DETAILS — Steubenville Wastewater Superintendent Chuck Murphy, right, details the reasons behind their request to do soil borings at the south end of the sheriff’s department’s parking lot for, from left, Commissioners Eric Timmons, Tony Morelli and Jake Kleineke. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — City officials got the go-ahead Thursday to do soil borings on a Jefferson County property to determine if it would be a suitable site for their new headworks building, though that’s not a guarantee they will be given permission to use the site.

The headworks project involves construction of a new building equipped with automatic barscreens to remove things like rags and leaves from raw sewage, along with a new grit removal system to keep things like sand, small rocks and eggshells out. The new building and equipment are required to handle a lot more flow during wet weather to significantly reduce the amount of sewage and rainwater that goes to the river.

Wastewater Superintendent Chuck Murphy said the project is non-negotiable — the city must build it to satisfy the terms of a consent decree with Ohio EPA. The only questions are where it will be built and, ultimately, the cost.

Murphy said if they build it on city-owned property by the treatment plant, current estimates put the cost in the neighborhood of $51 million. Moving it across the railroad tracks, on the south side of the sheriff’s department’s parking lot would cost much less — around $30 million.

He told commissioners they’ll be doing soil borings on both properties.

“We need to do soil borings so we can do a proper design and get approvals” from Norfolk Southern, Murphy said, adding the borings will be done at city expense.

Murphy reassured commissioners that doing soil borings doesn’t mean the headworks would or could be built on their property. “You’ve just given us the okay to do the borings, then fill (the holes),” he said.

Commissioner Tony Morelli, meanwhile, announced they’re planning to host their second State of the County forum. Planning is still in the early stages, but Morelli said they’re looking at Feb. 25 at 11 a.m., this time in Indian Creek High School.

The inaugural event was held in Steubenville High School, “but we definitely want to (take it) to all parts of the county,” Morelli said.

Commissioner Eric Timmons said they’ll alternate locations because “all the county matters to us, we don’t want to forget anybody.”

“We’re looking forward to showcasing the positives in Jefferson County, of which there are a lot of.”

Commissioners also discussed the possibility of working with a professional grant writer.

“There are two ways to do it,” Morelli said. “There are companies that are grant writing specialists, that’s what they do. But there’s also thought to hiring (someone) and then putting them in an office.”

“In my travels around this county, everybody I talked to — the villages, the townships — they all need help financially. There’s a lot of money still out there … I’d like to have a grant writer available to us and to them.”

He said with a few successful grant applications “they’d pay for themselves.”