ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Due to some technological innovations, the Belmont County Board of Commissioners was able to achieve considerable savings for the recoating of the Fox Shannon, Myers and Glencoe water storage tanks for a total of $756,481.

The engineer’s estimate for the job was $1,485,000.

“A huge savings. It’s about half the engineer’s estimate,” Commissioner Josh Meyer said, adding the engineer who gave the estimate, Jeff Vaughn, contacted the winning bidder, Worldwide Industries Corp., and asked why the bid was so low. “They plan on using this robotic blaster. … We’re excited about the savings of the tanks being painted.”

Vaughn elaborated afterward, saying the automated system eliminates the need for containment of the tanks for dust control and reduces labor costs.

“They hang an assembly. It goes up on the domed roof of the steel tank. It’s a carriage assembly,” he said. The boxlike sprayer hangs over the edge. “This carriage rotates on the top of the water tank and moves that box on the side, and that thing is mechanized to blast the old paint off the side of the tank, and it contains all that blast in itself, and it pulls materials out of the blast, the waste materials. They don’t have a lot of labor associated with putting a container on the tank.”

Vaughn added there is no need to place a tarping material over the assembly to contain dust.

The interior and exterior coating will function to maintain the structural integrity of the tanks. About two or three tanks are recoated yearly.

“This is just part of the routine maintenance they have to do,” Meyer said. “Eventually those tanks need repainted … every 15 or 20 years.”

He said the county has water tanks ranging in capacity from 500,000 gallons to 1 million gallons.

“They all vary in size, depending on the needs in a particular area,” Meyer said.

The other bidders were American Suncraft Co. Inc., bidding $889,610; D&M Painting Corp. at $914,565; L&T Painting Co. Inc. for $935,030; Inspec Coatings Inc. at $971,000; Clearcreek Coatings Ltd. bid $1,038,466; Utility Service Co. Inc. at $1,355,900; George Kountoupes Painting Co. bid $1,377,200; L.C. United Painting LC with $1,639,200; and Nix Companies bid $1,841,096.

Work will begin during the yearly painting season between August and October. Residents at high elevations will notice some water low pressure at times during the work.

In other matters, Meyer confirmed that meal deliveries by the Department of Senior Services were halted due to the heavy snowfall and poor road conditions Sunday and Monday.

Director Lisa Kazmirski released a statement by email.

“I have received several questions about how we make decisions about canceling meal delivery due to the weather. First and foremost, we take the needs of our seniors into consideration in all of our decision making. We also have to balance those needs with the safety of our employees and others traveling, or clearing, the roadways,” she wrote. “Often, frozen meals are delivered to our seniors in preparation of such events. This was done very recently.”

She added that seniors are notified of any cancellations by postings in the media and through phone calls via the one-call notification system.

“If a senior is not receiving the phone notifications, he/she should notify our office so that the phone number on file can be checked,” Kazmirski said. “Office staff can be reached at 740-695-4142. If after hours, a message can be left with the caller’s name and updated phone number.”

Senior Services delivers more than 1,000 meals daily.