Screenshot Belmont County Commissioners Josh Meyer, from left, J.P. Dutton and Jerry Echemann answer questions Wednesday about possible road paving in 2021.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County commissioners are anticipating recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and infrastructure upgrades to facilitate commerce.

During their Wednesday meeting, Martins Ferry resident Richard Hord mentioned winter’s impact on Belmont County’s roads and asked if funding was available to address repairs.

“Is that going to be a special challenge?” Hord asked.

“We meet with the county engineer (Terry Lively) pretty much on a regular basis to discuss his budget, how much he’s got going in and what kind of paving we can do,” Commissioner Jerry Echemann said, adding the paving of county roads for many years has chiefly been done through road use maintenance agreements with oil and gas companies that utilize the roads.

In addition, Echemann said a large-scale Ohio Public Works Commission project is upcoming. Among potential projects is Belmont County Road 4, beginning outside Martins Ferry and ending at U.S. 250.

“That’s one I hear a lot about. I hear about other roads too,” Echemann said.

Commissioner Josh Meyer said the engineer’s available funds from license plate fees have increased since the commissioners raised those fees several years ago.

“The numbers in that fund are looking good. They’ve increased by about $1 million a year. As far as the gas tax, the numbers did increase in that area as well. We’re hopeful … last year (income) wasn’t as high as anticipated, revenue was still up by about $675,000 more than the previous year. The numbers are looking good, now it’s just incumbent on the engineer how he plans on using that,” Meyer said. “His funds are still coming in at an adequate rate.”

“From a funding standpoint, there’s not much else that can be done for the engineer. He gets his funding from two sources, license plate fees and the gasoline tax,” Commissioner J.P. Dutton said. “It’s not the general fund’s place necessarily to pave roads completely.”

Dutton added that the general fund is used to bolster grant applications, such as offering to provide local matching funds for projects.

“There needs to be paving done, in my opinion, on the annual basis coming from the funds that are supposed to be doing that paving,” he said.

Echemann added that stocks seem to be rising, signaling a possible return to normalcy.

“Where people start traveling again and going out again,” he said, adding more traffic will mean more funds for the engineer’s office to work with.

“We are getting more revenue than what we had previously, because of the gas tax. The license plate fees that we passed are being used for slip repairs, so those really aren’t available for paving,” Lively said afterward, adding that fuel tax funding is primarily used for paving. “I’ve got some other projects on the horizon where I’m going to have to match money as well.”

Lively said his office has been approved for OPWC funds including $400,000 in grants and $329,490 in loans, to be available after July. Depending on the bid amounts, Lively said he expects the entirety to be used.

“We have an OPWC project on Colerain Pike that’s coming up this year. We’ll be paving from Ohio 647 to U.S. 250. It also includes a wall repair,” he said.

Lively declined to speculate about what further road paving might look like, since his office has diverse responsibilities and demands.

“It’s a little early to answer that question,” he said, adding he continues to review funds and possibilities with the commissioners. “They have indicated that they were interested in helping with some of those projects. There’s a lot of variables right now in the size of the projects that are coming up. I’ve got to have match money set aside for those.

“I’ve also got to see what kind of (new) slips we’ve got coming up this year,” he said. “I’ve also got to see what slips I’m going to have to deal with that are three years old. … There’s a lot of pieces to this puzzle.”

Hord also inquired if any updates were expected regarding possible announcement of an ethane cracker plant that could be coming to a site at Dillies Bottom along Ohio 7. S spokesman from PTT Global Chemical America recently denied a report that the project would be delayed again. The commissioners said the see its potential.

“We’re certainly hopeful it’ll continue. I still think we’ve got a better chance of it happening than not. It is not being postponed on an indefinite basis,” Echemann said. “We still expect to hear something, perhaps in the mid-year timeframe as to whether they’re going to move forward or not. They’re searching for a financial partner, and we hope that comes to fruition and we get our cracker plant.”

The commissioners also thanked Dr. John Johnson for purchasing and reopening East Ohio Regional Hospital in Martins Ferry earlier this month.

“That was a herculean task,” Echemann said.