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STEUBENVILLE -- Jefferson County commissioners were told Thursday there’s an exposed sanitary sewer line in Cross Creek that will have to be repaired.
District Director Jonathan Sgalla said the wastewater line is what is considered “a force main,” meaning it is pressurized and “pushes the wastewater toward another lift station to eventually arrive at a treatment plant.”
“The line became exposed due to stream bank erosion and will require corrective action to protect the infrastructure and prevent future damage,” he said. “Because the repair is located within the stream channel, the project will likely require environmental permitting before work can begin. In addition, we will need to complete an Information for Planning and Consultation (IPaC) review to determine whether any federally listed threatened or endangered species or designated critical habitat may be impacted by the proposed work.”
Sgalla said he’s currently evaluating project requirements “and will coordinate with the appropriate regulatory agencies to obtain any necessary permits and approvals before construction begins.”
“We will more than likely be required to get a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers,” Sgalla said after the meeting. “We’ll also be required to do an environmental study identifying endangered species (IPaC). After this, if approved, we can begin our work, which would be covering the pipe in a thick layer of concrete to protect it.”
Sgalla told commissioners there’s been “quite a bit of erosion” over the years but said he doesn’t see that as the county’s responsibility.
“I don’t feel the water and sewer district has a responsibility to fix the erosion,” he said. “Just our line, our wastewater.”
Commissioners, meanwhile, chose United Medical Resources to administer the county’s self-funded health plan, effective Feb. 1, 2027. UMR is a subsidiary and third-party administrator for UnitedHealth Group. While it operates under the UnitedHealth Group umbrella, UMR acts as administrator for self-funded employer health plans.
“We’ve been working on this for some time now, trying to find our best fit for us for a health insurance provider,” explained Commissioner Eric Timmons, who represented commissioners on the insurance committee. “We’ve had several meetings. We vetted a few companies that were provided, and we decided to go with UMR.”
Timmons said there were some things the committee wanted to see change, including customer service.
“I think it will be a very good move for us all,” he said.
Jefferson Health Plan representative Chris Forester agreed, telling commissioners, “They are a very good company. They help with the self-insurance portion of it. They have many tools and resources to help manage your plan and make it as efficient as possible.”
Auditor E.J. Conn, also on the committee, said one of the things that was attractive to them was that “they dig into claims better.”
“They look for duplicative claims, they look for claims that should not be overlapping charges.”
Timmons said at this point there’s no way to predict cost savings “because we don’t know what kind of claims we’re going to get.”
“It’s tough to predict people’s medical needs, but I do remember there were factors that gave us this big increase last year,” he added.
Commissioners also:
-- Signed off on a JB Green Team proposal to spend $4 million of its funds “to purchase and prepare land to support recycling, scrap tire and electronic waste collection.”
“This purchase is to support recycling within the two counties and the primary goal of the JB Green Team to reduce reliance on the use of landfills for management of solid waste,” Executive Director Anita Petrella wrote.
-- Gave the county’s Geographic Information System Committee the go-ahead to issue a request for qualifications for website redevelopment, GIS modernization and digital government services.
Engineer Eric Hilty said the goal is to “modernize the county’s public website, GIS environment and related digital government services.”
“We’re looking for a web developer, and with small projects you don’t need to go through qualifications or bidding,” Hilty told commissioners. “However, we’re looking for a long-term partner, somebody that we can really rely on to develop our digital needs and ultimately, we’re trying to get more information to the website of various county departments so that way it benefits residents, reduces phone calls, and makes researching and requesting data much easier.”
-- Authorized the county engineer to advertise for bids for the pavement marking program. The engineer’s estimate for the job is just under $120,938.
-- Endorsed the Regional Airport Authority’s designation of Michael Baker International as construction administrator for the new parallel taxiway extension to Runway 14, as well as change orders pertaining to the airport’s new wildlife exclusion fence.