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Land bank: No good news for Belmont school demo

T-L Photos/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Kathy Kelich, chairwoman of the Belmont County land bank and county treasurer, reports on the state of land bank projects Tuesday. The plan to provide asbestos abatement of the former Belmont school at a reduced cost continues to run into obstacles.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Land Reutilization Corp. had little in the way of good news about needed asbestos abatement at the former Belmont school building.

The organization, also known as the land bank, held its final meeting of 2019 Tuesday. Chairwoman Kathy Kelich reported speaking with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency recently and learning that the land bank would have to utilize an earlier and more expensive evaluation for the project rather than a later estimate that would have halved the cost of abatement.

“If we wanted to, we could proceed to bid this out once again, but I would remind everyone so far we’ve paid just in bidding that has gone absolutely nowhere … $6,386.31 of the $89,000 that I put into the account for this project,” Kelich said.

The land bank had hoped to pay for the asbestos abatement of the 1915 structure, while the village of Belmont would have paid to demolish the building. The first asbestos evaluation resulted in an estimate of $199,000 to remove the substance. The second resulted in an estimate of $89,000.

The land bank had intended to pay for the abatement with $89,000 from delinquent real estate tax assessment funds through Kelich’s office as Belmont County treasurer.

“It’s not the land bank funds we’ve been utilizing to bid this, but at this point I’m not even sure where to go,” Kelich said.

Board members Josh Meyer, Jerry Echemann and Greg Reline heard the report. Scott Porter was absent.

“The board has to decide how to proceed at this point, because we have now received all our information,” Kelich said.

Belmont Mayor Stan Sobel said he hopes to hear more favorable developments in the future. He will leave office on Dec. 31, as he did not seek re-election. Village resident Ron Woods will replace him as mayor.

The board also discussed and tabled the matter of a $28,000 bill from the Belomar Regional Council dating from 2016, when Belomar’s contract as the land bank’s director, administration and bookkeeping entity expired. The contract had begun in 2015. Kelich said the bill covered a variety of activities, but she said Belomar had not provided sufficient details and receipts.

“We … want to satisfy that bill, but we want to do it in a manner that is satisfactory to the board,” Kelich said.

In terms of funding for future projects, Kelich said the state has not yet reserved more money for land banks.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t see something coming in the next few weeks, or even the beginning of next year,” she said. “Right now, we have a lot of unknowns. As far as our projects, we still have funds to do projects, so we’ll continue to do our work until our funds are completely expended.”

Projects in the early part of 2020 likely will include demolition of a property in Flushing along Ohio 331.

“We’re just going to start taking care of some of the nuisance (buildings) and asbestos in those buildings as well,” Kelich said.

In other business, Reline, who serves as a Richland Township trustee but did not seek re-election to that seat, said he does not yet know if he will continue to represent the township trustees on the land bank next year, but he commended Kelich’s leadership and the land bank’s efforts.

“It’s just a very positive committee, and there’s been a lot of good done in the county,” Reline said. “Everybody’s worked pretty well together.”

The land bank’s next meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Jan. 14 at the Belmont County Courthouse, 100 W. Main St., St. Clairsville.

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