STEUBENVILLE — Jefferson County Health District Commissioner Andrew Henry told commissioners he’s hoping they can have the same impact on suicide fatalities that they’ve had with overdose deaths.

Henry told commissioners this week it’s time to appoint a suicide fatality review committee to look at what’s leading people to take their own lives.

“We do a lot of work as it relates to drugs and alcohol but we don’t do as much as we should be doing for those who are just struggling with typical anxiety and depression that can really harm someone,” he said, later adding that, “It’s a really sensitive subject, but if we don’t take the time to figure out the how and why for the people who we’ve lost, we’re not helping others in the community who are possibly fighting the same issue.”

Henry said they’d seen a sharp decrease in drug deaths since the Overdose Fatality Review Committee was formed in 2022: Three years ago, 40 of the 275 overdoses reported across Jefferson County resulted in death. In 2024, 14 of the 181 reported overdoses countywide resulted in death.

“The goal is not to pry at families that don’t want to discuss their situations, but we definitely want to engage with those willing to share stories and help the community,” Henry said.

Henry credited a “strong collaboration with our first responders, treatment providers and the prevention and recovery board” as well as the coroner’s office and health department staff who served on the overdose fatality committee with turning the statistics around.

“Our prevention and recovery board and our different treatment services have done a lot to expand capacity,” he said. “I think even the work we’ve done just with the overdoses has created a collaboration that we haven’t seen in the past. It’s not common for PRB personnel to sit down with chiefs of police or sheriffs, and our committee does that, and I think that collaboration of the law enforcement piece and the health care piece really is a driving force. We’re going after the problem from all different directions.”

Commissioner Tony Morelli told Henry he’s “for it, for sure.” Later, he said he was aware the overdose fatality statistics had been improving, “but I didn’t know they’d gone down that much.”

“They’ve gone down, significantly, and I think that’s great news,” he said, pointing to initiatives that had been instituted — for instance, helping get Naloxone into the hands of individuals with addiction problems and their families as well as a program operating in the county jail that uses drug and alcohol assessments of individuals entering jail to develop a clinical basis for determining those who are appropriate for treatment, then works with adult probation and judges to see if they are appropriate for treatment programs.

“There’s a lot of treatment going on,” Morelli added.

“If there’s a way to help people that are depressed or thinking about suicide, I’d like to see those resources available to them,” Commissioner Eric Timmons added.

Commissioners also agreed to forward a copy of a resolution that would designate the former W.H. Sammis property and the Hollow Rock Landfill as a priority investment area to the prosecutor for review. That designation brings with it accelerated permit reviews, brownfield funding for site preparation and development costs plus a utility tax exemption, but only brownfield sites and former coal mines are eligible for the designation.

“I think it’s a great step forward toward future economic development,” Commissioner Jake Kleineke said, adding that whatever form that redevelopment might take, they’re hoping it brings lots of good-paying, permanent jobs to Jefferson County.

“You just kind of hope that they develop into jobs that are permanent for local people and contribute to our local economy,” he added.

“We’ve got to do whatever we can to help bring business here,” he said. “I think it’s a no-brainer, but we’re going to run it by (Assistant Prosecutor) Shawn Blake first.”

Commissioner Eric Timmons agreed, saying it would be “a good step.”

“It would be transformational for that area up north,” he said. “That’s what we want to see.”

Commissioners also:

• Opened bids for the county Road 43 and township resurfacing project from Shelly & Sands of Rayland, $656,612; NLS Paving of St, Clairsville, $747,491; and Cast & Baker of Canonsburg, $930,323. The engineer’s estimate was $819,668.

• Opened bids for the county Road 6 bridge replacement project from Shelly & Sands, $1,585,301.45; and Ohio-West Virginia Excavating of Powhattan Point, $1,874,269.10. The engineer’s estimate for the bridge project was $1,592,756.66.

• Agreed to issue a request for qualifications for general engineering and/or architectural services for a Social Security build-out project at the Tower building.

• Approved a memorandum of understanding between Jefferson County Jobs and Family Services and its counterparts in Belmont and Morgan counties for a foster care collaborative that would establish and maintain a network of treatment foster homes for eligible kids.

• Signed off on an agreement between the sheriff’s department and the Jefferson County Educational Service Center for security services at a new alternative school on John Scott Highway.