EAST PALESTINE — The county commissioners appointed Robert Ritchey as the new director of Columbiana County Economic Development Office.

Tad Herold stepped down from the role to become the director of a consortium between the economic development office and the port authority to direct activities that continue to foster economic growth through collaboration.

“For nearly 12 years, I was able to serve in the position of economic development director. You had the foresight to make some investments and at the time in which we hadn’t been making for a number of years in the county,” Herold said, addressing the board of commissioners. “And I think we made some good strides with certain programs we’ve implemented and some things we’ve done across the county.”

Herold expressed confidence that Ritchey, along with Brittany Smith, who was recently named the executive director of the Columbiana County Port Authority, along with the port’s project director Haedon Panezott will continue to lead the county in the right direction.

“We have been able to build a very good economic development team in the county. Brittany Smith, Bobby Ritchey and Haedon Panezott have all come through my office and are either at the port [authority] or at economic development now and they form a great nucleus for a younger energetic economic development team,” he said. “We will have everybody pulling in the same direction to come together for an economic development consortium which I know has been a vision Commissioner Halleck has had for nearly a decade now.”

Ritchey has previously filled roles for the county land bank, the port authority and economic development.

In new business, C. Tucker Cope of Columbiana, which submitted the sole qualifications package for a project to renovate parts of the Columbiana County engineer’s garage complex along South Market Street in Lisbon, was awarded the project. The work will include some painting, siding roof repairs and general upgrades to the buildings which house the repair shop, the paint shop and the engineering staff. Plans also call for some work on the roof on the brick building where the engineers have their offices, which is next to the repair shop, and moving the paint shop in the basement to the building the county purchased across the street on South Market Street in Lisbon. The building previously housed a machine shop and now will become the location for the engineer’s paint shop.

In other new business, the commissioners passed resolutions at the request of Job and Family Services Director Rachel Ketterman to approve IV-D contracts with the county common pleas court and prosecutor’s office for child support enforcement services as well as resolutions to amend the contracts with Shoe Sensation and Shoe Shoe/Shoe Dept. to increase the program which provided back-to-school shoes for underprivileged children to $157,00 and $223,000 respectively.

Commissioners also passed a resolution for a right-of-way in East Palestine needed for the county bridge replacement.

selverd@mojonews.com