Hoping to turn a school building around

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STEUBENVILLE - Mark Nelson took a step forward Monday with his plans to take a home-based woodworking business and setting up shop in the former Lincoln Elementary School building.

The city's Planning and Zoning Commission formally accepted Nelson's request to rezone the 2.18-acre school property on Lincoln Avenue from a public district designation to a general commercial and industrial district.

A public hearing on the rezoning request has been scheduled for Dec. 5, and the commission will ask City Council to approve legislation that will formalize the rezoning.

"I started doing woodworking in my father's basement in 1987 and started getting serious about the business in 1994. And I hired my first employee in 2000. We are now considering moving the business from a 10,000-square-foot building on my farm to the Lincoln school," said Nelson.

"I have talked to the pastor at Finley United Methodist Church and they are not opposed to our plans," noted Nelson.

"We believe the classrooms in the building will actually allow us to operate with a different setup in each room. We now have a custom-made computerized router that allows us to take a 5-by-10-foot piece of plywood, put it on the router and allow the machine to cut out the same design over and over from that piece of wood," explained Nelson.

"Most of our work is now sold through orders and the Internet, but we are considering a retail shop in the building. We may want to go into more retail sales once this is all in place," Nelson said.

Nelson Woodcrafts employees 18 full-time employees along with seasonal college students during the summer.

"We are growing slowly but moving our operations into the school building will allow us to continue growing at a slow but steady pace," said Nelson.

Nelson purchased the school building during an auction authorized earlier this year by Steubenville school officials

In other matters, the commission met in executive session with two members of the Ohio Valley Black Caucus and an African-American woman who unsuccessfully applied for a clerical and fiscal management position in the Urban Projects office.

Delores Wiggins, president of the Black Caucus, said after the closed-door session the woman hired for the position last month, "is the wife of a current city employee and that is nepotism."

"The African-American woman who applied for the job has 30 years of job experience and is very knowledgeable about computers and software programs. If the city is going to continue to hire relatives there is no way the blacks in this city can get a job. This form of nepotism is discrimination," declared Wiggins.

"We don't have a chance of getting a job with the city," added Jane Hyman, a member of the Black Caucus board of directors.

Wiggins said she planned to discuss the issue with Steubenville Law Director S. Gary Repella today.

"But I also plan on going to the Ohio Ethics Commission. It is wrong to hire relatives and this has to stop," Wiggins stated.

During the public part of the meeting Urban Projects Director Chris Petrossi told the planning commission six additional surveillance cameras soon will be installed.

"The city electricians have completed related preparatory work and Southeast Security will have the six additional cameras installed soon," said Petrossi.

The city already has three anti-crime surveillance cameras operating in the downtown, Pleasant Heights and LaBelle neighborhoods.

Petrossi also discussed the fiscal year 2007 street improvement program using Community Development Block Grant funds that saw the paving of Belleview Boulevard has been completed.

He also noted five dilapidated houses have been submitted from his office for demolition.

"The houses at 244 S. Fourth St., 309-311 S. Sixth St., 611 Grandview Ave., 808 Superior St. and 1013-1015 McKinley Ave. are now awaiting approval for demolition," said Petrossi.

(Gossett can be contacted at dgossett@heraldstaronline.com.)