LISBON — The Columbiana County commissioners agreed Wednesday to vacate a .11-acre portion of Sherwood Street in Liverpool Township at the request of the man who’s been mowing the grass in the unopened street.

According to the resolution, the road was never opened, was abandoned and not used for longer than 21 years.

Ryan Reed of Eighth Avenue, Lacroft, East Liverpool filed the petition in December and testified in favor of his request during a public hearing on Feb. 4. Reed indicated he wanted the road vacated so he could combine the properties he owns. No one attended the hearing in opposition to the request. According to the minutes of the commissioner meeting, the adjacent property won’t be landlocked and can be accessed from Irish Ridge Road.

During committee reports and correspondence, Halleck talked about dog licenses and the need for dog owners to buy their licenses. The county auditor’s office announced previously that dog tags for 2026 were available as of Dec. 1, 2025 and the deadline to purchase them fell on Jan. 31 this year.

“We ask everyone to buy their licenses. We appreciate your cooperation on this,” he said.

When contacted regarding the dog licenses, county Auditor Nancy Gause Milliken said she knows the numbers are down. For 2026, she said 13,984 licenses were issued, but also for 2026, at least 3,856 licenses were not renewed. At one point, the number of licenses issued was 20,000 or more in a year, but those numbers have been declining in recent years.

Dog licenses cost $12 each for one year, but if a license isn’t renewed by the end of the purchasing deadline, which was Jan. 31, the price for one year doubles to $24 each which includes the base price and a penalty. All dogs 3 months of age or older must be licensed. Licenses can also be purchased for periods of three years or a permanent license can be purchased. To learn more, visit the auditor’s website at oh-columbiana-auditor.publicaccessnow.com and click on “dog tags.”

Commissioner Tim Ginter gave a short update on construction of the county archive/records building, located on a county-owned lot bordered by East Chestnut Street to the north, North Nelson Avenue to the west and North Jefferson Street to the east in Lisbon. The land previously housed the county Department of Job and Family Services building, but was vacant for several years after the building was razed.

C. Tucker Cope Design-Build, Inc. of Columbiana is the contractor and Ginter said the workers are laying brick again and working inside, with the electric on. He said previously that completion was expected in mid-2026 and he said the hope is the building will be finished sometime in the spring.

“We’re looking forward to this being completed,” he said.

In other matters, the commissioners awarded the Madison Township bridge deck milling and waterproofing project on old state Route 45 to Shook Company, LLC of Canfield, who submitted the lone bid for $111,111.

Lisbon Landmark Foundation member Stevie Halverstadt reminded commissioners about the foundation’s art show/pancake breakfast set from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday to celebrate the village’s 223rd birthday with artwork by McKinley Elementary students. Commissioners will judge the artwork and determine prize winners.

The art show and breakfast will take place in the basement of the Lisbon First United Methodist Church at the corner of South Market Street and Washington Street, with the cost $10 for adults and $5 for children. The event serves as a fundraiser for the foundation to help preserve historic Lisbon structures and also serves as a lesson in history because each year members select one or more historic buildings for the students to feature in their artwork.

Halverstadt said Lisbon is the second oldest town in the state and still has a lot of the historic structures, explaining that buildings were built three bricks deep.

The commissioners moved next week’s meeting to 9 a.m. Tuesday due to a scheduling conflict for Wednesday.

At the end of the meeting, Chairman Commissioner Roy Paparodis asked for any questions or comments and Tracey Lopshansky stood and raised an issue with the serving of warrants by the sheriff’s office. She told commissioners her property was burglarized in the fall and one person was apprehended, but lives in Boardman and didn’t show up for court for his arraignment in Common Pleas Court. His bond had been set at $75,000 cash or surety and he had been released on bond.

Lopshansky said there’s a bench warrant, but it hasn’t been served and claimed criminals come down to Columbiana County because they know all they have to do is leave the county. She questioned how many warrants were issued and how many were served.

She also tried to claim the sheriff’s office won’t go outside the county to serve warrants, but Halleck disagreed and said that’s wrong, questioning where she got her information.

Sheriff Brian McLaughlin also disagreed with that claim.

“We serve warrants all the time, we work with the U.S. Marshals and we go all over the nation. We are understaffed and there’s a lot of warrants,” he said when contacted, adding they do the best they can.

The number of warrants is constantly changing, too. As they serve them, more are issued, whether they are secret indictments, open indictments or bench warrants from the various courts. When asked about the numbers, he said at any given time, there could be up to 2,000 outstanding warrants.

According to court documents, the man charged with the burglary at Lopshansky’s property was Corneil L. Haskins, 25, Youngstown, who was indicted in December for burglary, a second-degree felony, and misdemeanor resisting arrest. An affidavit from county Municipal Court said he was accused of allegedly being inside a Fairfield Township property on Crestview Road and fleeing when deputies arrived on Sept. 26, 2025. The affidavit said he only stopped after being apprehended by a law enforcement K-9. He and another person were seen inside the property by the victim via house cameras. The other person wasn’t caught.

Paparodis thanked her for coming to the meeting and said “we’ll follow up on that.”

mgreier@mojonews.com