ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County is making arrangements to do some paving with Ohio Public Works Commission funding, but rising oil and gas prices mean an increase in costs.

The Belmont County Board of Commissioners accepted bids Wednesday for two major projects.

The paving of Glencoe Road to St. Clairsville, Jacobsburg to Glencoe Road and South 26 Road was estimated at $888,571, but a bid from Shelly and Sands came in at $968,252.55; one from NLS Paving at $1,092,001.90; and one from Cast and Baker Inc. at $1,262,182.

A paving project on Winding Hill Road in Pultney Township was estimated at $701,559, but the bids were as follows: Shelly and Sands $765,111.50; NLS Paving $799,601.35; and Cast and Baker $976,717.

The commissioners turned the bids over to Belmont County Engineer Terry Lively’s office for review and recommendation. Lively said the aid is positive news.

“The county engineer’s office has received two OPWC projects in the same year. Both these are large paving projects. Both are obviously roads that have been long overdue for paving, so we’re happy to get these projects,” Lively said. “We anticipate getting the money from OPWC after July 1 of this year, so these will be constructed, we anticipate, later this summer.”

He said the increased cost is not expected to impact his evaluation of the bids.

“But the additional costs will have to come out of the engineer’s fund, because we’re limited on our OPWC fund, so anything over what our grant award and loan award will have to come out,” he said.

“Prices of asphalt’s gone up dramatically since we’ve put those estimates together,” Lively said. “I’m not surprised they’re over the estimate.”

“We applied for these last fall. It’s a competitive process. We’re competing against other villages, other counties, part of the state, and we were fortunate to get two projects passed this year. It’s the first time the county engineer’s office has received two projects, so we’re very happy with that. These are both large paving projects and very much needed. This is a good way for us to take our local tax dollars and stretch them. By combining the grant dollars we can get more done.”

Lively hopes OPWC will approve the beginning of work on July 1, then the county will establish a contract, schedule pre-construction meetings and start work late in July or early August.

“We’re just anxious to get started,” he said. “I know the residents are anxious to have it done as well.”

Lively hopes to have the work completed in October. He said there are about two dozen residents on the Glencoe Road areas and many people utilize the roads daily.

“Both projects we maxed out the grant dollars, which is $400,000 … on both projects individually. We also got some loan money for both projects at zero percent,” he said.

Lively said the Winding Hill project is about 3.3 miles long and of the three Glencoe Road segments, the South 26 one is 1.25 miles, North Glencoe Road is 1 mile long and South Glencoe Road is 2-3 miles long.

“These are segments of roads that were not improved by oil and gas activities,” Lively said. “Some of these roads haven’t been paved in 20 years or more. That’s way too long.”

High fuel prices are also being felt by other departments. The commissioners entered into a vendor agreement on behalf of the Department of Job and Family Services to provide gasoline for individuals who have medical appointments outside of the local area, effective July 1, 2022-June 30, 2023, with Hissom’s Service Center, NSB/2 Partners and Zeake’s Suncoe & Sun Shop Exxon to have a maximum billable amount of $15,000 each. This is an increase of about $5,000 each from prior years.

Commissioner J.P. Dutton said fuel-using departments have seen increases across the board.

“It’s having a big impact on the sheriff’s office, senior services, they drive a lot of miles,” Dutton said.

He added these costs will likely figure into the budget for next year.

“We started the process of having departments send in their individual requests, sort of the scope of where they see next year,” he said.

The commissioners will next consult with Auditor Cindi Henry in August, then begin holding individual budget hearings.

“You mention things like gasoline prices, you mention things like just general inflation, food inflation … that’s a big impact,” Dutton said. “It’s going to be very interesting to see how the rest of this year falls out. The sales tax right now is trending a little bit up as compared to last year, so we’re holding our own. … We’ll just see how the year finishes out.”

Dutton said the commissioners do not see job cuts as likely.

“I would say it’s always a possibility, but I would say it’s a minimal one at this point. We’ve done a pretty good job of trying to prepare for those type of things. The first year of the pandemic was a great example of that. We did not have to cut services or cut staff during those times, and I would be surprised (if that were necessary).”

Also, the commissioners will hold a special meeting at 2:30 p.m. today to make a bond payment for the ongoing sanitary sewer system project.