READY FOR REPORT — Jefferson County Commissioners, from left, Tony Morelli, Eric Timmons and Jake Kleineke, are looking forward to Tuesday’s State of the County event at Buckeye Local High School. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — From major capital improvements and Youngstown State University rolling into town to new development opportunities, the Jefferson County Commissioners say a lot is changing.

This week, they’ll update the public on what’s been happening throughout the county during their third-annual State of the County event, set for Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Buckeye Local High School. In addition to comments from Commissioners Jake Kleineke, Eric Timmons and Tony Morelli, the program will include updates from Common Pleas Judge Michelle Miller, YSU Vice President of Government Affairs Sarah Keeler and OSU Extension Educator for 4-H Youth Development Angie Allison.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” Kleineke said. “It had been stagnant for a while, but we’ve got a lot of new programs going.”

All three commissioners cited education, health care and recreation improvements as crucial to Jefferson County’s future.

“We have challenges, like rising medical costs and aging infrastructure,” Timmons said. “But construction is happening. Franciscan University of Steubenville is growing, Trinity Health System just opened a new addition, YSU is coming, and the Tower building is full, just to name a few. There are great things happening.”

Morelli said the positives don’t always get noticed — like the fact that the county-owned Tower building is full, with the rental income it brings in “actually more than the expenses.”

“I think a big thing that’s changed is overall, the appearance of the county, I think we’ve stepped it up,” Morelli said, pointing out they’d made long overdue improvements to the courthouse and other county-owned properties. The shabbiness “was acceptable for a long time because the county didn’t have the money or didn’t want to try to find the money — even our (sheriff’s) cruisers were in horrible shape…but we agreed that we were going to get some of these projects done, some of them when Commissioner Dave Maple was still in office, so he deserves some of the credit.”

Since its construction, county officials have described the Justice Center as a “money-pit.” During the past couple of years, the county has invested “a lot of money, a couple million dollars” into essential repairs there, doing work that’s needed to be done for years,” Morelli said.

“The sheriff, I think, would tell you it’s the first time they passed (the jail) inspection,” Morelli said. “Our facilities manager was down there a lot this past year and we put a new roof on it, but it’s a money pit. It’s one of my concerns, too, because we’re now looking at having to do another project there because bricks are cracking — the (preliminary) estimate is $300,000 to $450,000 to fix it.”

All three of them put “closing the deal with Youngstown State University” at the top of their list of gains: This fall, YSU will launch its Steubenville campus on the county-owned property that previously housed a cash-strapped local community college. Due to the foresight of county commissioners more than 60 years ago in stipulating that, should it stop being used for educational purposes the property would revert to the county, the former community college’s creditors couldn’t get their hands on it.

“And, there’s lots of goodies that came with that,” Morelli said, pointing out YSU only acquired the small portion that houses the primary building and parking lot. The site, which stretches along Sunset Boulevard and John Scott Highway, is considered a prime economic development area.

“We now own more property, prime property, plus mineral rights that we didn’t have before,” Morelli added, saying the development potential is crucial to their future. “But I think the big thing is we don’t have to worry about the cost of maintaining the building,” Morelli said. “I saw where one month it was $15,000 just for the heating bil — now we don’t have to worry about that.”

Commissioners also lauded recreation gains that have been made — particularly the efforts of the Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District’s efforts to develop trails and nature preserves — and expanded broadband access, which they say is needed to bring businesses and workers to Jefferson County.

Milton Recovery, a residential treatment center for those with alcohol and substance abuse disorders, also opened last year. Much needed in a county struggling with overdoses and addiction, it’s also been a boon for the sheriff’s department, which quietly launched a program two years ago aimed at identifying inmates interested in addressing their addictions and helping them access treatment as well as build life skills.

Jail officials have said they “used to be jam-packed” but Milton Recovery’s operation “is really helping,” Morelli said. Since it opened they’ve been “averaging about 85 (inmates).”

“I think you see a new sense of pride in people who just love living in our county,” Kleineke said. “And there’s always the big jobs picture — we want to have new industry coming to town, so we’re talking to (Congressional leaders) about trying to do some things out at the industrial park (like) drone manufacturing. I don’t know how much would be towards green energy-type stuff like that, but I think gas and oil is going to be making a big comeback here pretty soon, and there will be a lot of upticks in the economy with that, and in housing. Of course, we want to try to develop some new housing in the area.”

Timmons said the State of the County is looking at the gains that the county and its residents have made.

“There are a lot of people who harp and thrive on the negatives,” Timmons said. “There are more good things going on, and good people that don’t get the flashy recognition. The State of the County is part of celebrating the successful and positive things happening in Jefferson County.”