ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Planning and Zoning Administrator Tom Murphy set the record straight on Monday.

Murphy addressed St. Clairsville City Council about the accuracy of what council member J.C. Thrash said at the previous council meeting.

When discussing the possibility of businesses in downtown St. Clairsville hanging signs that protrude from their storefronts, Thrash and Murphy disagreed in December. The St. Clairsville Architecture Review Board governs such displays under an ordinance prohibiting businesses in downtown St. Clairsville from hanging such signs.

At the previous meeting, Thrash said, “It costs like $400 to go to the board. I just want businesses to have signs that overhang without having to go through the hoops of the Architecture Review Board.”

On Monday, Murphy began his Planning and Zoning report by saying that Thrash’s claim is untrue and that it does not cost any money to go in front of the board.

“It’s essential when we’re trying to attract new residents and businesses as staff members and council members we have to make sure we’re saying accurate things,” Murphy said. “After our last meeting I was reading in the newspaper a quote stating that it costs $400 to go before the St. Clairsville Architecture Review Board, and I just want everybody to know that that’s not true.”

He added that council members should not voice false information in public, not only because it’s false but also because it could damage the city’s reputation and discourage potential new businesses from coming to the city.

“If I was a business owner looking to open up a location in St. Clairsville and I saw that, I might think, ‘Wait a second here. Even before I go before this board I’d have to do this,’ which that is not the case,” Murphy said. “We have a great community here. We have a great downtown, everybody knows that. We have a restaurant that’s been here for years, we have a pizza shop nearby that’s been here for a long time. We have a hospital that is putting a $17 million investment into the community.”

He pointed to all of the positive strides the city is making and said he doesn’t want them to be possibly hindered by false information.

Thrash then asked Murphy if he spoke to the St. Clairsville Architecture Review Board about the signage. Murphy replied that he has not because the board has yet to have a meeting since the last council meeting.

Meanwhile, Service Director Scott Harvey informed council that the city’s reservoir will finally be dredged.

For months the city has been working toward securing a bid to dredge the reservoir. In early December, Miller Excavating Inc. was awarded the bid for the cost of $132,934.

“The reservoir dredging, as crazy as it sounds, it looks like it might be good for next week,” Harvey said. “The contractor thinks that we can get started and, as long as we can do it safely, we will. So we’ll see where we are next week.”

In preparation for the dredging the city has begun to take less water from Belmont County in an effort to reduce the water level in the reservoir by drawing more from it.

“What I’m getting from Miller Excavating is that he feels as long as they can control the mess, then we can go ahead and start,” Harvey said. ” A colder temperature might be to some advantage. Not that it would be frozen, but his idea is that he can load the trucks and there might be some what you call slop or spillage as they pull onto the road and they’d have the ability to salt.”

Harvey added that the entire process of dredging the reservoir will take 10 days, and he believes as long as Miller Excavating Inc. can safely accomplish the project that it will proceed on schedule.