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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Work has begun to raze the long-unused former Belmont County Home on Bannock-Uniontown Road.
Commissioner J.P. Dutton said Wednesday that asbestos removal is underway in the building. The former boiler house has already been torn down.
"The timeline is for the bigger building to be down by, I think, early to mid-December," Dutton said. "These next couple weeks you're going to see a lot more activity there."
Dutton added that the county home was built in 1872 and had fallen into severe disrepair, so renovation was not an option. He said the asbestos removal has a cost of $51,800 and the demolition $168,300. This includes the former office for the Belmont County Sanitary Sewer District.
When space is cleared, the county will be able to continue plans to construct a new health department building with a coroner's office also to be located there.
In other matters, Belmont County Engineer Terry Lively provided information outside the commission meeting regarding the awarding of points for potential funding by the Belmont County subcommittee of the Ohio Public Works Commission. A county project was ranked third, following proposed projects in Martins Ferry and Shadyside and ahead of a Barnesville project.
"Ours was the repair of a slip on Hospital Road (Bellaire) and the paving of Hospital Road once the slip repair was done. Of course we don't know at this point whether we're going to get funded or not. We'll have to wait 'til December to get the results," he said.
He said the road is located off of County Road 214 in the Bellaire area. The total cost is in the range of $971,598.
The county is asking for about $400,000 in grant funds and for a zero-interest loan of about $319,000. Lively said the slip issues date from the disaster of 2018, and it was not covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"The second week of December is when we expect to know whether or not it'll get funded," he said, adding that the funding will be released in July. Lively said the slip repair should be completed in about two months, with two additional weeks for paving.
The first-ranked project gets 75 points, the second gets 65 points, the third gets 55 points and the fourth gets 45 points.
"We're going to be looking at 455 (points) with the county points. Last year, 455 was the cutoff point, so it's going to be close, whether or not we get funded," he said.
Lively said Martins Ferry's project is a joint endeavor with Pease Township to address two slips on Dutch Hill Road, as well as paving, for a total cost of about $1.1 million.
Shadyside's project is in concert with Pultney Township for paving and drainage work on the north end of the village, for a total of about $455,000.
Barnesville also had a paving project including about a dozen streets in the village for a total cost of about $700,000.
Lively is also looking ahead to some significant projects scheduled for 2024.
"We've got two major bridge projects that we'll be working on," he said.
The first is on Belmont County Road 10, or Blaine-Barton Road in St. Clairsville. The cost is expected to be about $1.6-$1.7 million and will kickoff in spring. It will be a rehabilitation project where the county will use the original abutments.
The other is on Belmont County Road 4, or Glenns Run Road, in the Martins Ferry area. The cost is expected to be about $1.3 million and it will begin later in the summer. It will be a complete replacement.
"We've got a third bridge project, but it's a couple years out," he said, referring to the Coleman Road Bridge off of Fairpoint-Maynard Road. "It's an older structure. It's actually an arch-style bridge. It's got four small arches, we're going to replace it with one big span so that it's less likely for debris to get caught on it."
In other matters, the Belmont County Board of Commissioners meets at 9 a.m. this coming Tuesday instead of the normal Wednesday, due to the Thanksgiving holiday.