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Columbiana Port Authority Grants Pipeline Easements
EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio -- The Columbiana County Port Authority granted easements and rights of way Monday night to Arrowhead Utica Pipeline L.P. and Sunoco Pipeline L.P. to install and maintain pipelines, one near the Wellsville Intermodal Facility outside of Wellsville, the other in Boardman Township on a plat crossed by the old Youngstown & Southern Railroad.
Sunoco Pipeline expects to begin work next month on its underground pipeline, Tracy Drake, CEO of the port authority said, and sale of the Y&S line to Mule Sidetracks LLC includes language allowing the authority to grant the easement and right of way before the sale.
The pipeline shall be at minimum of 14 feet below the surface “so as not to interfere with the cultivation of the property,” the grant from the port authority states, and the “natural elevation and contour” of the soil is to be maintained.
The easement granted Arrowhead, to run 30 years, allows the company to build a 10-inch pipe from Clark Avenue through the industrial park to the storage tanks owned by Marathon Oil along the Ohio River. A representative from Arrowhead, Maurice “moe” Barnes, arrived five minutes into the meeting just as the port authority board was about to vote on the matter. No questions were asked of him.
Outside the building afterward, Barnes, senior project engineer, said work on that pipeline should begin the first quarter of 2014.
The board ratified a settlement the port authority reached with Stephen W. Cooper, former longtime member of the board, for him to repay $17,100 in salary for 2011 and 2012. He will reimburse the authority within a month, Drake said afterward.
Cooper retired from the board at the end in March 2011, intending to be rehired. He “incorrectly filed for retirement” with the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System Drake explained, and so could not be rehired. He neglected to inform Columbiana County commissioners, the appointing authority, and so improperly sat on the board until last December when commissioners chose not to reappoint him.
The port authority consulted with the state auditor’s office on the matter and the auditor’s office determined Cooper was not rehired and should repay his salary for the last 22 months he sat on the board.
While the votes he cast, if invalidated, would make no difference in the outcome of board decisions during those 22 months, the board nonetheless ratified and re-approved all contracts, resolutions and other actions in which he participated to remove any doubt.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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