STEUBENVILLE — Now that they have grant funding to remediate the old Naval training center, at least two Jefferson County commissioners say replacing Pico Park with new housing wouldn’t be the end of the world.

The county’s port authority was recently awarded funding from the state to remediate the training center property, and at last week’s meeting commissioners authorized the prosecutor’s office to “proceed with the next step” to transfer the property to the port authority.

“I think it’s good news,” Commissioner Tony Morelli said at the time. “If the port has it, I’m fine. I just don’t want the county to have to be responsible for the upkeep of that building, with all the issues.”

Constructed as a post-World War II training center, once it was no longer needed for military purposes the property was deeded to the county. The old Jeffco Sheltered Workshop was based there for a time, but the building’s been empty since the mid-2020s.

“I’m very happy that things are moving along,” Morelli said. “That building, in my opinion, is beyond repair. There were mice in there, there were people in there that shouldn’t have been in there. It’s been a party place because no one was there — they broke in a couple times even though there’s nothing in there to steal, so we had to put a new window in each time. The county’s been paying the utilities there for a few years, that was a lot of money, and it will be better for the neighborhood.”

Residents have been vocal about how their neighborhood has been impacted by conditions at the building, as well as the park, which itself has become a magnet for unsupervised teens.

“I’m glad the buildings are being torn down,” Commissioner Eric Timmons said. “I would like to see the park stay a park, but that property belongs to the Port Authority now.”

Timmons at one time had hoped they could find someone responsible to take the park on, and even went so far as to pitch the idea to city officials, but they weren’t interested. They even had the entire property resurveyed so they could maintain control of the park should a buyer be found for the rest of it.

“I believe that had been discussed,” Timmons said, “and I believe it still can be parceled. We wanted to keep our options open, that’s why we had it surveyed. We also didn’t know if we would get the grant.”

Commissioner Jake Kleineke reminded his fellow commissioners that the St. Anthony’s congregation had approached them several weeks ago about taking the park on as a parish project.

“We knew this was going on (but) we didn’t know how far it was going to go, (so) we couldn’t make a decision for them,” he said. “They may approach the port now.”

Port Authority Director Robert Naylor said there’s a lot of work to be done before demolition begins, but current thinking is that since the park land is flat it makes sense to raze it to make room for new houses, adding workforce development and boosting the value of homes and land in the neighborhood.

“There’s liability issues there and … there’s going to be a process to get there and we can have discussions to keep that park there … but it really doesn’t serve (the community), it’s not a typical park like the park we had when we grew up. There are different uses for it that I don’t think any of us are really excited about.”