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STEUBENVILLE -- The Jefferson County Port Authority's search for a new director continues.
The port authority board held its monthly meeting by teleconference Wednesday evening, and the progress of the search was a topic of discussion raised by Judge John Mascio.
The search for a new director began in August when Evan Scurti was shifted to a part-time role as incentives manager after serving as the executive director since December 2013. Scurti has continued to handle the port authority's day-to-day operations in the interim.
Rob D'Anniballe said that after some delay from the Ohio Economic Development Association due to what they said was a computer error, the job posting was ready to be run when provided with who the applications will go to and a time frame for the posting to run.
A decision was made for the applications to go to D'Anniballe and for the posting to run for 30 days.
Related to the director search was the need for an appointment to the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission.
Scurti, who had been the port authority's representative while director, offered his resignation from the BHJ board in light of his change in roles, leaving the vacancy.
A motion was made for port authority Chairman Greg Nemeth to be appointed to the BHJ board temporarily with the understanding that the new director will assume that role when hired.
Nemeth said there will be similar vacancies needing to be filled in the future as Scurti served on several boards on the port authority's behalf.
The board heard from representatives from Steubenville regarding a plan to transfer property to Habitat for Humanity for construction of a single-family dwelling through the port authority.
The two lots located on North Fifth Street were said to be vacant and not in use by the city.
City Council recently passed an ordinance to enter into an agreement with the port authority to transfer the property.
Costa Mastros said the transfer is a donation and no money will be transferred. Habitat for Humanity will cover any fees. There will be no cost to port authority.
Agreements for the transfer will be provided for review and a vote on the agreement is expected to take place during next month's meeting.
"Habitat for Humanity does good things and does good work," Mastros said, calling it a "worth-while thing to do."
Gary Folden, the port authority's fiscal adviser, was approved to represent the port authority during its upcoming audit.
In discussing recent finance meetings, Jay Zatta said private funding is down $10,000 from last year.
Zatta thanked Folden for organizing the meetings through conference call.
The board approved the payment of two invoices to Hull and Associates. Nemeth said he expects to wrap up the port authority's portion of the process regarding the industrial park wetlands permit issue for a property in the county.
He said the next step is for the Jefferson County Commissioners to take action.
"We have been chasing this for a long time," Nemeth said.
The next port authority meeting will take place on May 27. Board members will determine if the meeting will again be by teleconference or back in the Towers Building depending on the coronavirus situation closer to that date, as the situation continues to change.