EXTENDED — Jefferson County commissioners grudgingly extended the deadline for residents in the Amsterdam area to get hooked up to the new sewage system until April, saying it’s hurting the sewer department’s budget. The extension parallels the timeline Carroll County authorities gave their residents. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — The Jefferson County Commissioners made it clear Thursday the clock is ticking for Amsterdam area residents who’ve been dragging their feet on getting hooked up to the new sewage system.

If they’re not using the service they’re not being billed, and commissioners said that’s bad news for their sewer fund which has to repay the money it borrowed more than five years ago to pay for the improvements whether they’re hooked up or not.

“We need that revenue to pay our loan back,” Commissioner Tony Morelli said.

About 400 households, including some in Carroll County, had committed to the new sewage system, designed to eliminate faulty septic systems that were allowing raw sewage to flow into Yellow Creek.

Operations Supervisor Jonathan Sgalla said the order to connect was issued in June 2022 but extensions have been granted to accommodate the pinch from soaring costs — hookups are currently running anywhere from $4,500 to about $7,000, more than twice the cost residents had expected to pay — and difficulty early on finding approved contractors to do the work.

Commissioners had extended the deadline until October for Jefferson County residents, but their Carroll County counterparts gave their residents until April to get hooked up.

After much discussion, Morelli and Commissioner Dave Maple agreed to extend the hookup period until April but made it clear there can’t be any more delays.

“All we did today is we basically said, ‘We’ll extend it again until April so we’ll all be on the same time frame,” Maple said. “But come April we need to get these hookups (done).”

Morelli acknowledged it’s a big expense for homeowners, “but the fact of the matter is commissioners who served before me got a loan … and it was based on the hookups and the revenue we’d bring in. It’s starting to hurt the sewer department budget.”

In other business:

• Maintenance Supervisor Patrick Boyles reported Wintersville county Court is now operating out of its new offices, located at 512 Main St., Wintersville. Boyles said Judge Michael Bednar’s “first day of court in the new building last week … went well.”

• Designated Morelli to serve on the Ohio Mid-Eastern Government Association executive board, with Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District Program Manager Aaron Dodds as his alternate. Maple, Commissioner Eric Timmons and Port Authority Director Robert Naylor round out the county’s OMEGA membership.

Water and Sewer Service Director Mike Eroshevich previously had been the alternate.

• Signed off on American Heroes Medical Services lease in the Tower Building, and renewed Markosky Engineering’s lease at the market rate.

• Delayed finalizing the budget so court officials could doublecheck several items, though it will still be done “a lot earlier than in previous years.”

Maple said he’d taken a look back at all the budgets he’d worked on since he was first elected in 2005 and calculated that, “if we’d only increased our spending 3 percent every year we would be at this year’s spending level” though the budget process from year-to-year isn’t necessarily that precise. In 2010, for instance, he said commissioners were forced to order across the board cuts to address funding issues.

• Agreed to front the money to cover the cost of Malwarebyte licenses for county computers. Funds will then be transferred from departmental accounts.

• Signed off on a contract allowing Luzerne County (Pa.) to house juveniles at the county’s detention center at a cost of $205 per bed, per day, plus an $85 per day educational fee.

• Heard a presentation from Tom Peterson of EnrollX, requesting designation as the county’s Colonial insurance representative.