Linda Harris DISCUSSION — Steubenville Mayor Ralph Petrella came to Thursday’s meeting of the Jefferson County commissioners to discuss the possibility of the city partnering with the county to hold a Fourth of July celebration

STEUBENVILLE — The Jefferson County Commissioners are taking advantage of an opportunity to try to secure much-needed funding for water projects.

Commissioners Thursday gave Robert Naylor, executive director of the Jefferson County Port Authority, and Andrew Dawson of Arcadis Engineering, the county water-sewer department’s engineering consultant, the go-ahead to apply for grant funding through the Water Resources Development Act. While funding through the act is not guaranteed, the commissioners concluded with so many OEPA-mandated water upgrades on the horizon, if there’s even a chance they can secure grant funding to help offset project costs they have to try.

Applications are due at 6 p.m. Saturday. Commissioners agreed to cover the 25 percent local match that would be required should a Jefferson County Water and Sewer District project be funded.

“We (made) a commitment that we will come up with the match if we get a grant,” Commissioner Tony Morelli said. “We need every nickel we can get for our water and sewage district.”

The water department is an enterprise fund, meaning it’s supposed to be self-supporting, generating money needed to finance operations, system maintenance and capital improvement projects through its fee structure.

But user rates haven’t kept pace with surging construction and maintenance costs: Currently, it costs about $1.5 million to lay a mile of water line. Jefferson County has about 300 miles of water lines.

The county also has 18 water tanks to deal with, each requiring inspections and basic maintenance every few years–and each inspection/maintenance project costs about $1 million per tank. Larger scale rehab work — painting or recoating — typically happens every 20-25 years — and costs millions more.

“We recommended that they apply,” Commissioner Eric Timmons said. “We picked certain projects. Andrew was going to work on the amounts.”

The projects they’re looking at are all on the water side. Timmons pointed out that grant or not, any project they put on their to-be-considered list is needed and “will have to be funded, sooner or later.”

Naylor said the county was invited by U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, to submit some projects for consideration for potential inclusion in the upcoming Water Resources Development Act. He said their participation is a decision the county commissioners, not the port authority, must make.

“I brought an opportunity for the county to apply for funding or a feasibility study or both,” Naylor explained. “This will open doors.”

Later, Dawson said the county plans to submit water projects for Amsterdam, Bergholz and Smithfield for consideration. If accepted and included in the act, the WRDA bill would authorize the Army Corps of Engineers to perform or approve feasibility studies for water projects which “could later roll into construction funds if the project is deemed feasible by the Army Corps,” he said.

The Army Corps provided funding for the Amsterdam and Smithfield sewer projects by including them in their congressional allocation requests. Dawson said the WRDA application would be the first step in a similar funding process.

He said at this point, there’s no dollar value attached to the application.

“We just need to submit the project and, hopefully, have it added to the list for a feasibility study (also known as the Chief’s Report) before additional applications for construction funding are made once the report is completed (if) the project is deemed feasible by the corps,” he said.

Commissioners also were told they have “clear statutory authority” to restrict use of a county-owned parking lot to employees and visitors.

Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Blake told commissioners state law grants them “explicit power” to establish, manage and control off-street parking, including the authority to “establish and collect rates, charges or rents” for their use.”

He also cited an Ohio Court of Appeals opinion that counties can implement restrictions “to serve legitimate government interests” including ensuring access for county business.

Morelli said that means the commissioners “have clear statutory authority to restrict the parking lot to county employees and visitors” and can even charge rent.

Commissioners acquired the property and spent several hundred thousand dollars last year demolishing structures, addressing drainage and paving the lot to provide parking for employees as well as members of the public who have business to transact in the Tower building, which is at near 100 percent occupancy.

Morelli said he’d stopped by a business that’s been parking its vans in the county lot when they had about six spots on their property that were empty.” Employees of that business have said the vans are always gone by 6 a.m., but he and Maintenance Supervisor Patrick Boyles have said that’s clearly not been the case since, at the time of his visit, Morelli said two vans were in the lot. Boyles said he’s also seen the vans in the lot during business hours.

Commissioner Jake Kleineke said another business “around the corner … is using it explicitly for his own use and for his customers,” and employees of business farther down Market Street are also using it.

Commissioners will be posting signs warning use is restricted exclusively to county employees and those conducting business in the Tower building and violators will be towed at the owner expense.

Kleineke said it “puts the kibosh on people saying it’s a public parking lot.”

Steubenville Mayor Ralph Petrella, meanwhile, attended the meeting to pitch the idea of the county and city partnering for a three-day America 250 celebration over the Fourth of July weekend.

Petrella said he thinks county residents “deserve a big celebration.”

“I think as the county seat, we should work together with the county and the other municipalities in the area to have a larger, exciting festival celebrating this county’s contributions to America,” Petrella said.

Commissioners agreed they liked the idea of working more closely together on projects for the public’s benefits, and recommended they meet with the county’s America 250 committee to develop a proposal.

“We understand that our county doesn’t get better if our county seat doesn’t get better, but it has to come from both sides,” Morelli said.

“I’m pleased to be able to have a closer working relationship with our commissioners and county officials,” Petrella said after the meeting. “I really want us to step up our role as county seat. I’m really excited to be able to bring a larger scale celebration to Steubenville for all of our county to enjoy.”