Jefferson County budget moving forward
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STEUBENVILLE --The Jefferson County commissioners said Thursday they're just about ready to adopt their 2024 spending plan.
Commissioners agreed to send the proposed budget to department heads for a final go-through. If all goes as planned, they'll take action at next Thursday's meeting.
Commissioner Dave Maple described it as "a healthy budget and, frankly, one of the easier ones for us to get through."
"We appreciate the auditor's work on all this," he said. "And almost all the departments--not all of them but almost all--underspent this year. They were frugal with the money we gave them to work with (last year), and it made it a lot easier (this year.)"
Auditor E.J. Conn said the upcoming general fund budget "looks to be roughly $20.5 million.
"We did cut a little bit, but most departments, they were reasonable with their requests and revenues are healthy," Conn said. "I don't see that changing in the near future. I think they're going to stay healthy for a while. Hopefully, next year's budget will be just as easy."
Maple agreed the uptick they're seeing in revenue is a good sign for the county's overall economic outlook.
"Government does as well as the community does," he said. "So, when local businesses and local economies do well, it pays off."
Conn said the final budget must be adopted by April 1, but Jefferson County's could be ready to go by next week.
"That will be the quickest we've been able to pass (one) in quite a while," he said.
Also Thursday, commissioners agreed to begin looking at what can be done to improve water service in the Amsterdam and Bergholz areas. Both communities have been plagued by major and repeated line breaks in recent years -- including main line breaks this week.
Amsterdam Mayor Jim Phillips said residents need relief.
"I recognize Amsterdam is not the only community in Jefferson County that needs new lines, there are others," Phillips said. "But it's my belief ours are probably the worst. I don't know what the answer is, the biggest challenge is going to be funding. But we need to take a good, long look at any funding we can get on the state level."
Jefferson Water and Sewer District Operations Supervisor Jonathan Sgalla pointed out the county assumed responsibility for so "many systems" during the past 20 years, "and the majority of them were failing when we took them over." He said Amsterdam and Bergholz should be considered high priorities, based on the frequency and severity of problems. Fixes would be pricey, but the county's engineering consultant, Arcadis's Andrew Dawson, said they wouldn't necessarily have to replace all the lines at once and said funding agencies "really like" to maximize the impact by using a multi-jurisdictional approach to upgrades.
"(A lot of) our big sewer projects are coming to a close," Maple pointed out. "We've finished up almost all of our sewer projects, now we (just) have maintenance projects, so it's time to look at the next one."
Maple also pointed out that several months ago they passed on a request to take on another failing system because "it's just too much" with all the other updates that need to be done to solidify service for existing customers.
All three commissioners say the problems need to be addressed sooner, rather than later.
"It's impacting people out there every day," Commissioner Eric Timmons said. "It needs to be a priority--we'd like to get everybody working on getting it combined with Bergholz. We need to tackle it now and not push it down the line."
Commissioner Tony Morelli said a few years back they were told replacing the system in Bergholz alone could run in the $7 million range.
"My guess is now, that $7 million would be more like $10 million, but that's just me guessing," he said, adding that a combined upgrade could easily be in the $20 million range.
"We've got to start, though, because it's not going to go away," Morelli said.
Phillips said a combined approach could be good for both communities.
"Folks down in Bergholz are struggling just like we are," he said
Sgalla, meanwhile, told commissioners and Phillips that Amsterdam's brand new sewage treatment plant is being pushed to its limits by an unexplained influx of groundwater. He said the water and sewer department and Arcadis are "going to try and find out" how rainwater is getting into the system, and crews were already out during the last rain event to pull manholes and check volume.
"Something's not logical at the sewer plant," he said. "It's not all sewer water, it can't be."
Dawson said there are several ways to try and isolate problems, but he'd rather start with the least costly first--doing smoke and dye testing.
"It's good that we found out now and can find a way to get back in and fix it," Maple said. "A brand-new system should get hardly any (groundwater)."
Commissioners also:
• Approved a resolution of support for the Jefferson County Port Authority and economic development by demonstrating the county's financial commitment to development of a new spec building at the industrial park.
Maple said the resolution will "let them know if they take on the risks, we're behind them."
"I think they all know (we are) but this will make it official," he said.
• Rejected bids received for a new truck for the animal shelter, pointing out they'd received a bid in excess of $100,000 for a specially equipped unit. Specifications will be revisited prior to rebidding the truck.