Nonrenewal of contract came in June news

Among the top stories in June, the Jefferson County commissioners decided not to renew the current county water superintendent's contract during a meeting at the Jefferson County Courthouse.

Commissioners Tom Graham, Tom Gentile and Dave Maple voted 3-0 to not extend the contract of Jack Gilmore, county sanitary engineer, after Gilmore's current contract with the county ends March 2. Commissioners made the announcement after an executive session with Mike Seyer of Clemans Nelson, personnel consultant for the county.

"We've come out of executive session with the decision we won't be extending (Gilmore's contract) when it ends," said Gentile. "We will begin the process of putting together an advertisement for Mr. Gilmore's position. (Gilmore) has expressed a desire that he would work with us on this."

Gilmore's current contract was for three years, and Gilmore's contracts previously had been approved by commissioners since the early 2000s.

Graham said Gilmore had known of the commissioners' decision before the announcement.

Commissioners declined to give a reason for not renewing Gilmore's contract.

Also in June:

The 10-county Southwestern Pennsylvania region has more jobs today than it did at the peak of steel employment in 1979 and potentially faces a shortage of workers in the future.

That was the message from Bill Flanagan, executive vice president for corporate relations for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, to the quarterly luncheon meeting of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce.

The area had the total number of jobs back to its 1979 level by 1989 and continued to experience slow growth. Now, 30 years after steel peaked, Flanagan indicated there are about 60,000 more jobs in the Pittsburgh region than there were in 1979.

United Steelworkers leaders from Severstal Wheeling and ArcelorMittal Weirton testified to the need for Congress to support manufacturing in America during a hearing held by the Congressional Steel Caucus in June.

Bernie Ravasio, a contract coordinator at Severstal Wheeling, and Mark Glyptis, president of Local 2911 of the United Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal Weirton, discussed the history of efforts by the Steelworkers to preserve companies facing overwhelming problems with unfair trade issues.

Jefferson County officials found out in June the county would be eligible for as much as $1.22 million in economic recovery funds for economic development projects, according to U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, D-St. Clairsville.

The money included $732,000 in Recovery Zone Facility Bonds and $488,000 in Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds.

Work was being planned on a road expansion and other improvements at the Jefferson County Industrial Park.

The county industrial park committee held its first meeting since November 2007, and Ed Looman, executive director of Progress Alliance, said plans were moving to expand a second road in the park, next to the R-Way trucking facility. The money to install the road comes from previous land sales in the industrial park and will improve access to R-Way and an adjacent vacant site.

Residents of the Crestview-Belvedere area got some good news on June 18 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it was upping its grant amount for a sewer project in that area to $4.4 million.

Residents and county, state and federal officials have been trying for years to get grants and loans for the estimated $10 million project. There was a time when residents were looking at an assessment of more than $15,000.

The USDA previously had committed to $2.5 million in grants and $5 million in loans for the project, which reduced the assessment cost to $9,500.

The Jefferson County Drug Task Force and City Police arrested 15 men on June 17-18 in a reverse prostitution sting operation in the downtown area.

One of the men arrested was a registered sex offender and another man was arrested in August during a similar prostitution sting.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency announced a draft permit for expansion of the Apex Landfill had been granted and a public hearing was scheduled for July.

Officials with Environmental Logistics Services, owner of the landfill, announced receipt of the draft permit in a news release on June 1.

According to Ross Patten, chairman of ELS, the draft permit would not change the footprint of the landfill but would increase the vertical capacity while extending the site life of the solid waste management facility from between five and approximately seven years.

But Tom Gardner of the Tri-County Concerned Citizens Committee said residents living in the vicinity of the landfill today remain opposed to any expansion plans.

An early morning equipment fire at the Apex Landfill was termed "suspicious" by Apex Operations Manager Rick Barr.

Barr said a security guard spotted the blaze at 12:30 a.m. on June 15 "on the tipper which is a piece of equipment used to remove waste from long haul truck trailers."

Barr did not have an estimate for the equipment damaged by the fire.

Franciscan University of Steubenville entered its second year of ownership of the former Parkview Circle public housing complex and remained on schedule with major renovations at the apartments.

According to Tom Sofio, spokesman for the university, the final non-student residents living in the complex now known as Assisi Heights were set to be moved out by August and the university planned to expand apartment housing for another 136 students.

Employees from the Cattrell Cos. of Toronto started groundbreaking work June 12 in the Third Street Municipal parking lot for the new Steubenville city building. The $4.1 million building should be completed by May and will replace the existing city annex building on Market Street. The new facility will be a one-story building and will be connected to the City Building on South Third Street.

The first confirmed case of swine flu in Jefferson County was a student at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

University officials said June 18 a student employed for the summer at the school was treated for the H1N1 virus after she became ill several weeks before.

"The student is past the contagion stage," officials said at the time. "She is no longer infectious and has been treated with the appropriate measures. The student was working in a university office that is rather isolated from other people."

Eleven teachers and administrators throughout the Gem City were presented with the Joseph and Anna Marie Karaffa Award for Excellence in Education.

This year's recipient was Mary Jo Kuhn, an elementary teacher at S.C. Dennis School.

The Karaffas announced the selection during the annual seniors honors assembly at the school.

The award is given based on nominations received from parents, students, fellow teachers, administrators and alumni.

The quick actions of a village citizen along with village police Chief Matthew Donahue helped save the life of a village juvenile who had stopped breathing.

Ian Tice was lauded for his efforts to help save the life of the boy and was awarded a plaque of appreciation from Empire Police, the village's council and Mayor Frank Martin during the June 3 council meeting.

The story of Tice's rescue efforts began after village police received a call at about 1 p.m. April 30 of a youth who was unresponsive, according to Donahue.

Donahue said he then began performing cardiac pulmonary resuscitation on the youth in his bedroom but was having difficulty.

Tice, a neighbor, noticed the chief's car near his neighbor's house.

The youth since has made a full recovery.

The Toronto Beautification Committee, a city grocery store and city restaurant teamed up to offer more recycling opportunities for city residents while at the same time offering litter bags for cleanup.

Stacey's IGA grocery store and members of the beautification committee partnered to allow the public to drop off recyclable plastics at the grocery store.

The recycling program at Stacey's is ongoing.

The Brooke-Hancock Regional Planning Council recently used a $10,000 Flex-E-Grant from the West Virginia Development Office to complete a series of sketches suggesting new uses for unused Weirton Steel property and other areas.

The sketches showed the former Weirton Steel basic oxygen process/caster, now owned by ArcelorMittal Weirton, renovated as an entertainment complex that could be occupied by a restaurant, museum and concert area; the Weirton Steel railyard redeveloped as an intermodal transportation center; and a proposed bike trail and marina along the Ohio River.

Also involved in the proposals were the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission, state Department of Environmental Protection, Hancock County Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city of Weirton.

Members of the Alumni Association of Pilot Dog Owners gathered June 13-14 in Weirton for the group's annual convention.

Pilot Dogs are trained to assist individuals who are blind or have severe visual impairment, and the association's members include individuals from all walks of life.

During the event, the dogs and their owners participated in an obstacle course testing the pairs' skills along Williams Drive on Marland Heights, bowling at Brooke Lanes II in Wellsburg and an awards dinner at the Weirton Holiday Inn.

Municipal elections were held June 9 in Bethany, Wellsburg and Follansbee. Wellsburg voters elected Sue Simonetti as the city's first woman mayor, and Bethany voters elected a new mayor, Jay Eisenhauer.

Follansbee voters returned Tony Paesano as the city's mayor and John Schwertfeger as its chief of police.

Brooke County Commissioner Bernie Kazienko and the late Wellsburg Councilwoman Julie Caldwell were recognized as the Wellsburg Chamber of Commerce's Citizens of the Year at the chamber's annual dinner.

Caldwell, who represented Wellsburg's 4th Ward on Wellsburg Council before she died in July 2008, was chairman of the city's park and recreation committee; a member of the Brooke County United Way's advisory board and president of the Brooke County Council PTA.

Kazienko was a Brooke County sheriff's deputy for 22 years and Brooke County sheriff for eight years before being elected commissioner. Those who nominated him noted the Christmas toy drive for children in need that he initiated as a deputy and continues to oversee.