Commissioners hear concerns from church over land

At the Lawrence County Commission meeting on Tuesday, Lawrence County EMS Director Buddy Fry said the number of drug overdose runs the county EMS is taking continues to decrease.

“The trend of drug overdose runs continues to go down since January,” Fry said. “Today is Oct. 24, and we’ve only had 19 drug overdose runs in October so far. Unfortunately, two of those were fatal, but we continue to see a downward trend.”

In January of this year, Lawrence County EMS had 59 drug overdose runs. In July, there were 34 and in August there were 27.

Also at the meeting, Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Burcham informed the commission that sales taxes were down $76,000 in October, but that the county was still up $181,000 this year compared to the same time period last year.

Retired Lawrence County Common Pleas Judge Richard Walton also talked to the commission about concerns he and his church, Christ Episcopal Church in Ironton, had with the land the church and the Lawrence County Jail sit on.

He said that the church had to tear down an office space/parish hall due to the building continuing to sink, and that there are serious concerns about other parts of the parish.

Currently, crews are working on re-stabilizing the jail wall due to the sinkhole developing. Commission President Bill Pratt said the commission would let Walton and Christ Episcopal Church pastor Sally Schisler of any updates with the situation.

In other action, the commission:

• Approved one floodplain permit.

• Approved the Dog Warden Report dated Oct. 10, 2017.

• Approved 24 transfer funds.

• Approved two appropriations.

• Renewed the appointments of Lou Pyles and Carla Salyer to the Lawrence County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

• Approved a Resolution of Intent to Vacate the old portion of the Township Road and adopt a Resolution to publish notice for the public hearing.

• Received and filed the letter from the Ohio Department of Health regarding the maximum financial liability for the Children with Mental Handicaps Program for calendar year 2018 in the amount of $124,003.25. The Ohio Revised Code mandates the Department of Health to collect reimbursement from each Ohio county up to a maximum amount for treatment services provided to county residents and paid by the CMH program. The amount of $124,003.25 equals one-tenth of the one mill of the county’s total property tax valuation.

• Received and filed the certificate from the State of Ohio Senate for the Lawrence County Commissioners Honoring the Commission for their Exemplary Achievement and receiving a 2017 Community Partnership of the Year Award from the Area Agency on Aging District 7.

• Received and filed the correspondence for Notice of Project Approval (NPA) FY2018 Ohio Airport Matching Grant Program for the Lawrence County Airpark.

• Gave control of the Tuberculosis Unit to the Lawrence County Health Department.

• Met in executive session with Georgia Dillon regarding personnel; hire, fire, reprimand. No action was taken.

• Met in executive session with members of the Appalachian Family and Children First Council regarding pending litigation. No action was taken.