RIBBON CUTTING — Gathering for the ceremonial ribbon cutting outside the new Social Security office in the Towers building, 500 Market St. (fourth floor), Steubenville, were, from left, Social Security District Manager Rosemary Britton, Steubenville Mayor Jerry Barilla, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, Jefferson County Commissioners Tony Morelli and Tom Graham, and Social Security Regional Communications Director Doug Nguyen. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — Wielding the scissors for a ceremonial ribbon cutting Thursday, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, called the opening of a Social Security office in the county-owned Towers building a “win-win” Thursday.

He wasn’t the only one.

“We’re very excited,” Jefferson County Commissioner Tony Morelli said. “This all came about because the Social Security office (formerly at the mall) had a sign that said if you need to see somebody, go to East Liverpool, so I reached out to Congressman Johnson for some information. They probably wouldn’t have come back if we didn’t start putting some pressure on them. We talked, we three commissioners — we have an aging population, it was unrealistic to have them go to East Liverpool so we wanted the office back in the county, and we had space here at the Towers to lease, so it was a win-win, the county has a new tenant. We’ve got plans for this building. Social Security is a good anchor.”

Commissioner Tom Graham called it a “wonderful situation.”

“People can come here and see someone (face-to-face), that’s a big benefit,” he said. “And the fact that now, the building is over 95 percent occupied — we have people paying rent, public entities as well (as private). It’s a huge win for Jefferson County, a huge win for the people. When we bought this building this building was 33 percent occupied. We remodeled it, it looks great. We’re so glad to have Social Security here.”

Graham, Commissioner Dave Maple and former Commissioner Tom Gentile approved the purchase of the Towers and four adjacent lots for parking back in 2013.

“It’s a tremendous asset to have it back in the city,” Mayor Jerry Barilla said. “So many senior citizens who live downtown who don’t have access to vehicle transportation can walk here, but they yanked it out of downtown and went to the west end, then of course when that closed and it went to East Liverpool, it was a devastating blow. Now it’s centrally located, there’s plenty of parking, new facilities, government facilities, it’s a win-win.”

Johnson said it wasn’t as hard as you’d think to convince Social Security Administration it had made a mistake.

“It wasn’t so much arm twisting, the federal bureaucracy is a maze, it’s not very user friendly,” Johnson said. “I’m just glad they understood when we made the case we that we have thousands and thousands of senior citizens in our region who need access to Social Security information and not everybody has online capability, so we we’re really ecstatic when we found out our efforts bore success and the office reopened.”

The new office, located on the fourth floor of the Towers building, 500 Market St., Steubenville, is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.