CADIZ - Jodi Hennis and Mary Ellen Haney of the Harrison County Community Improvement Corp. held a public hearing during the Harrison County Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday.
The hearing was the first step toward the intended sale of two properties located at 418 and 420 East Market St. in Cadiz.
"We demolished two parcels down on East Market and according to the guidelines of NSP we were supposed to have built on them and have them occupied by Jan 31, 2015," said Haney. "We were working with a developer through May of this year and that fell through, so our contact through the Community Development Office said we can hold a public hearing, then we can advertise on the open market and anybody can then purchase this property."
Commissioner Don Bethel asked if the mineral rights would be sold with the property, and Haney replied that the CIC would retain the mineral rights.
Haney said there were two interested parties and that the properties must be sold or occupied by the deadline or there's the possibility of the Ohio Department of Development asking for the return of funds supplied to the CIC through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
Hennis told commissioners she had received the Community Development Block Grant formulas for 2013 and the county has been reduced to four projects for next year, down from eight this year.
In a related announcement, Commissioner Barbara Pincola announced the courthouse elevator modernization is scheduled to begin Aug. 27 and the elevator will be shut down for four weeks. There is no provision for any other method to access the second or third floors during the construction.
"This will be handled just like when the elevator breaks down. We are just going to have to work around it," said Pincola. "That is why we are notifying everyone in advance,"
"What if a handicapped person has to go to court, who would they contact," asked Bethel.
"Any person unable to attend a court hearing during the modernization would be asked to contact the judge and special provisions will be made," Pincola said.
In other matters, Doug Crabtree brought two road agreements with Gulfport Energy Corp. before the board for approval. One agreement is for 3.2 miles of county Road 61 off state Route 800 for the Lyon site in Washington Township, and another is for 1.3 miles of county Road 10 off U.S. Route 22 across Piedmont Dam to the Stout site.
Commissioners approved the two agreements along with a proposal by the engineer's office to advertise for bids on the county Road 10 West upgrade project.
Crabtree explained that Rosebud Mining is nearing completion of a relocation of a portion of county Road 10 near Freeport for access to the portal on the Vail mine and is requesting the county improve the section of road between state Route 800 and the Crab Orchard bridge.
"What they are asking is beyond our capability of what we can do," Crabtree stated. "They are going to widen the road and do full depth reclamation on the road to handle the truck traffic."
Specifications will be on file in the engineer's office and bids will be opened on Sept. 5 during the commissioners' regular meeting.
According to the contract, work must be completed by Oct. 12.
"This safety improvement is for the benefit of everyone," said Crabtree. The board gave approval to solicit bids.
