BAUGHMAN TWP. − Trustees agreed this week to use American Rescue Plan federal funding to help pay for a project on Tannerville Road that will help solve a drainage issue.

The township has allocated about $5,000 of its fiscal recovery money for the project, according to board President Jeff Kaufman, which can be used for infrastructure projects.

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The Board of Trustees held a special meeting Wednesday and voted 2-1 to use the funding to pay for improvements expected to cost up to $4,000, which include digging up old and broken clay tile along the road ditch and installing plastic pipes to carry rainwater away from the road and residents' properties.

Kaufman explained Friday in a phone interview that the project will make the ditches drain faster and help relieve some flooding for three property owners on the west side of Tannerville between Back Massillon Road to before Fosnight Road, whose driveways erode during heavy rains.

“It was a matter of having the money to fix the problem,” Kaufman told The Daily Record after the meeting.

Trustee Robert Graber voted against the plan.

Graber had said at an Aug. 4 meeting that the ARP money should be spent in the township (buying needed equipment, such as a dump truck and backhoe) and that residents on Tannerville Road may be willing to share the costs for their properties, according to meeting minutes posted online.

However, Kaufman said, inflation is affecting many families, and having to help fund fixes would be another burden on property owners.

The road is highly traveled, Kaufman said Friday, explaining the clay pipes were probably installed in the 1950s and the roadbed is beginning to collapse.

"You can see a definite collapsing where the water is laying ... with heavy trucks and tractors using the road starting to push the road down," he said via phone.

There is no set date for the work to start, though, Kaufman said, he expects it to be soon as the township has received the go-ahead from the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office for the use of the federal money.

"We're in the process of buying the pipe," he said, estimating the work could begin within the next six weeks.

The road will be periodically closed throughout the day during construction and will maintain one open lane to keep the traffic moving, Kaufman said.

Trustees will next meet at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 8, in the township office.