T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA St. Clairsville Planning and Zoning Administrator Tom Murphy issues warning to community members of a new scam that has recently entered the city.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — St. Clairsville Planning and Zoning Administrator Tom Murphy has issued a warning to residents.

During the regularly scheduled city council meeting on Monday evening, Murphy said that he was recently made aware of two “companies” that are taking advantage of city residents.

M.O.B. Construction and Love’s Paving are going door to door telling residents that they are doing a paving project nearby and have an excess of asphalt in their truck and can do patch work for a set price. Once the resident agrees on the proposed work, the company would do the work and, once it was finished, tell the resident that they owe them more than agreed upon.

“They do the work, but then, how they take advantage of the resident or business owner, is that they say it’ll be one price, which might be $2,000 and then they say, it’s actually $4,000,” Murphy said. “And they’re very convincing people, because, well, they’re scam artists.”

He added that he hates to see people in the community being taken advantage of.

“They kind of convince the person that they’re getting a good deal and they’re probably not. So I always suggest to people, if someone shows up at your door, like that to call the police department or call me,” Murphy said.

He added that if a resident has any questions about the validity of a company to contact him because he can look up if any company has worked with the city before.

Murphy said that a resident gave him the business cards they received from M.O.B. Construction and Love’s Paving and when he reached out to the numbers on the card nobody answered.

“One of them had a website. I tried that website but it didn’t exist,” Murphy said. “I hate to see residents get taken advantage of. And we want to make sure that the contractors are legitimate, whether it’s paving or otherwise. I just don’t like to see them be taken advantage of.”

Murphy added that when the companies go door-to-door and tell residents that the cost of whatever project they’ll provide is $4 per square foot and then will allow the resident to negotiate down to $2 per square foot, which Murphy said is still too much money for a company to be charging.

He added that if a resident doesn’t agree to pay the upcharge, the “companies” will threaten to contact their lawyer which makes the resident feel pressured into paying the extra amount.

Police officer T.J. Stewart then informed council of an upcoming active shooter drill for public safety agencies in Belmont County at St. Clairsville High School on Wednesday at 9 a.m.

The annual drill sees St. Clairsville Police Department, Belmont County SWAT Team, Ohio State Highway Patrol, Richland Township Police Department, Bellaire Police Department, Cumberland Trail Fire District, Wolfhurst Fire Department, Barton Volunteer Fire Department, and and Tactical Dispatchers from Belmont County 911 Center go through a simulated active shooter scenario to prepare if the unthinkable were to occur.

The city’s utility director Anita Robinson added that she was recently made aware that Belmont County 911’s Code Red has been out of service since Thursday. She said that she spoke to Belmont County 911 Director Bryan Minder, who informed her that he became aware that the Code Red OnSolve will not give him any updated information other than they’re working on fixing the problem.

“We’re going to continue to check on that every day until it’s fixed, but for now we can’t use the Code Red system,” Robinson said.