ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The need for child support among Belmont County’s children is a challenge and the Belmont County Board of Commissioners recognized the need Wednesday when they marked Child Support Awareness Month.

The commissioners heard from Cindy Berry, child support administrator for the county, on the state of child support demand and compliance. She said Ohio collects about $1.7 billion in child support in a year, with Belmont County accounting for $10 million.

Berry said one of out three children in Ohio is part of the child support system, and 40 percent of Ohio children are born out of wedlock. She said this can often be mentally and physically detrimental to growing children.

Berry said her department works closely with entities including the Belmont County commissioners, the courts and the prosecutor’s office and sheriff’s office on matters such as establishing paternity for newborns, with DNA testing at the Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services. She said 13 employees handle the monitoring and enforcement of child support cases in the county.

“On average, we have 3,200 cases in Belmont County. In July, we had 3,107,” she said, adding that five years ago her office was at 4,100 cases.

Berry said these cases are further complicated when they are enforcing an order outside of Ohio on a parent who is from or has moved to another state.

She said the children’s ages range from newborns to those who are emancipated and graduate high school at age 18.

Berry said Belmont County ranked 18th in the state for arrears collections in July. The caseload ranks Belmont County in the category of “medium to small,” with 25 other counties.

“In arrears collection we rank seventh in that category,” she said. “In collection of current support, in the state we’re eighth and in the medium-to-small category we’re third.”

In paternity establishment, Belmont County ranks ninth in the state and sixth in the medium-to-small category.

In answer to a question from Commissioner Jerry Echemann, Berry said her department makes an effort to avoid jail time when possible for failure to pay child support.

“Our collection rates are higher, I believe, because of the tactics we use. We are really taking a softer approach than we have normally in years past. We like to pick up the phone, reach out to our clients, get their scenarios. There are tons of barriers out there that maybe prevent someone from paying their support, and we would like to know that,” she said.

Berry said economic issues during and following the COVID-19 pandemic also took their toll.

“Unemployment payment when COVID had hit had a great deal to do with the children still receiving the payments that they needed. Not a huge decline in Belmont County, but we did see a decline with COVID and unemployment rates,” she said.

Commissioner J.P. Dutton commended the department.

“It’s tremendous work by the staff,” Dutton said. “It has a long history in Belmont County of being very effective when it comes to child support.”

Berry said the collaboration between different entities in Belmont County is vital to effectiveness.

Belmont County DJFS Director Jeff Felton said the child support staff have a frustrating task in working with dissatisfied parties on all sides.

In other matters, two employees of Belmont County GIG visited the board to request an easement to lay underground fiber across county property, specifically near the Belmont County Senior Services building. The company is working on installing underground fiber for better internet access, focusing first on the underserved rural areas of the county.

Field engineers Caroline Shaffer and Gabriel Donahue spoke about their progress since the business started about two years ago.”

“We’re going to be placing fiber optic on Oakview Drive to supply internet services to the businesses that are on Oakview Drive, and this will all be underground,” Shaffer said. “We are on National Road 40 currently, we’re working on our ‘backbone’ fiber, which is our main fiber, and we are working west towards Barnesville right now. We don’t really have a timeline, because you can’t get a timeline on that kind of stuff, but we are working efficiently and effectively.”

She added that under ideal conditions, they hope to have the backbone completed by the end of the year.

Donahue said there has been progress.

“It’ll be from Belmont College all the way to Barnesville and Bethesda,” he said. “The backbone will be connecting the two data centers.”

She and Donahue said they have 93 customers so far among households and businesses.

“I would say we have a good chunk of customers,” she said.

Shaffer did not know the exact number of miles laid, but access fiber will branch off of the backbone.

Donahue added the fiber runs about 3 feet underground.

Dutton commented on the challenge of laying fiber underground.

“We appreciate it because it’s going to be a better product for the residents there,” he said.

About 11 people are employed by Belmont County GIG.

Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer, Caroline Shaffer’s father, was excited about the project.

“This is a quality product in this county,” he said.