T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Belmont County commission clerk Bonnie Zuzak, left, speaks Wednesday with county Water and Sewer District Director Kelly Porter. Porter reported on water infrastructure projects that have become somewhat more costly due to construction delays.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County is repairing road slips and paying down loans for the work.

On Wednesday, commissioners approved a payment of up to $2 million in roadway improvement bonds for a loan to repair slips dating from 2018. According to the county engineer’s office, Belmont County sustained close to $12 million worth of road damage. The county must complete the work before being reimbursed with federal funds through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Belmont County Engineer Terry Lively reviewed the county’s progress.

“This was originally a $4 million loan that we took out in January of 2019, borrowing against the recently enacted license plate fees … so that we could get a quicker start on our slips from the 2018-2019 disasters and it’s worked very well for us. We’ve been able to get a good start on those slip repairs. We still have several to go, but we’re making good progress on that. The $4 million was in anticipation of a 20 percent match, and it was required for our federal highways projects, plus we were anticipating paying for the FEMA repairs up front and then get reimbursed.”

Lively added that the reimbursement process has since been streamlined, leaving the county with some funds not currently being utilized.

“I’m paying those off this year,” he said. “We’re going to pay off an additional $1.5 million from last year’s $3.5 million notes.”

In answer to Commissioner Josh Meyer, Lively said about one-third of the slip repairs are complete.

“We’ve completed 26 slip projects. We’ve got another 24 that are in some phase of development or design, and we’ve got 29 currently that are unfunded … that we have to fix on our own,” he said, adding the slips occurred in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Lively said the interest charges when the loan was taken out were about $120,000 yearly.

“That’s why I’m paying as much of this off as I can,” he said.

“I think we’re going to get through a lot of our federal highway projects in 2022, and that’s our 20 percent match. That’s probably going to eat up somewhere between $1.5, maybe $2 million, just on those projects. That will leave us some capital to work with to be able to work on the other slips, but if we’re getting that close to the end, I want to pay this off as soon as possible. I don’t want to pay any more interest than what I have to. At that point, I think our annual (gas tax) funds will take over and we’ll be able to continue knocking these slips out as we have funds available.”

Lively said a list of 2021’s projects will be compiled by the end of the year and it will be extensive.

“I don’t know that the engineer’s office has ever done this much work, and 2022 looks to be just as busy,” he said. “We’re going to have more slip projects coming to fruition.”

He hopes to have the majority of loan projects complete by this time next year, and for the loans to be paid off in a year or two.

The commissioners also approved an amendment to the June 6, 2018, agreement for engineering services with ADR & Associates LTD for the Summerhill Lift Station project for an increase of $38,257.18, making the new construction total $121,777.18. Meyers said this was due to a longer construction duration and will be paid for by the United States Department of Agriculture funds.

Belmont County Water and Sanitary Sewer District Director Kelly Porter gave an update.

“We don’t anticipate using all that money that was requested,” Porter said. “Materials, delays, that kind of thing. … We’re getting really close to finishing that project up. We should have substantial completion, probably the second week of January.”

The commissioners also approved an agreement with Ohio Power Co. to attach wireless communications devices on distribution poles for the water and sewer district’s new metering system. There is no charge for this.

“We’re really fortunate to get that agreement with (American Electric Power) and also we have one with South Central,” Porter said.

This will allow meter reading to be done by remote.

“In the long run, this will allow for greater efficiency for the district,” Meyer said.

In addition, following the replacement of three fixed air tank filling stations at the Bellaire, Bethesda and Cumberland Trail firehouses, the commissioners gave the outdated compressors that were removed to the Cumberland Trail Fire District.

Cumberland Trail Fire Chief Tim Hall said the installation was done late last week and training with the new compressors is complete. The cost of each new compressor was about $60,000.

“We felt since the commissioners were gracious enough to replace the equipment, the least we could do was handle the disposal and/or salvage,” Hall said.