CANFIELD TOWNSHIP — Trustees voted Tuesday to seek a $2 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to deal with flooding around the Pebble Beach area.

The grant application deadline is Friday, so Township Administrator Keith Rogers hung around after the meeting to finish up the online application in time.

“In May of 2019, residents saw the impact of stormwater runoff,” Rogers said. “We have a chance to get a $2 million grant if we are willing to put up a $400,000 local match.”

He told trustees the problem comes from the 53 acres that drains under the Ohio Turnpike and enters two streams around the Pebble Beach area.

The FEMA grant would pay for a detention pond to be built next to the stream. Rogers said the pond would accept water overflowing from the creek. The water would enter the detention pond and be released into the creek slowly to ease flooding. He said the proposed detention pond would handle 138 cubic feet of water per second.

The detention pond would be alongside the creek and would collect water when the creek starts to rise. Rogers said the pond would not be within the creek right-of-way as the Ohio EPA frowns on detention ponds within the creek’s path.

“We’ve had issues on Pebble Beach for years, but this would solve a big flooding problem,” said Trustee Marie Cartwright.

The application for the FEMA funds is due Friday, but Rogers was leaving Wednesday for an Ohio Township Association seminar in Columbus. He told trustees if they approved applying, he would stay after the meeting and complete the application.

Trustees agreed to submit the application, and Rogers kept his word.

Chairman Brian Governor had one concern.

“I wonder how the (federal) government freezing grant money will affect this,” he said.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday paused federal funding so his administration could conduct a review of federal initiatives to ensure they are in line with his administration’s policies. However, a federal judge temporarily blocked the funding freeze until next week.

Trump also has suggested abolishing FEMA.

All agreed the township needed to try. The funds also would finance purchase of two vacant properties on Pebble Beach where the detention pond could be placed. Trustee Joe Paloski said the properties possibly could include a trail and small park.

Also Tuesday, Rogers informed trustees of a request from Birds in Flight Sanctuary.

“There are six dead geese in the Sugarbush area,” Rogers said. “The sanctuary asked us if we could remove the bodies.”

Rogers said the geese died from bird flu, and he didn’t want the township crews handling the carcasses as they could be infected.

“It could too easily spread to our employees,” he said.

He recommended contacting the Ohio Department of Natural Resources or the Mahoning County Board of Health to handle the situation.

In other business, trustees:

l Approved advertising for the 2025 Fox Den paving program at a cost not to exceed $600. The legal ad will run April 22 and 29, with the bids due May 13 and opened at that evening’s township meeting.

l Agreed to adopt a resolution establishing work-permit requirements for excavation or construction within the township road right-of-ways.

l Agreed to adopt the hazard mitigation plan that Mahoning County commissioners adopted in July. The plan needed to be adopted by political subdivisions in order to be eligible for federal hazard mitigation funding.