful for the crack sealing aid.

“I’m feeling pretty good. It would have been nice to get the labor costs. The labor costs are almost double the material costs. But we will gladly accept this. We are very happy to get this money,” he said. “We’ll take this $48,029, hit it really hard this year and get it all done.”

Once these roads are sealed, this will mean that every main road has been crack sealed recently with the exception of Tilby, Bunker and Route 82.

Last year, the city crack sealed the entire stretch of both Ridge and State, as well as several other development streets.

“We were out almost every day the sun was shining,” Cinquepalmi said.

The county reimbursement program is a five-year program, per county council resolution. Municipalities are encouraged to submit any unsuccessful or additional projects for consideration in the coming years. Cinquepalmi said he wanted to get in as many county streets this year as possible, so that if more work is needed in the next four years or so, this program is still available.

The goal of this program is for cities and the county to partner together to improve county roads.

“The hope is that by continuing this effort, together, we will improve the condition of county roads throughout Cuyahoga County,” wrote Bonita Teeuwen, director of Public Works, in a letter to the city.