If all goes according to plan, crews will start improving several major roadways throughout Johnstown during the next five years.

During the all committee meeting on Jan. 9, village council members and employees discussed the village’s five-year growth budget plan to determine when village roads needing repair would likely be rebuilt and how much it would cost the village.

“Last year we did a roadway inventory,” said Jim Lenner, village manager. “We went out to all the streets and put a value on (them) based on cracking, drainage, what the general condition of the roadway was.”

Lenner said the village graded all the roadways from one to five, with one designating the roads in worst condition.

Four roads causing the most concern were Concord Road and Douglas, Elm, and Payne streets, he said. It didn’t surprise Lenner, who said Johnstown residents frequently complain about them.

Other roads receiving a one rating, at least in certain sections, were Phalen Place and Hyatt Lane. Roads receiving a rating of two, in some spots, were Bigelow and Fairview drives, Oregon, John, and Kasson streets, and McCracken Avenue.

Lenner said the village plans to upgrade Elm and Payne streets this year at a cost of $150,000.

“Elm and Payne (need) milling down, an inch or two of asphalt, and repaving it with a little bit of storm sewer work,” Lenner said. “Not overly complex.

“But Douglas and Concord (need) complete reconstruction of the roadway,” Lenner said. “Taking the roadway completely out and rebuilding that road — therefore (a) much higher price tag.”

He said Concord Road is expected to cost about $1.6 million to rebuild, and while the village doesn’t have a final estimate for Douglas Street, Lenner said it could cost about $400,000.

The village applied for state assistance from the Ohio Public Works Commission for a 74-percent grant and 26-percent loan with no interest to fix these roadways. He’s still waiting to hear back from the commission.

Lenner said it wouldn’t be feasible to fix Concord Road and Douglas Street “without some sort of state assistance.

“Our capital improvements budget for the entire village during any given year is around $240,000,” he said, “and when you are talking about $1.6 million for Concord Road, ... you can’t do that.”

Council and village employees also talked about the five-year storm sewer plan at the meeting.

“The service department is in charge of cleaning and maintaining the storm sewers and there are some problem areas along U.S. Route 62 that don’t completely drain well, so we’re evaluating our storm sewers and deciding on what year we can fix based on the budget we have.”

Similar to the roadways, Lenner said, fixing the storm sewers costs a lot of money and there’s a limited amount of capital improvement money to repair some problem areas.

Lenner said the village hasn’t estimated a price tag to repair the sewers because the service department is still trying to find out where the damaged areas are located.

“We haven’t decided exactly where the problem is because every time we get our equipment in there we get a blockage in the line, so it’s collapsed somewhere and we’re trying to figure out where,” he said.

Lenner said the village typically invests in storm sewer upgrades when it repaves or rebuilds roadways. He estimates it would cost at least $250,000 to fix storm sewers throughout the village.