T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Belmont County Commissioners J.P. Dutton, left, and Jerry Echemann outline plans Wednesday for new health and records department buildings.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County leaders took some more steps Wednesday toward replacing some buildings and addressing slips and road paving.

County commissioners approved an agreement for professional consultant services with Vista Solutions Group LP for $2,347.76 for a one-year term from June 27, 2023-June 24, 2024 regarding the Belmont County Records Center. Commissioner J.P. Dutton said the agreement is for records management software to digitize the records and store them in a searchable database.

The commissioners also amended the county’s agreement with Mills Group LLC for additional architectural services for a new records building and health department building. These include $11,500 for geotechnical services, $23,350 for site surveying services, $15,000 for hazardous material mediation design services. Demolition documentation, bid solicitation and contract administration services are not to exceed $22,000.

Dutton said the commissioners expect a new health department building and records department building to be located off of Ohio 331 near the county Emergency Management Agency and 911 offices.

“We’re working on a new health department building, but also a new records center, and actually as part of that, a space for the Belmont County coroner who currently is not in any public space. They’ve always used private space all of these years, so it’s a big project. Right now it’s a lot of site work that we need to get done,” he said.

Dutton added that the Belmont County Home is also on that property. That structure will be demolished and removed.

“It is long past its useful life and has been for quite some time, to the point where repairing the facility far exceeds county resources,” he said. “Once we move county records out of the facility that it’s in, we hope to be able to remove that building at that point.”

The total cost of architectural services has not been determined.

“It’s going to be a percentage of the overall project cost. These additions were not captured in that amount. We weren’t sure where the site would be. We didn’t know at the time the impact, especially with the county home on the site, and that’s why these are being added in,” he said.

In other matters, the commissioners approved the retirement of Christine Parker as Children Services program administrator at the Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services and her rehiring effective July 2. Dutton said her pay will decrease $18,000 from her prior yearly $96,000 salary, for a total of $78,000. She will retain medical benefits but vacation time will not accumulate and must be used every year. She is expected to remain on the job for two years until a new administrator can be found and trained.

Repairs and upgrades to county roads were also on the agenda. The commissioners accepted a bid from Ohio-West Virginia Excavating for $418,309 for slide repair on Fulton Hill Road, or Belmont County Road 42.

The other bidders were Litman Excavating of New Martinsville, West Virginia, bidding $549,725, and Shelly & Sands of Rayland at $483,236. The engineer’s estimate for the work is $499,750.

The slide dates from 2019 and is the first of the slides from that year’s disastrous weather to be addressed. Belmont County Engineer Terry Lively said work should be completed in about three months.

“I would think that it would start this summer,” Lively said. “That would take care of two slip projects on Fulton Hill. We’ve got an additional two up there. One developed this past winter, and another has been hanging around and it’s starting to get worse. So we’re going to try to get some additional funding from (the Ohio Public Works Commission) to try and repair those. We’re just now working on the application.”

The commissioners also opened bids for a paving project on Deep Run Road, or Belmont County Road 2. The engineer’s estimate is $235,805. Shelly & Sands Inc. of Rayland bid $240,548; the Cast and Barn Corp. of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, bid $254,699.45 and NLS Paving of St. Clairsville bid $218,409.25.

The commissioners opened bids for a slide repair on Ramsey Ridge Road, or Belmont County Road 5.

The engineer’s estimate is $338,995. Littman Excavating of New Martinsville bid $362,349.02 and Ohio-West Virginia Excavating of Powhatan Point bid $316,154.

Lively said the county is being assisted by the OPWC on this project, rather than the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Those are not FEMA projects. FEMA would not help us with those,” Lively said. “We’re going to fix two slips on Ramsey Ridge Road, and we’re going to pave it later this summer.”

Lively said there are numerous slips to be addressed in the county.

“We’ve been chipping away at all of these slips. We’re making progress on them, but it’s a long list,” he said.

The commissioners will reconvene at 10:30 a.m. Friday for a closed-door session to discuss a court action exception.