PROJECTS AHEAD — City Engineer Mike Dolak, standing, runs through a list of road projects slated to get underway over the next three months. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — The final two members of the city manager credentialing committee were chosen Tuesday by City Council.

Ame Taggart, a business consultant active in the Ohio Valley Business & Professional Women’s Club, and the Rev. Jason Elliott, First Westminster Church, were chosen from a field of five to round out the panel, which already includes Councilmen Joel Walker, Dave Albaugh and Ted Gorman, with current City Manager Jim Mavromatis in an advisory role.

Walker, councilman at large, said the committee’s role is to make sure applicants meet the qualifications for the city manager job as stipulated in the charter.

Once their credentials are vetted, it will be up to the full council to interview candidates and decide who will take the reins when Mavromatis retires in 2026.

Walker said the credentialing committee “will be looking at everything that comes in,” verifying information submitted to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

“We’ll basically go over the resumes, make sure all the qualifications are there and that their references and everything check out,” Walker said. “Then those will be submitted to council as a whole and then council as a whole will pick the next city manager.”

Council members were asked to recommend members of the public to serve on the committee. Walker, who organized the process, abstained while Councilman Royal Mayo declined to participate after he was asked to choose just one of the two names he’d submitted.

“This committee will be checking the resumes to make sure they have the qualifications and the references check out,” Walker stressed. “Then it will forward the resumes to council to select the new city manager.”

Mavromatis, meanwhile, said any vehicles left in the city parking lot on Fourth Street–across from the Grand Theater–Thursday and Friday will be towed.

“The parking lot behind the (old) city building will be closed again for the contractor to come in to seal the cracks and get the top coat ready to be on there,” he said. “A lot of people are parking there overnight and really shouldn’t be. We’ll put notifications out and the vehicles that are there will be towed.”

The lot in question was damaged when the old Moose building was demolished more than a year ago. With the ensuing litigation resolved, the parking area has been “all filled in and patched, they’re going to reseal it and stripe it,” officials said.

City Engineer Mike Dolak reported NLS Paving, St. Clairsville, was awarded the contract for the 2025 Community Development Block Grant street resurfacing and the city’s 2025 hot mix resurfacing program. NLS Paving was low bidder for both — $345,593 for the CDBG program, which he said should start “in the next two-three weeks,” and a total of $501,826 for the hot mix program, including the add alternate — Oregon Avenue from Brady to Oxford. Because Ohio Public Works Commission funding is involved, that work won’t begin until July.

Shelly and Sands, Rayland, was awarded the nearly $193,231 contract for the County Road 43 resurfacing. It also includes OPWC funding and won’t begin until after July 1 and has a late September completion date.

Dolak said the Fort Steuben Drive sidewalk extension was awarded to Fort Steuben Maintenance of Steubenville, the low bidder at $57,467.

Committee meetings were set for 6:30 p.m. May 13, finance committee, and 7 p.m., economic development.