T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Belmont County commissioner Jerry Echemann makes a motion to authorize Commissioner J.P. Dutton to sign and enter into a Grant Agreement for Community Corrections Facilities between the State of Ohio, Department of Youth Services and the Oakview Juvenile Residential Center in the amount of $2,860,987.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The road salt for Belmont County will soon have a roof over its head after a vote from Belmont County Commissioners on Tuesday.

Commissioners voted to enter into a contract with Miller Builders of Ohio LLC, for $214,780, which will go to Belmont County Engineer Terry Lively’s 25-12 Salt Storage Barn project.

Commissioner Jerry Echemann said that, when he first got into office, he was speaking with Lively and asked him where the county stores its salt and Lively informed him that the county doesn’t really have a facility to store the salt.

“I said, it just lays on the ground outside?’ And he’s like, ‘yeah,’ so I was just amazed that our salt just sat up uncovered. But now we’re going to rectify that,” Echemann said.

Commissioner J.P. Dutton added that the storage facility was desperately needed for the county and is glad to be able to finally fill the need.

“I’m happy to see this project move forward,” Dutton said. “The engineer is pretty excited about it.”

The commission also voted to re-up its grant agreement for community corrections facilities between the State of Ohio, Department of Youth Services and Oakview Juvenile Residential Center. The agreement is for $2,860,987 and runs through June 30, 2026.

“This is an annual motion that’s a partnership between the state, specifically the Department of Youth Services and Belmont County as it pertains to Oakview Juvenile Residential Center,” Dutton said. “They’ve been here in the past for presentations or updates, as well as Juvenile Probate Judge Al Davis. We appreciate the partnership, and look forward to that again in 2026.”

Dutton then made a motion to accept a proposal from H.E. Neumann Company for $75,405 to replace the old HVAC system with a Honeywell electronic system for the original side of the Belmont County Jail.

“It’s a fairly old piece of equipment. Originally we looked at a possible replacement, that replacement was going to be north of $50,000 to do a replacement of that piece,” Dutton said. “We then looked at replacing the entire system, and obviously at a larger cost. But we thought this was a wiser use of funds, rather than just replacing one component.”

He then made a motion to approve the allocation of $25,000 to Wheeling Health Right for the fiscal year of 2025 for the provisional health care services and medication for low-income, uninsured residents.

“We’re happy to have a partnership with Wheeling Health Right. Almost all of their funding comes from West Virginia sources and obviously, I would say a majority of their clientele are West Virginia residents, but they do serve Belmont county residents,” Dutton said. “In order to be able to provide that service to Belmont County residents, it requires funding from Ohio and in this case, Belmont County. So we’re happy to see that this program service is continuing for those residents in Belmont County that are able to utilize Wheeling Health Right.”

Dutton also made a motion to approve a quote from Digital Data Communications Inc. for $13,541 for eight Lenovo Desktop computers, seven monitors, and seven monitor stands for the Belmont County Auditor’s Office.

The commissioners met Tuesday instead of their normal Wednesday to accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday. They will meet Tuesday, Dec. 2, rather than that Wednesday since all three commissioners are travelling to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio Winter Conference.