T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Belmont County Commissioners Josh Meyer, left, J.P. Dutton and Jerry Echemann, not pictured, note Thursday that housing inmates of the overcrowded jail outside the county will continue to come at a cost, and the 2020 budget is likely to see more cuts as a result.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The cost of housing inmates in the overcrowded Belmont County Jail continues to take a toll on county coffers, and this is expected to continue throughout 2020.

On Thursday, the Belmont County Board of Commissioners renewed a contract with Jefferson County to house inmates from the Belmont County Jail at a rate of $65 per day for 2020, an increase of $10 per inmate per day over last year’s price. Belmont County has the option to renew that agreement for 2021 at the same rate.

In addition, Belmont County commissioners signed a contract with Monroe County for housing inmates in 2020, also at a rate of $65 per inmate per day.

“We’re averaging around 185, 190 prisoners, which is over the number of maximum allotment that the jail holds, which is 144,” Commissioner Josh Meyer said.

Commissioner J.P. Dutton said the total expense for housing inmates outside of Belmont County in 2019 was about $460,000.

“The increase, just based on that $10 per day, is going to be an additional $100,000 … unfortunately,” Meyer said. “That’s an additional expenditure we’ll be having to absorb this year.”

He said Jefferson County’s facility takes only male inmates, while Monroe County has taken some female inmates.

“We haven’t had to send them outside of anywhere besides Jefferson and Monroe at this point and time, but we still have those other contracts throughout the state that we can fall back on,” Meyer added.

Meyer said the commissioners continue discussions with the sheriff’s office about the possibility of expanding local facilities.

“We hope to have something scheduled here very soon,” he said. “It’s something that’s definitely going to have to be addressed sooner rather than later, but most likely something will be addressed this year.”

In answer to a question from Richard Hord of Martins Ferry, the commissioners summed up the events of 2019 and speculated about what 2020 could look like.

They reflected on moving the board of elections and title offices to a new, centralized location on National Road. They are now housed in one of two buildings formerly belonging to The Health Plan. Meyer said the county is now moving on with the next phase of relocating the county courts and prosecutor’s office to the second building.

“We’re excited to be moving forward,” he said. “We’re probably looking about sometime early fall next year for that project to be completed.”

Other projects for 2020 include upgrades to the county water and wastewater systems. The budget for 2020 should be announced within the next two weeks.

“We’re proud of how the budget’s worked out,” Meyer said. “We’ve been able to maintain spending at a relatively flat rate, so the budget has kind of leveled off over the last two to three years. Unfortunately, we’ve had to make cuts, but all services in Belmont County continue to move forward.”

The commissioners also have high hopes that an ethane cracker plant may be built at Dilles Bottom, south of Shadyside along the Ohio River.