Mahoning Township supervisors discussed preparing for the upcoming outdoor season at Wednesday night's meeting including the Community Development Block Grant project planned for repaving and repairing the curbing along West Side Drive, purchasing equipment and planning other roadwork.

"Peter (Eisenbrown, the township engineer) suggested we contact the water company to have them make any repairs now as well as run any new lines they want to install before the work begins on that road," Supervisor Bruce Steigerwalt said.He said the township should probably also contact the homeowners whose curbing will be affected so they can make other arrangements. He told the board once the work is done, they won't be able to use their driveways for about 30 days.Steigerwalt also said the Mahoning Township Municipal Authority will need to install manhole risers or else they will have to jackhammer out the covers when the road is completed. He said the authority wants the township to supply the risers, but the board discussed this and disagreed.Steigerwalt said he felt the authority should purchase and install the risers and it was not the township's responsibility to test the seals. Supervisors Frank Ruch and Shawn Haggerty agreed the inspections and testing should be the authority's responsibility.In other township business, the supervisors voted 4-1 to buy a leaf blower at a price not to exceed $300 for the road crew to assist them with cleaning potholes before patching. Chairman John Wieczorek was the lone dissenter as he was leaning toward purchasing a compressor.He pointed out in the discussion before the vote that it would have more than one purpose. Using a leaf blower was suggested since road crew leader Ron Reeser was using his own tool to clean out the potholes, and Steigerwalt said he should not have to do this.Ruch said, "If we are only blowing out holes, then I wouldn't waste my money on a compressor when a $200 leaf blower would work."Supervisors also voted on a motion by Steigerwalt to authorize the Reeser to purchase a walk-behind concrete saw at a price not to exceed $2,500 and to get three bids for the equipment before the purchase. The motion passed on a 5-0 vote.The purpose of the equipment is to square out the holes and damage on the township roads so a patch will work better. Currently a saw is rented at $100 a day, but with the amount of attention the roads need, the board believed the purchase of a saw was more economical.Haggerty suggested they also look at used equipment as they might be able to pick up a better saw in very good used condition for the price of a smaller new saw.The supervisors also agreed to get bids for repainting the Normal Square intersection as well as the Lowe's/Carbon Plaza intersection. The latter intersection's maintenance is the joint responsibility of Carbon DAK which owns the mall and Lowe's, and they provide escrow accounts to cover such work.