HUNTINGTON — Huntington City Council on Monday unanimously approved an ordinance authorizing the Huntington Sanitary Board to partner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a riverbank restoration project along the Ohio River in Highlawn.

 

The riverbank near Staunton Road in Highlawn has eroded to the point that more than 1,000 feet of a main sewer line that serves all of the east end of Huntington is exposed, said Loretta Covington, executive director of the Sanitary Board.

 

The project will cost approximately $310,000. The Corps of Engineers will pay for 65 percent of the project, while the Sanitary Board will pay 35 percent.

 

Waste materials from the project will be hauled away on a barge to minimize the disturbance to the Highlawn neighborhood, Covington said.

 

In other business Monday, the council unanimously approved resolutions accepting grants that were awarded by the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance and distributed by the state Division of Criminal Justice Service Services. A $96,250 grant will be used to fund an assistant prosecutor and officer salaries for the FBI Huntington Violent Crime Drug Task Force, which continues the multi-jurisdictional effort.

 

The other grant, $76,199, will be used to fund a program coordinator, statistical analyst and equipment for Huntington’s Drug Market Intervention program. Officials have not publicly shared details about the program yet.

 

The council also unanimously approved the second reading of an ordinance to purchase a new wood chipper for the street department at a cost of $77,748.

 

The city currently rents a 15-year-old wood chipper from the Cabell County Solid Waste Authority, but it can only chip tree limbs up to 6 inches in diameter, and it breaks down frequently, Lucian Kimler, a street division supervisor, told council members. The city has spent approximately $22,000 on repairs during the past 10 years, he said.

 

The new wood chipper can process limbs up to 21 inches in diameter, cutting down on fuel costs, dumping fees and employee costs associated with taking tree limbs to a landfill in Cannonsburg, Ky., Kimler said. The city is prohibited from dumping tree limbs at the old Deitz Hollow Landfill in Guyandotte, he said.

 

During nine months out of the year, the city makes three to five trips daily to the landfill to dispose of tree limbs, he said. That amounts to about $27,600 annually in fuel costs and $25,000 to $30,000 per year in dumping fees, he said.

 

The mulched tree limbs also can be used for city projects and given away to the public for free, Kimler said.
 

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