T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Belmont County Board of Commissioners President Jerry Echemann announces that bids are being sought for construction of the planned Belmont County Health Department building.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to advertise for bids for construction of the future location of the Belmont County Health Department.

The bid opening is for all furnishing, service labor, materials, and equipment necessary to construct the Belmont County Health Department’s new location.

“This is an important motion that we just passed because this will, just as it says, advertise now for the start of our new health department building at the site of the old county home, which was torn down,” Commissioner Jerry Echemann said.

He added that the new building will house the health department along with a new facility to store all of the county’s records, which he believes is greatly needed. It will also be the location of the Belmont County Coroner’s Office.

“For the first time ever, the coroner will have an office in Belmont County,” Echamann said. “Historically, they are doctors who have their own offices and their own practices, so they would simply run the Belmont County Coroner’s Office out of their own personal physician’s office, wherever that may be.”

He added that although the county coroner worked out of their personal office for several years, he believes that it isn’t the best-case scenario.

“If you’re going to build a new building that includes a morgue as this one will, then we might as well build an office for the coroner, which is what we decided to do,” Echemann said. “Whoever wins (the election for coroner on Nov. 5) will have their own space and also a little meeting room for the deceased’s loved ones and it’ll be a better environment for everybody.”

The race for coroner is the only contested race on the ballot for Belmont County. Current Coroner Amanda Fisher is seeking re-election against former coroner Troy Balgo. The new location for the morgue has been a hot-button issue for the candidates. According to Fisher, the current morgue is a small shed in the parking lot of the current health department — a location she said was originally a temporary solution that became permanent under the previous administration.

Balgo, her predecessor, refuted that statement and asked why the morgue has not moved in the three and a half years since he left office.

Both believe that inclusion of a morgue within the new health department building will be a good thing for the residents of Belmont County.

Echemann added that bids will be opened on Dec. 3 and commissioners will award the winning bid sometime in January.

“I imagine at that point it’ll be dependent on the weather. They’ll probably do whatever they can in the winter months,” he said of a potential timeline for construction of the new building.

Belmont County Deputy Health Commissioner Robert Sproul said that he believes the health department outgrew its current building years ago and the new building will allow it to add new programs as well as bring the Women Infants and Children program back into the health department’s building.

“This will enable residents on the west side of the county to be able to easily access the program,” Sproul said.