Trending
STEUBENVILLE -- Auditor E.J. Conn told commissioners again Thursday he cannot and will not pay Border Patrol's $236,112 invoice for "additional restoration services" associated with the State Route 213 water line relocation, reminding them they still haven't "cured" the way it was done without a contract, without a purchase order, without an auditor's certificate that the funding had been appropriated and no vote taken during a public meeting.
Until those "foundational defects in the procurement and authorization process" are cured, Conn again told commissioners his hands "remain tied."
"Ohio law leaves me no discretion on this point," he reminded. "(And) the board's subsequent authorization of this single invoice does not retroactively supply the missing certificate, appropriation or prior public action required by the state. My duty (under the Ohio Revised Code) is to only expend county funds upon properly authorized claims. Until the defects identified above are cured through a legal process, my hands remain tied."
Caleb Knudsen, the Regional Planning Commission's grant-writing consultant, told commissioners his first five months on the job have "been about building the foundation for this grant program to be able to start securing funding."
He said one of the problems he's encountered is that townships and villages can't tap into private foundation money.
"It's going to be almost exclusively from state and federal resources," he said. "One of the things that we encounter when pursuing these government funding sources is ... there's a lot of competition and there's a lot of technological competency required (of them)."
Knudsen said he's already secured all the authorization forms the state requires from them "to give me permission to apply on their behalf."
"That took a while, just because some of (them) didn't have reliable email addresses and if they did receive them they weren't responding or they didn't know how to complete the form electronically, so they had to come into the office and sign it."
He said those forms have been submitted to the Ohio Public Works Commission, adding that "some of these forms that they've give us and some of the projects that they've asked for funding for (are) pretty vague. They lack clarity. They don't have necessary information, like engineering estimates, that are requested. There's a lot of budgetary forms that need to be filled out."
He said Commissioner Eric Timmons had helped him create a pre-application form "just to give us some more clarity in terms of what the projects going to look like, how we're going to get it across the finish line in some of these more competitive environments."
So far, he said Mingo Junction and Dillonvale have turned their completed forms in.
Commissioners also:
– Were thanked by the Educational Service Center for the county's "generous support and commitment" for sponsoring their Resource Network, an online directory of agencies and services available to those in need of help.
"Your donation has allowed us to expand our reach, strengthen partnerships and continue building a network that empowers individuals and families to thrive right here in Jefferson County," Superintendent Charles M. Kokiko wrote. "What began as a vision to make it easier for Jefferson County residents to find help has grown into one of the county's most powerful and meaningful community resources."
– Signed off on the Regional Airport Authority's plans to lease oil and gas rights for the remaining 76 acres of federally encumbered airport property to Ascent Resources. The airport board voted unanimously in favor of the leasing rights and reported several members with knowledge of current oil and gas transactions opined it was "reflective of current market conditions."
– Tabled action on Dog Warden Chad Coil's request for a new truck, asking him to bring them quotes for quality used vehicles as well as the brand-new models he'd already priced. The three quotes he submitted for new trucks ranged from around $39,000 to nearly $43,000, but commissioners said they'd like to see quotes for used trucks in the 30,000-mile range as well for comparison.