T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Belmont County Commissioner Jerry Echemann moves to adopt a resolution to apply for an Ohio Department of Natural Resources Nature Works grant.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution Wednesday to apply for an Ohio Department of Natural Resources Nature Works grant.

If awarded, the grant will be used to develop an accessible playground adjacent to the Dave M. Lucas dog park, situated off Ohio 331 west of St. Clairsville.

“This is an idea of former Sheriff Lucas, who came up with the idea for the dog park, and it’s named after him and now he would like to try to secure a grant to put a playground next to the dog park,” Commissioner Jerry Echemann said. “If you are at the dog park with your dog and your kids, everybody will have a place to play.. It’s mainly the former sheriff who’s doing most of the work on this, but he has to run it through the board of commissioners.”

Commissioner Vince Gianangeli made a motion for Echemann to sign the inter-agency agreement between the Commission, the dog park and Recreation Funds Inc.

“I’ll note that the Belmont County commission shall act as the applicant for the Natureworks Round 31 grant,” Gianangeli added.

According to ODNR’s website, the grant provides up to 75% reimbursement assistance for local government subdivisions such as townships, villages, cities, counties, park districts, joint recreation districts and conservancy districts for the acquisition, development and rehabilitation of recreational areas. The cutoff date to apply for the grant is June 2.

Echemann added that the motion for him to sign the agreement will allow the county to show that it has matching funds for the grant.

“If we get this grant, our match will be the land that the playground will be on, as opposed to cash,” he said.

Echemann noted that if awarded the grant, the county will be allotted $24,000 to be used for the future playground.

He then moved to approve a proposal from ERB Electric Co. in the amount of $65,000 to provide and install all of the necessary equipment for a new Generac Brand 75kVA 68 kW, towable generator for the Belmont County 911 department. He said that the proposal is based on the recommendation of Belmont County 911 Director Bryan Minder. It was approved.

“The generator will be used when one of the tower site generators are down for service and maintenance, and it’ll be paid for with levy funds,” Echemann said. “911 is one of those critical services where you just can’t have a power outage, so that’s what this generator will help prevent.”

Commissioners then approved a motion to make a payment of $17,280 to Border Patrol LLC for the Sargus Juvenile Detention Center’s restroom shower remodel project. He added that the project was based upon the recommendation of Sargus Detention Center Executive Director D.J. Watson.

“Sargus is a 51-year-old facility, so it was badly needed and the work is progressing there,” Echemann said.