ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The long-awaited Belmont County Senior Services Center will open its doors this week, with full operation expected by early August.

The Belmont County Board of Commissioners made the announcement during its Wednesday meeting.

“We had final inspections on the building on Monday. They all went very well,” Commissioner Mark Thomas said, adding that the center has received its certificate of occupancy and is awaiting only the food license from the Belmont County Health Department.

The administrative staff will be moved into their offices Friday, with the cooking staff moving into the building next month.

“Because the July meal schedule is in essence halfway through the month, and because the food service license is yet to be procured, the tentative move for the kitchen staff would be Friday, Aug. 4,” Thomas said.

The opening comes after several months of delays due to the need to rewire some systems and to negotiate an elevator maintenance contract.

“We’re getting the news we’ve been waiting for all this year,” Thomas said, adding that some additional training of the kitchen staff will be conducted to refresh staff members’ memories. “They’re going from a very small kitchen to probably the nicest commercial kitchen that we have ever seen.”

Thomas said the senior center should be in full operation with cooking taking place there and meals being delivered out of the building by Aug. 7.

“There’s some training also with the drivers. It used to be that they were loading one truck at the time,” Thomas said. “The new facility’s going to allow them to load multiple trucks simultaneously.”

In an unrelated matter, the commissioners also announced a possible future expense. Due to constant overcrowding at the Belmont County Jail — with inmates exceeding the capacity of 144 beds — the commissioners are considering the possibility of another agreement to house inmates at the Jefferson County Jail. In 2015, Belmont County entered an agreement with Jefferson County to house inmates at a daily cost of $55 for male inmates and $60 for female, with Jefferson County requiring a minimum of 15 inmates at a time. Belmont County housed inmates at Jefferson County’s jail for three months during 2015.

“There are more prisoners in our jail than we have space,” Thomas said. “We are now looking that we possibly — against all wishes, but we have no choice — we’re looking at having to house prisoners back at the Jefferson County Jail based on the inmate population at Belmont County. We’re going to address that issue. You’ll hear more of that because if we have to do that we’ll be entering into a contract with Jefferson County.”

The county also welcomed Barb Ballint, new executive director of the Belmont County Tourism Council, who gave a quarterly tourism report. Ballint reported on events including the annual National Park Wagon Train, the National Road Yard Sale and the recent Jamboree In The Hills. She hopes to further spread news of the county’s attractions through social media.