DISCUSSION -- Jefferson County Commissioners, from left, Eric Timmons, Tony Morelli and Dave Maple, listen during Thursday's meeting. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — The Smithfield sewage project is nearly complete, welcome news to Jefferson County commissioners.

The county assumed responsibility for Smithfield operations in 2016 at the behest of Ohio Environmental Protection Agency after the village defaulted on a USDA loan to fix its aged sewage treatment system and was put on fiscal emergency status.

Sewer and Water District Director Mike Eroshevich said the new, $4.2 million system should be up and running within a month.

“(It was) very needed,” he said during Thursday’s meeting. “The plant was completely non-compliant — nothing worked, the pump stations were operating on one pump with no backup; the aeration system was inoperable, control panels were shot. The sludge in the bottom of the lagoon had never been removed. The septic tanks had not been pumped out since it was constructed. Nothing was in compliance.”

He said once EPA rolls out its new ammonia standards, “We may have to add a rotating biological contactor to drop ammonia levels even more.”

“We will see,” Eroshevich added. “After the plant is online we’ll monitor its performance through all four seasons, then determine if an RBC is needed.”

Eroshevich said going forward, they’ll also have to make sure residents’ septic tanks are emptied regularly and, if necessary, replaced. He said they’ve been doing it for several years already and it’s going to be “a continuing thing,” though there’s been no discussion on how that bill should be paid and who should pay it.

He said if there’s any money left when the project is done, “We’re going to see if we can get a contractor to pump them out, but that’s contingent.”

“This is more of a long-term maintenance and septic plan moving forward,” he added later.

The upgrade was funded through a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and another $1 million from the Army Corps of Engineers, Eroshevich said. The remaining $2.5 million was funded through USDA low-interest loans.

Commissioner Dave Maple said they could have bypassed the septic tanks altogether, but it would have more than doubled the price tag. Leaving the septic tanks in play was a more cost-effective way to bring the plant into compliance “but it means having to have them cleaned routinely.”

“The unknown is what it’s really going to cost,” he said.

Commissioners also continue to grapple with how to use roughly $360,000 in oil and gas revenue that’s been accumulating for several years. There are rules about how that money can be spent, but Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Blake recently opined they may expend the funds for a township or municipal corporation’s public improvement within its borders, “so long as the board of county commissioners concludes, in the reasonable exercise of its discretion, that the expenditure constitutes a county purpose.” He also suggested commissioners “have broad discretion to determine whether a particular expenditure serves a county purpose.”

Auditor E.J. Conn said in the past they’ve dipped into the oil and gas revenue to purchase vehicles.

“We haven’t used it a whole lot, really,” he said. “But I know everything we have used it for has been a county purpose.”

Maple had said he’d like to use some of the money to help communities that have grappled with the increased well traffic, and said he also wouldn’t mind using some of the money to upgrade “some of our county-owned parks, some we didn’t even know we had, and bring them up to Class A status.”

And during this week’s meeting Commissioners Tony Morelli and Eric Timmons talked about the potential for an indoor recreation facility similar to one at the Highlands in Wheeling, though on a smaller scale.

Morelli said if done correctly, he thinks it would be self-sustainable.

“I’d definitely like to see the oil and gas money used for recreational purposes,” Morelli said. “I have long thought a county rec center would be a great asset to our county. (We’re) going to take a hard look at doing something, maybe like a smaller version of the Highlands. A lot of research needs to be done, but I’m happy we opened the conversation.”

Timmons said he’d like to see it happen as well, pointing out an indoor recreation facility in Jefferson County could “bring in revenue, travel events, tourism.”

“It will also be a catalyst for other things around it,” he said.

In the short-term, at the suggestion of Conn and his staff, commissioners next week will be asked to sign off on a fund transfer that shifts a $60,000 appropriation to the Friendship Park and Jefferson County Fair Board out of the recreation account, funded by permissive tax revenue, and into the oil and gas account. That will free the recreation funds up for other projects, commissioners had said.

Morelli, meanwhile, said Windstream expects phone service for business and residential customers could be restored as early as Friday — much sooner than the end-of-July prediction that’s been circulating throughout the community. Landline service in the Broadacre and Crestview areas has been impacted, though he said Harrison County customers in the Hopedale area have been hard hit as well.

Windstream is “at the mercy of ATT in getting (a) part replaced,” he added.

Commissioners also:

— Awarded the contract for Ohio Public Works Commission-funded Jefferson County Road 23 and townships resurfacing to Shelly and Sands of Rayland for $1,185,439.50. The engineer’s estimate was $1.25 million.

— Were notified the Jefferson County Drug Task Force was awarded $6,928.69 in Ohio Drug Law Enforcement grant funds. As sub-grantee, commissioners signed off on the award agreement.

— Approved the purchase of two round bullet-resistant speak-thru panels, two drop-in deal trays from Doug Freshwater Contracting Inc. of Wheeling, for $3,300. The quote includes a 30-foot-by-12-foot counter for the panels to sit on for the new Wintersville County Court.

Network cabling will be supplied by M&W Tech Solutions of Toronto for $2,676. Maintenance Supervisor Patrick Boyles told commissioners he got two other quotes for the cabling — one for $3,720 and the other for $9,798.