Jail doctor contract gets approval

A record first half property tax collection will bring in close to $1.6 million to the county with more than $20,279,000 collected.

That is more than a half-million dollars over 2015 collection, according to a report from Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Burcham at Thursday’s general commission meeting.

Of the banks where property owners can pay taxes, the most was collected at Liberty Bank at $295,568 for 941 parcels. Next largest was at City National in Proctorville followed by U.S. Bank in South Point and U.S. Bank at Proctorville.

The remainder will be distributed by the county auditor’s office with 70 percent going to the schools and one-half to 3 percent going to the villages and townships.

The commissioners also approved the contract with Premier Health Care Service for a jail physician for a monthly fee of $2,458 or approximately $600 a week. The county had to reach out to another service upon the retirement of Dr. Rodolfo Canos. This contract is approximately $800 on the year over the contract of Canos who also received benefits. The Premier doctor, who will be on call, will not receive any benefits.

At their March 10 meeting the commission appropriated an additional $282,000 for the sheriff’s budget to cover salaries of all employees.

Rehiring Bill Click as dog warden was tabled at the request of commissioner Freddie Hayes Jr. Commission president Les Boggs did not attend the meeting.

Click retired on Jan. 26 after working 27 years as the warden. His final pay rate was $22.13 an hour. If he is rehired, the county commission would set his rate of pay within the requirements of his union contract.

In other action the commissioners:

• Approved giving Ironton in Bloom $300 to replace two trees on Park Avenue;

• Approved giving $750 for Ohio Flags of Honor for Ironton’s Memorial Day celebration;

• Approved awarding a bid for a crane truck for Union-Rome Sewer District to Thornhill, South Charleston, West Virginia, for $75,987.53. The only other bid received was from Valley Ford, Cleveland for $77,968. Local dealers were notified but no bid received;

• Appointed Gary Criswell as interim director of the Union-Rome Sewer District following the death this week of Tim Porter.

• Heard an announcement of an open house from 1-3 p.m. on April 4 for the grand opening of STAR at the Ohio River Valley Corrections Facility. The state made arrangements for STAR to have part of the facility and the county jail moving into a 100-bed unit. However the commissioners decided the county couldn’t afford the move.