By MARY ANN GREIER

Staff Writer

LISBON — Columbiana County commissioners discussed an East Rochester junk yard issue again, with Commissioner Mike Halleck saying they’re not prepared to say what they’re going to do, but also noting “we’re not done.”

“We have some plans that we’ll share at the appropriate time,” he said.

West Township Trustees Dale Lowmiller and Ray Davis attended the meeting Wednesday, with Lowmiller saying they just wanted to hear what commissioners had to say about the issue.

Lowmiller and Davis asked commissioners back in October for advice on how to deal with problem junk yards, asking what options they had. The property in question, which was described as unsightly, is located at the corner of Rochester Road and U.S. Route 30 and is run as a junk yard and includes a house.

During last week’s meeting, Halleck said commissioners took a little field trip on the way home from an out-of-county meeting to check it out recently and spoke with some people in the neighborhood, learning that part of the junk yard was encroaching on other properties.

Lowmiller said this issue is “all over the county, not just West Township.”

Most of the townships don’t have zoning, including West Township.

Halleck previously served as a township trustee in Perry Township, which has zoning. He told Lowmiller and Davis that he’s a proponent of local government and those are decisions they all have to make.

Halleck pledged last week that commissioners will do all they can to help the residents out who live in that area.

Commissioner Roy Paparodis said some of the residents in the area were very grateful that commissioners visited.

Commissioner Tim Ginter said commissioners have learned that part of the area near the junk yard is county-owned property.

“That became keenly interesting to us,” he said.

Ginter also said the commissioners are not through with this issue, but want to proceed judiciously in a manner to make sure they’re doing what’s right.

Halleck said he’s sure the owners of the junk yard property are aware the commissioners were there.

“If they’re smart, they’ll do a lot of work before they have to,” adding that if the county has to pay someone to clean it up, the cost would be added to the taxes for that property.

Halleck said the county owns a parcel where the junk yard people are currently housing junk vehicles. He said previously that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency may look into the situation and he may contact the county health district to see if anything can be done.

In other business, commissioners opened bids for a Wellsville street resurfacing project funded through a Community Development Block Grant, with RT Vernal Paving & Excavating of North Lima submitting the lowest bid for $118,316. Other bids included The Shelly Company of Twinsburg for $121,691 and NLS Paving of St. Clairsville for $133,988. The engineer’s estimate for the project was $125,700 to repave 700 linear feet of Third Street in Wellsville.

Columbiana County Port Authority Project Coordinators Elise Wallace and Haeden Panezott attended the bid opening and said engineering firm Dallis Dawson & Associates will review the bids and make a recommendation. The project is expected to be done this year, using county CDBG funding from 2024.

The commissioners also awarded the contract for a guardrail replacement project to replace guardrail on East Liverpool Road in St. Clair Township to PDK Construction, Inc. of Pomeroy for a total bid of $278,583. Other bidders were Lake Erie Construction Company of Norwalk, $283,120 and M P Dory Company of Columbus, $298,449.

County Development Director Tad Herold was appointed to the board for the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association for 2025.

Upon the recommendation of county Department of Job and Family Services Director Rachel Ketterman, commissioners approved the hiring of Emily White of East Liverpool, Monica Young of Columbiana, Laryn Jackson of Wellsville and Samantha Kurtz-Cogar of Salineville as Eligiblity Referral Specialist Is and Brooke Crockett of Salem and Payten Bailey of Youngstown as ERS IIs, all in the pubic assistance division.

The commissioners will hold their next meeting at 9 a.m. April 2 in the downtown courthouse.

mgreier@mojonews.com