$1.5 million will improve road conditions in Niles, Ohio this summer

NILES, Ohio (WKBN) – Improvements will be made to more than a dozen roads in the city of Niles this summer. The 2023 street resurfacing program is the largest in the past five years.

The city of Niles plans to tackle a lot of potholes and cracks in the road this summer.

“It’s not good on anybody’s suspension,” said Bill Fulcher.

Fulcher lives on Fairlawn Avenue.

“I actually broke one of the coil springs in my old car because of the big bumps right here before they patched it,” he said.

His road is one of the streets slated for resurfacing.

“I can’t wait. I mean, it’s probably gonna… we’ll have to go around a little bit but I’ll work with that if they can get it done as soon as they can,” Fulcher said.

North Rhodes Avenue is one of 19 streets scheduled to be resurfaced this summer. It’s all part of the city’s efforts to update its infrastructure.

“It’s a basic need for taxpayers. Taxpayers pay income tax that generates revenue for basic services such as street resurfacing,” said Mayor Steve Mientkiewicz.

The total cost of the resurfacing project is more than $1.5 million. It’s money that will come from local sources ($850,000), Ohio Public Works Commission grant dollars ($150,000) and federal grant funding ($575,000).

Mientkiewicz says it’s the largest resurfacing program since he took office in 2018.

“Moving forward, we want to try to get on a schedule where we have every street identified in the city and we have every street on a cycle so people aren’t waiting 20, 30, 40 years to have their road repaved,” he said.

The following is a list of the roads that will be resurfaced: