$6.5 million Jefferson County Innovation Center to open in Mingo Junction

MINGO JUNCTION -- The Jefferson County Innovation Center has come to fruition, and officials will celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Aug. 13.

Community partners, local leaders and the public are invited to take part in festivities at 2321 Wilson Ave. in Mingo Junction. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with the ribbon cutting at the front entrance and will move into the gymnasium for comments from officials. The event will conclude with a tour of the facility to view the resources firsthand.

Indian Creek Local School District leaders and community partners Alliance Integrated Care, Jefferson County Educational Service Center (JCESC), Jefferson County Community Action Council (JCCAC) and WVU Medicine will be on hand, along with special guests and project partners Hammond Construction Inc. of Akron, the North Canton-based firm Sol-Harris/Day Architecture and the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC).

The celebration highlights a $6.5 million project that was roughly three years in the making as Indian Creek leaders collaborated with community partners to establish a facility benefiting students, their families and the community as a whole.

School officials began the planning process in 2023 and applied for funding to aid the project, which included letters of support from community groups. During the process, efforts were made to narrow the scope of services for the innovation center.

Indian Creek became one of 14 recipients to share in an $88 million Appalachian Community Innovation Centers Grant administered through the OFCC.

Ground was broken in June of last year to construct the 14,000-square-foot, one-story building next to Hills Elementary School and house health, educational and employment resources in a centralized location.

The center provides express care services, an alternative school, a job assistance program and a partial youth day treatment facility for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Superintendent Dr. T.C. Chappelear said partnerships with WVU Medicine, Alliance Integrated Care, JCESC and JCCAC will help better serve the community, and he was thrilled to see it all come together.

"I'm very excited about the services it will be providing for Jefferson County and really happy with the partnerships we've made," Chappelear said. "I think it's going to be a real blessing for the residents of Jefferson County."

He said the partnerships were a mixture of longtime and new collaborators, with the goal of providing necessary services to help youth and support the community.

"WVU Medicine's walk-in health clinic is only the second such facility in Jefferson County and we're excited to work with them," Chappelear continued. "We have been longtime partners with JCESC and its Quest Center alternative school, while Alliance Integrated Care is a leading children's mental and behavioral health provider and will offer the day treatment facility. We also look forward to continuing our partnership with JCCAC for workforce development in the county."

Assistant Superintendent John Belt was also delighted to see the center come to life.

"We're excited to open this facility," Belt said. "The medical portion will be a huge benefit for the Mingo village since they haven't had a medical provider in the village for a while. We're also super proud of the fact that we can have a $6.5 million facility come online without having to go to the taxpayers for a bond issue."

He added that the Quest Center will have a permanent place to serve students, while Alliance Integrated Care will provide needed mental and behavioral health services. The JCCAC satellite office also will benefit village residents seeking employment.

"[The Quest Center] will be a benefit as a permanent site, and it will make transportation routing easier for the school districts," Belt explained. "Youth mental health services are in severe need and there is a severe shortage nationally, but they will be able to provide it in this one facility. The JCCAC is going to have a satellite office to operate Ohio Means Jobs and will not be staffed five days a week, but it will make it closer for citizens in Mingo rather than going to downtown Steubenville for services."