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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- The Belmont County Board of Commissioners touched on future building projects and upcoming developments Wednesday.
Richard Hord of Martins Ferry asked if there were any updates to plans to hopefully expand the Belmont County Jail. The commissioners said this project is on "standby" after applying for funds from the state last fall and being passed over when the award recipients were announced in April.
"There's a $50 million program currently in the state of Ohio to provide counties with funds to do jail upgrades," Commissioner J.P. Dutton said, adding that statewide needs run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. "The demand far outweighs the program's support."
He added that the population of the 144-bed facility has not reached the close-to-200 population staff had dealt with prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Daily population has been in the 150 range.
Dutton said after the meeting that he foresees funding assistance as a necessity in a jail expansion project if the county is to meet the needs of safety and security.
However, other building plans are moving forward with promise.
"Our immediate priority is the health department, the records department and the coroner's office, which are all part of one building project which we're having a design worked on right now. That project will move quite a bit over the next few months," he said.
Dutton said eight firms have made requests for qualifications for the construction of a new animal shelter. The commissioners hope to have discussions about preliminary designs and cost estimates soon.
The firms are Architectural Innovations, Bostwick Design Partnership, M.A. Design, Matyskiela & Grant Inc., McKinley Architecture and Engineering, SMP Design, TC Architects and the WDC Group.
Dutton said a new shelter is the best option for the county.
"It's very much needed," Dutton said. "It would be a waste of taxpayers' money to place a significant amount of money in the existing shelter. It needs to be a different facility," Dutton said.
Also, Frank Papini of St. Clairsville brought up the recent conflict between animal shelter staff and former volunteers and staff which has persisted for the past several weeks and led to commissioners temporarily suspending the volunteer program until new policies dealing with volunteer duties and the animal shelter's social media could be established.
Two former volunteers, Aaron and Jodi Apitzsch, were banned from the shelter for reportedly posting information on social media about the animals that was not accurate. The Apitzsches responded that they only posted their impressions of the animals. Since then, others have spoken and written letters protesting the ban.
Papini suggested Dog Warden Lisa Duvall speak on the matter.
"I think the dog catcher should at least come and explain the situation and kind of clear her name and clear the air. That would be a good idea, because everyone else shows up here and explains the situation," he said. "We can put this thing to rest."
"From our standpoint it is to rest. The program is restarting," Dutton replied.
Commissioner Josh Meyer agreed.
"We have confidence in Lisa Duvall as the dog warden. I think she does a fine job. When you're in a position like that, of course people are going to complain about what you do. It's not an easy job, and everybody's going to give their opinion when they're on the outside looking in. And even when folks come in for just a couple hours a week or five to 10 hours a week and giving their opinion on what they think should be done or how it should be done, it's always easier to do something like that rather than do the job. Again, we're thankful for the volunteers, we appreciate the work they do."
Meyer said the decision to remove two volunteers from the list was not made lightly. Dutton said the volunteer program will resume in June.
Duvall could not be reached for comment.
In other matters, Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer commented on last Wednesday's annual session of the county's township trustees, which addressed subjects such as partnerships between townships and Belmont County, as well as projects such as Ohio GIG/Belmont County GIG's work to install underground network fiber in many areas where high-speed broadband service is not available. He said they are "setting the table" for new development.
Shaffer said it was important for the public to hear of these developments.
"We need to get these things out there," he said. "With the engineer's department, the roads and bridges and the paving, he's got grant funding coming. There's a lot more coming that people don't see. I know these roads are bad. We need to fix slips and bridges for the safety factor before we get to the paving. The paving's on its way, and we're working on some of it, and it will take years because there's a lot of road issues out there."