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Jefferson County commissioners taking on new water project

Jefferson County Water and Sewer Superintendent Mike Eroshevich, right, gives commissioners a project status report Thursday. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — Jefferson County commissioners are adding another water project to an already crowded work list, the Norton Hill water tank repair and painting project.

On Thursday, commissioners approved a task order with their engineering consultant, Arcadis, to provide design, bid phase and construction-related services, including inspection, as well as the final design phase, bid phase and construction services for the tank, which is located on state Route 43.

Preliminary design work has already been done by World International Testing under a separate contract with the Jefferson County Water and Sewer District.

The task order is not to exceed $110,000.

Commissioners in January extended a general engineering agreement with Arcadis for two years so the firm to do work with the county water and sewer department.

Arcadis’s Tom Hartwig said the tank needs a major rehab, based on a “complete and thorough inspection” County Water and Sewer Director Mike Eroshevich had done about a year ago by World International Testing.

In its report, World Testing said the tank needs “repairs to address structural deficiencies, protective coating failures, critical section losses to structural members, and deficiencies related to safety, sanitary and operations and OSHA compliance.”

“They prepared a report that detailed the need for about $750,000 in repairs to the tank,” Hartwig said, adding, “That’s a very critical tank, a lot of water passes through on a daily basis. It’s only going to get worse.”

Hartwig said it’s been “quite a while since the tank had any maintenance work done to it.

“Seven hundred thousand dollars is not a bad rehab number,” Commissioner Tom Gentile pointed out. “It’s a pretty average number you run into when rehabbing a water tank.”

Commissioners extended the water district’s master services agreement with Arcadis for an additional two years in January.

Commissioner Dave Maple, meanwhile, said Jefferson County is still ahead of the game on water and sewer projects already in progress.

“Our projects are on time right now and they seem to be under budget,” he said. “We have a lot going on, all moving forward at the pace we expect them to move forward at.”

He applauded the work being done by the water district, pointing out that, in addition to the water and sewer lines going in, they’re also addressing “people wanting water, people with sewer problems.”

“Sometimes you (forget) the day-to-day operations are still (needed), you lose track of that with these projects in place,” he said, noting he’s received calls from several residents lately who need public water.

“We still have individuals down Lane A or Lane B who want water,” he said.

Gentile agreed, adding that even though the county’s water system is growing because they’ve had to take over several beleaguered systems, “we’re still not bringing service to people who are under-served.”

“It would be great to reach out and get some water in those areas,” he said.

Commissioners also heard an update by Alex Pavloff, regional representative of the Ohio Secretary of State office, on efforts the state has taken to protect the integrity of the election and government business in general from cybercriminals, including system sensors that will alert officials to “bad guys getting in the network” and malicious domain websites.

Maple said he worries about what will happen down the road if the state decides it’s not going to pay for the security enhancements.

“It’s the administration’s intent that you guys are not on the hook for those costs,” Pavloff said. “There’s money available” to cover the expense.

Commissioners met in executive session to discuss possible sale of county property with Mike Zinno, superintendent of the Jefferson County Board of Developmental Disabilities; contract negotiations with Chad Coil of the Jefferson County Animal Shelter; possible litigation related to the Amsterdam sewer project; and changes to a proposed transfer agreement for the Richmond water system with Hartwig and Eroshevich.

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