STEUBENVILLE — The Jefferson County Board of Commissioners signed off on an agreement Thursday that will allow their sheriff’s deputies to assume responsibility for law enforcement in Yorkville.

Village officials had already approved the contract, prepared by Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Blake.

Sheriff Fred Abdalla Jr. told commissioners a deputy will be assigned to Yorkville, but when and if needed, will assist with calls in other parts of southern Jefferson County.

“This contract will bring enhanced police coverage from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, with one deputy assigned to the village, 40 hours a week, (plus) extra K-9 coverage as well as utilizing the police office as a substation, which will help reduce response times and allow our deputies to complete work without always having to come back to the main office,” Abdalla said.

Yorkville’s former chief, John Morelli, left in January, after reportedly clashing with the former administrators over accumulated vacation, comp time and sick time, as well as disagreements about insurance and pay increases for officers.

Current village leaders had shopped around for a solution to their policing woes, fielding proposals from several communities for amounts ranging from between $125,000 and $190,000 before settling on the sheriff’s department.

Commissioner Eric Timmons said he’s pleased with the agreement.

“I wanted that money to stay in Jefferson County,” Timmons said. “Hopefully, YTR (Yorkville, Tiltonsville and Rayland) can eventually work together, I think it would be beneficial. I think it will give them more service and help out greatly.”

Commissioner Tony Morelli said it’s “good news for Yorkville, it’s good to have a cruiser down there and a southern presence” for sheriff’s deputies.

“It keeps the money in Jefferson County,” Morelli said. “More importantly, there will be better and quicker response times by having a deputy constantly in the area.”

Commissioner Dave Maple also was pleased, adding the contract “looks sound and a good way to resolve (the village’s) issues.”

“All the parties should be happy,” he said, adding, “It sounds like a problem that was resolved through good communications between the county and Yorkville. I didn’t participate in those discussions but I’m glad to see it happening.”

Commissioners, meanwhile, pointed out that during the last five years the department has gone from having two cruisers on the road at night to five.

“We’re safer, that’s for sure,” Morelli said.

Abdalla told them he’s “proud of what we’re doing, proud of the product we’re putting out.”

Commissioners also agreed to ask Blake to look into their options in dealing with a problem property in Dillonvale. They said the former commercial property has fallen into disrepair and neighbors are at their wits end in trying to get it removed.

Maple said the property in question, located “next to the courthouse in the southern end,” used to be a store. He said the cost to tear it down currently is about $250,000, “that’s a lot more than the land bank can handle.”

He said there’s also asbestos to deal with.

“The property owner has been paying the taxes so we can’t take it,” he said. “Nobody including the land bank which I sit on, has the ability to really take care of this.”

“It’s been a nuisance property for a long time, but it’s just recently been legally declared a “nuisance,” Maple explained. “Adjacent property owners are looking for some assistance from anybody, but the problem is everybody has restrictions — whether it’s financial restrictions, governing restrictions and law restrictions to being able to help. Today we pushed it to the prosecutor to see if a board of commissioners is legally permitted to be on someone’s property to tear down a public nuisance. You think logically, yes, we could do that but we want to make sure that question is answered. And then if we are able, the question becomes how can we fund that, where do we fund that and do we want to fund it. It’s just a big ask.”

Timmons and Morelli agreed they need the prosecutor’s counsel, though they also expressed reservations that it should be the property owner, not local government, that ponies up the money.

“I almost feel like taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay to clean up some of these properties,” Timmons said. “People invest in them and then they don’t do anything with them — that’s their responsibility (but) people shouldn’t have to live next to those.”