EAST LIVERPOOL – East Liverpool Mayor Bobby Smith and Safety Service Director Bill Jones are in agreement on what some of the major accomplishments were for East Liverpool in 2025.

Jones said that one of the biggest accomplishments was the completion of the salt barn to keep the salt in a more secure, environmentally controlled area rather than in the old car barn with a leaky roof, which had employees moving the salt to drier areas. With the storm sewer right outside the door to the old car barn, the city was cited by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) due to chlorides leaking into the sewer system.

“So that is a big accomplishment, and the best part was that it was all free money that didn’t cost the city anything,” Jones said. “It was paid 100% through a grant.”

Smith cited the fire department’s receipt of the SAFER grant which they have been trying to get for about 15 years. Jones added that the grant was huge for the city.

Smith said he views the $25,000 grant from the America 250 Committee as an accomplishment. The grant will go toward the bike trail, for the city for which construction on the first phase is expected to begin in the spring.

The city’s administration is looking at several large projects in 2026, including two new garbage trucks and a plow truck for the city and possibly a leaf machine to collect leaves.

Jone said that the city is looking for several providers for the trucks while waiting for funds from the garbage rate increase implemented in November to build up to purchase the two trucks. He also noted that he is in the process of developing a leaf pick up program which will help keep the city looking better and help the storm water system by keeping the leaves out of it.

Smith said the state Route 39 project will see more movement in 2026.

“Some of the bigger projects are still in the development stage,” Jones said. “A lot of those projects just take so long to put into work and bring to fruition.”

Other projects planned for 2026 include the construction of a storage department for the fire department to use to store haz-mat equipment. Jones said that since the fire department has been serving as the county’s haz-mat team since 2014 and are self-funded without asking for money from anyone, they were able to get help from the Columbiana County commissioners to fund the storage building.

Jones also noted the city is looking for grant money to build a new fire station since the department has outgrown the current one with the newer equipment.

“We have been looking for new fire station for several years; now it’s closer to becoming a reality,” Jones said.

Smith said that the county helped the city in 2025 with the Columbiana County land bank demolishing 30 blighted/condemned houses, and there are another 30 planned for demolition in 2026.

Smith said he has met with three different realty groups about constructing privately built affordable homes at about $180,000 and his goals are to bring affordable family housing to the city and do something with the Wharf since the Wharf project with Scout Solar fell through.

One of the biggest challenges faced by the city in 2025, according to Jones, is finding employees. The city is short two employees for the street department. Jones noted that they need CDL-B drivers, and they just can’t get them. He also said the city could use more police officers.

“We are hoping our economics improve in 2026 to hire police officers,” Jones said. “Our police department is in desperate need of vehicles, so we also have to figure out a way to get them some new vehicles.”

Jones and Smith agreed that the fire department is in a pretty good position right now, but noted that is because a lot of their equipment and vehicles have been purchased with grant money, whereas there has been no success in finding any grants for the purchase of police cruisers. Jones said he and Police Chief John Lane have looked for grants and just can’t find them, but they keep actively searching for them.

Jones said funding for local roads is always a big challenge, and although they have a road levy, that doesn’t go very far. It allows them to patch street and in 2025 allowed for the repaving of McKinnon Avenue from St. Clair Avenue to Maine Boulevard, which made a huge difference going into the school. Paving was also done on Washington Street in the business district. Smith said he sees the completed paving projects as another accomplishment for the city.

Smith said that a lot of the challenges faced by the city are society issues, such as housing challenges, and noted that a lot of change is going on and change creates challenges as well.

The city administration saw several staffing changes during 2025 with the retirement of Robin Tokorcheck, who served as the administrative assistant for seven mayors over 30 years, and the retirement of longtime police dispatcher Stephanie Kimber.

Jones said the retirement of Planning Director Bill Cowan was a huge loss for the city. The city has not been able to fill that position yet.

East Liverpool City Council seated two new council members, Debra Danver and Andrew Arcuragi, due to former council members Scott Barrett and Fred Rayl not seeking re-election in 2025.

Jones also said that due to one mechanic being overwhelmed keeping the city’s vehicle in operation, the city hired a second mechanic, so they were able to keep equipment in working order and on the road. This will also prevent having to send vehicles out for service, which would keep them off the road longer than doing the repair in-house. This will also allow a mechanic to be on duty for all shifts.

When it comes to the budget, no major funding issues are anticipated, but things could always creep up, Jones said.

In 2025, the city had to shop around for a less costly health insurance provider that provided similar coverage to what they had, as the provider they had in 2025 had a 57% price increase, which Jones said the city could not absorb, especially with employees paying a part of the premium. The city was able to find a similar coverage provider, but that still had a 37% increase of $441,000.

Jones noted that keeping insurance for city employees is important because many of them need that and if they were to lose the coverage, the city could lose employees.

Jones and Smith said the budget is looking stable, and Jones noted that a big boost for the city right now would be for the state to release the marijuana recreational tax money. With three facilities, including the dispensary, the processing plant and the growing plant, the city would really benefit from the release of those funds.

Jones said that once the funds are released, they would go to the General Fund, and it would be up to city council to earmark what the funds are for.

Smith and Jones would like to see the funds divided equally in a three-way split between the fire, police and street departments, with the funds to go toward equipment like new cruisers. He said he doesn’t want the money to go toward salaries because the amount received would fluctuate.

Jones and Smith both said they want to express their gratitude toward the East Liverpool Beautification Society and the East Liverpool Calcutta Garden Club for their efforts with cleaning up the downtown area over the past year. The groups have worked together to do all the planning and designs for the flower beds, get the fire hydrants and lamp posts painted, trees trimmed and more.

“East Liverpool is a good place to live, work and bring your business,” Jones said. “There are a lot of small businesses here. The big mercantile is not coming back. It’s all these little businesses that are going to make the city grow. Anyone is welcome to start a business here and we will do what we can to help.”

kgarabrandt@mojonews.com