T-L Photo/JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH Martins Ferry Mayor John Davies shows Councilwoman Suzanne Armstrong a map Wednesday that identifies city-owned property where a company has proposed a logging project.

MARTINS FERRY — The ongoing closures, layoffs and financial challenges at East Ohio Regional Hospital are “a huge deal,” according to Martins Ferry Mayor John Davies.

That was his response to resident Richard Hord, who asked council on Wednesday how concerned officials are that the hospital will close its doors.

“If the hospital would close down, it’s a huge loss to the citizens because, if you remember, before it opened up four or five years ago, we had a 12- and 13-hour wait in the waiting room,” Davies replied, referring to the crowded emergency rooms at other area hospitals during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when EORH was closed from 2019-21. “So, yeah, it’s a huge concern. Plus you have a loss of revenue, not just to the city (in the form of a 1% income tax), but also to our subsidiaries. You have your McDonald’s, your Subway, your gas stations, Brewworks, everybody the employees frequent. They’re going to lose that money also, so it’s a huge deal.”

Earlier in the council meeting, Davies reported that the hospital is “struggling pretty hard.” Since mid-February, EORH has announced the closure of its long-term and skilled nursing facility, the cancellation of “ancillary” services and the planned closure of its East Ohio Hometown Pharmacy, slated for March 28.

The hospital also failed to pay employees as scheduled on March 7 and urged them to seek coverage through the federal Health Insurance Marketplace after The Health Plan canceled its group coverage for nonpayment.

As of Wednesday, employees said they still had not been paid, with another payday scheduled this coming Friday. More than 60 staff members have filed police reports regarding nonpayment of wages and insurance claims.

Davies told council, though, that the hospital had paid 100% of its water bill to the city.

The mayor also discussed a check the city issued to Belmont County Treasurer Katherine Kelich — the first installment of a payment plan designed to help the hospital pay more than $1.2 million in delinquent property taxes.

Davies stressed that the money used to make that payment belonged to the hospital, not the city. That is because the city and hospital owner Dr. John Johnson established an agreement regarding the city’s 1% income tax before Johnson reopened the facility. Under that deal, employees of the hospital pay the tax to the city, which holds those proceeds. When the hospital makes capital improvements, such as upgrading its HVAC system, the city is obligated to return 75% of those tax proceeds to the hospital to help cover those costs.

Solicitor Paul Stecker is responsible for confirming the capital improvements are completed before releasing the funds to the hospital. Stecker was present Wednesday but left before the meeting ended, so he was not available to provide details of the capital improvements that led to the most recent release of funds.

“The city issued a check for $33,400 I believe, or something close to that, to pay the property tax for the hospital, which comes out of their money. Let me say that again – comes out of their money,” Davies emphasized. “… Then the rest of their funds were released … Paul was given the paperwork for capital improvements. That’s what the money was released for. We did not release their money to pay taxes.

“It was their money that they used on capital improvements. We was reimbursing them their money,” he continued. “One of the reasons we took it out to the county is I talked to Kathy Kelich about putting an extension on and getting a contract with them so they didn’t foreclose on the hospital. That contract’s currently in place. Now if it remains in effect, I can’t answer that. As long as they continue to make a payment it’ll remain in effect.”

Davies added that of the $33,000-plus, about half of that money will go to Martins Ferry City Schools due to levy obligations, and an additional percentage will be returned to the city while the remainder will go to the county to be distributed.

Stecker confirmed that the city has released all of the income tax revenue owed to the hospital through the end of 2024.

Meanwhile, council heard from Dennis Yoder of Three Rivers Hardwoods, who proposed a logging project on city-owned property. Council will consider the proposal and put the work out to bid if officials decide to proceed.

Davies also sought and received council’s approval to pay $13,187.50 to Robin Davis, who temporarily served the city as its water operator of record. Davies said Davis worked out a 320-hour contract plus an additional 422 hours at a rate of $31.25 per hour.

In addition, Davies sought and received approval to pay current water operators of record $4,500 for one month of work.

He and Auditor Jack Regis Sr. also recommended that council transfer $30,000 from the general fund to the cemetery fund to pay for spring and summer mowing and maintenance, which council approved.

Regis said a draft appropriations budget would be completed and distributed to council members today. He mentioned that replacing two police cruisers next year as scheduled would add about $130,000 to the plan.

Council’s Finance Committee will meet at 5 p.m. Monday to review the proposed budget. The full council will meet in special session at 4:30 p.m. March 27 at the city building to consider the committee’s recommendation and to potentially approve the budget as proposed.