It is amazing what a decade of well water has done to Sally Macklin's bathtub in Petersburg. "My bathtub was white when I put it in ten years ago, and I just can't scour the rust out of it any longer. It's just embedded," says Sally Macklin. "It's more than just rust, it's fecal matter in well water, one-third of the wells. It's a real health issue," adds Springfield Township Trustee Bob Orr.
Just up the road, an elderly resident's well went dry six months ago. Now she relies on water stored in a tank in her garage. "This is their only source of water right now. The neighbors come and fill it, and everyone just takes care of it for them," says Patti Gibson, Springfield Township Fiscal Officer.
Springfield Township and Mahoning County leaders have been working to bring water lines into Petersburg for years. Just this month, they got good news. Federal stimulus money is coming down the pipeline, $800,000 of it, to put the $1.8 million water project over the top.
Other monies flowed in from grants given by commissioners, even a $100,000 check from local mining company East Fairfield Coal back in 2007. Orr says, "And in doing so, paid for the engineering, so that made us a shovel-ready project for when the stimulus monies became available."
The water will flow from Aqua Ohio straight down Garfield Road and out into about 200 households in Petersburg. "They [Aqua Ohio] also waived the tap-in fee for all the residents, which would have been probably somewhere between 1200 and 1500 dollars," says Orr.
Work on the water lines should start in July, bringing clean, fresh water to the people of Petersburg for generations to come, as soon as this summer.
