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WELLSBURG -- The Brooke County Commission has accepted a bid for repairs to a slip along the Brooke County Pioneer Trail.
The bid, in the amount of $334,365 from Ohio-West Virginia Excavating of Shadyside, Ohio, was recommended by Thrasher Engineering, and approved by the commission during its meeting Tuesday.
The Clarksburg firm has designed plans for the slip repair, which is being funded with $2.2 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency because the slip has been linked to flooding from the adjacent hillside.
Members of the Brooke County Pioneer Trail Association in March 2018 reported a 4-foot-deep sinkhole on the trail about a half-mile from the Ohio County border.
The trail has been closed while crews excavate another section of the hillside to accommodate the $131 million construction of the Wellsburg-Brilliant Ohio River bridge.
The project includes a 4,000-foot-long retaining wall between the bridge and the trail, with a lane of the bridge to be reserved for bicycles and linked to the trail below.
The Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission assisted in securing FEMA funds for the slip repair project.
In other business, the commissioners offered condolences to the family of Randy Hood, an active community member and owner of Hood's Pharmacy, Traubert's Pharmacy, Sunesis Trucking and Oasis Transport.
The commissioners also announced the county courthouse will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
They plan to meet at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday but have moved their first meeting in 2021 to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 4.
(Scott can be contacted at wscott@heraldstaronline.com.)