Sheriff Chuck Black gave the Monroe County Commissioners a tour of the Sheriff's Office during their meeting on May 13. The administrative offices section of the Sheriff's Office have been under renovation for just over a month, and progress is revealing a dramatic change. Work is set to complete soon with only one office left to renovate.

The renovation is expected to cost close to $10,000. The offices were all gutted and refinished with new windows, laminate flooring, trim work and wall finishings. The offices had fallen into disrepair to the point that Sheriff Black said the floors had raised spots, and the old windows allowed in heat during the summer and cold during the winter.

Sheriff Black reported that labor costs were being defrayed by using incarcerated prisoners to do the work. Sheriff Black said estimates are that they have saved at least $30,000 to $50,000 in labor costs due to this arrangement.

After the tour, Sheriff Black requested that commissioners allow the department to utilize more than just its own general fund for the project. Commissioners discussed other funds within the Sheriff's Office that could be used. However, they told Sheriff Black that they would like to see the final cost of the renovation before deciding which funds to utilize.

Several issues were discussed in regards to the oil and gas industry during the meeting as well. Anthony Capp and Jim Wilson of Percheron Field Services met with commissioners to discuss a proposed pipeline they are working on with Bluegrass Pipeline LLC. If installed as planned, the pipeline would cut through Monroe County.

Capp said the proposed pipeline would not enter the construction phase until early 2015. The proposed pipeline is designed  to reach from Marshall County, WV to Martinsburg, KY where it will hook in with another pipeline. Capp said the pipeline is designed to carry natural gas liquids from the shale oil fields to processing facilities in Louisiana and Texas. 

Modern Home & Hardware celebrated the grand opening of its new, larger store in Woodsfield on May 10-11. While the entire store’s expansion and redesign was featured, the main event was the opening of their new Little Caesars restaurant. The business saw a steady stream of local citizens, who were treated with free Little Caesars samples, during grand opening festivities.

Expanded to more than 20,000 square feet, the new store doubles the size of Modern’s previous floor plan. The new layout will allow Modern to enhance and increase its already comprehensive selection of products and services, building on its status as an invaluable and trusted community resource.

“We’re a tight knit community, and we realize that people here turn to us for many services and products they may not otherwise have access to in a town our size,” explains store owner Karena Reusser. “Our new store not only helps us strengthen our existing services and the variety of products we offer, but add news ones to benefit our customers.  We’re very excited to welcome everyone to Modern Home & Hardware to discover everything we have available.”

Indeed, the new store features many new and greatly expanded product categories, including sporting goods and fishing/hunting supplies – highlighted by their Head Fur the Hills Outfitters department – as well as appliances, home décor, toys, commercial and residential oil field supplies, handcrafted goods and gourmet foods.

In addition, the new store will house a broad range of other essential community services, including a Verizon Wireless activation center, Kodak instant picture processing and a Little Caesars. The store will also feature a full range of Radio Shack products. 

Members of the Woodsfield Fraternal Order of Eagles have been busy raising awareness for the complex developmental disability known as autism.

The Auxiliary ladies sold puzzle pieces for name sponsorship and heavily decorated the Eagles with them, quickly spreading awareness. The puzzle piece is used to symbolize the mysterious nature of disorders on the autistic spectrum.

F.O.E. #2302 also set up a table at the 2nd Annual Autism Awareness Day on April 13 at the Monroe County fairgrounds. Eagles members donated materials and made rag flip flops to sell that day with 100 percent of proceeds going to Monroe County Autism Society of Ohio.

Beginning May 15 through May 22, Monroe County SR 145 (from the 5.0 MM to the 8.0 MM) will be closed from 7 AM to 3:30 PM daily to allow ODOT crews to begin tree trimming along the roadway.  

ODOT will be removing trees branches to enhance sight distance, improve height clearance for trucks and eliminate any potential hazards of falling branches.

The Relay For Life of Monroe County is now looking for teams for the 2013 event to be held June 7 and 8 at Hannibal Locks and Dam. If you would like to start a team, you may contact Crystal Longwell, event chair, at 740-483-1024.

Several events have occurred and are being planned for this year, Kickoff was in October with Bras Across the Bridge, which was a huge success and is being planned as an annual event in October.  Other fundraisers include the Bump, Set and Score a Cure volleyball game, Relay teams’ Longaberger Basket Bingo, and the teams are busy making plans for their individual fundraisers.

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide, community based, voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy and service. 56 Monroe Countians have been served 159 times through the following American Cancer Society programs during the past year: Hope Lodge, I Can Cope, Look Good Feel Better, gift items or wigs, Reach to Recovery and 20 individuals received transportation assistance dollars ($1,638.00). There were 30 new cancer diagnoses reported to the American Cancer Society this past year in Monroe County.

Whether you know what you need or you’re not even sure where to start, a call to the American Cancer Society’s 24 hour, toll free information service or a visit to its Web site can be a critical step in understanding your disease and deciding how to overcome it.  Involvement in Relay for Life allows the American Cancer Society to offer these services that mean so much to cancer patients, survivors, and their families.  By visiting www.cancer.org or by calling 1-800-227-2345, anyone touched by cancer can quickly find information, comfort, and support.

Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature activity.  It offers everyone in communities an opportunity to participate in the fight against cancer.  Teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path.  Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event.  Relays are an overnight event, up to 24 hours in length.

Relay for Life is a life-changing event that brings together more than 3.5 million people to celebrate lives of those who have battled cancer, Remember loved ones lost to the disease, and to Fight Back because we have been touched by cancer and desperately want to put an end to the disease.

The American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Monroe County represents the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported, and that one day cancer will be eliminated.  For more information on Relay For Life, please contact American Cancer Society staff partner Chad Gardner at 1.888.227.6446 x3210 or Chad.Gardner@cancer.org

A celebration was recently held at Marv's Place in Sardis to commemorate the opening of the Omal railway in Monroe County. Attending were members of the Hannibal Industrial Park, the Ohio Terminal Railway and the Monroe County Commissioners.

Honored during the celebration were Jeffrey Himmel, CEO of Hannibal Real Estate and Russell Peterson, CEO of the Ohio Terminal Railway. Proclamations read by the commissioners recognized their efforts in bringing back rail service to the county.

The proclamation honoring Jeffrey Himmel said, “This is a perfect demonstration of dedication to the citizens of Monroe County in creating employment for your dedicated employees who remain ever vigilant in the pursuit of continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.” It was said of Russell Peterson in another proclamation, “We now welcome the OHIO Terminal Railway to Monroe County, we note that through your affiliated railroads in Ohio and Pennsylvania you have a proven commitment to your employees, community and service.”

As part of the events, David Reid, Managing Director of the Hannibal Industrial Park gave a speech. Reid said in his speech, in reference to the six month process to re-open the railway, “The 12 miles of railway was steadily being overtaken by nature, and in many places the brush and undergrowth had completely covered the track. How is it, then, that this renaissance has been made possible? This only happens when unique individuals come together with a vision and a commitment to cause change.”

UPDATE: The hearing to approve the purchase of Ormet has been postponed a week to May 22. The postponement comes due to objections by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. over underfunded retirement plans.

The deadline for potential buyers to put in offers on Ormet Corp. came and went on May 9 with the only bid coming from Wayzata Investment Partners LLC. Wayzata’s purchase of Ormet is pending court approval which was to be determined on May 15 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.

When Ormet first filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 25, initial concerns about the company’s future were alleviated when it was revealed on Feb. 26 that Wayzata, a company that has already been a business partner with Ormet, was identified as a probable buyer. This identification proved true on May 9 as Wayzata placed a $221 million bid on Ormet.

Court documents list Ormet as having $407 million in assets and $416 million in debt. While Wayzata will technically be purchasing Ormet, according to bloomberg.com, $221 million will basically be “paid” by Wayzata through forgiveness of debt owed by Ormet.

Each year, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) gives funding to Monroe County communities to make improvements. This funding has been a way for projects to be completed that may never have been done otherwise. During the May 6 Monroe County Commissioners' meeting, the 2013 recipients for the annual CDBG Formula Grant were chosen.

A total of 12 projects were submitted for consideration this year. However, commissioners were only able to choose three leaving nine unfunded. Chosen this year were: the Laings Community Center in the amount of $7,000 to install a sump pump and drainage pipe in the boiler room; Summit Township in the amount of $20,900 to install a backup generator at the community center and purchase four sets of turnout gear for the Lewisville Volunteer Fire Department; and Wayne Township in the amount of $33,000 to replace a bridge with a box culvert on TR 1596.

Commissioner John Pyles said of installing a natural gas generator at the Lewisville Community Center, “I like the back-up generator idea, especially after what we went through last year [the June 29th Derecho windstorm]. It would make one more place in the county that could operate during an emergency.” The project in Wayne Township was chosen due to the possibility of residents being stranded if a bridge went out while the Laings Community Center project was chosen to put the final touches on an ongoing effort to keep water out of the basement of the structure.

Also in CDBG news, Washington Township/ Graysville village finalized their project list for their application to the $300,000 CDBG Neighborhood Revitilazation Grant. After two community meetings in which residents were given the opportunity to specify projects they would like to see completed in their area, they decided upon nine things.

If Washington Township/ Graysville village receives the grant, the following projects will be funded: $146,000 for a new brush truck for the Graysville Volunteer Fire Department; $8,600 for plaster repair/painting in the community center; $71,500 for a concrete driveway/parking lot at the community center and fire station; $3,200 for handicapped parking at the township building; $1,500 for outdoor grills at the Knowlton Park; $14,400 for curbing in Graysville; $18,200 to repair a road slip on Clearfork Rd.; $16,300 to repair a road slip on Broomstick Rd.; and $20,300 to re-pave the outdoor basketball court at the community center. 

Beginning May 6, State Route 78 in Monroe County (between mile markers 6.00 and 8.50) will be closed to allow crews to perform precautionary tree trimming along stated route. This will be a daytime closure between 7:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. There will be message boards, arrow boards and drums in place to notify motorists of the closure. Weather permitting, expected completion date is May 17.

Recommended Detour: 260 in Noble County turn left onto Monroe 145 to Monroe 78

For residents along state route, there may be a delay to reach destination.

Woodsfield resident Jimmy Williams had a shock on March 13 when he was served with a lawsuit from Pushpin Holdings, LLC. Upon exploring the papers, Williams found out the lawsuit was based upon a business transaction dating back to 2002. Upon further investigation, Williams discovered that Pushpin Holdings, LLC exists basically to bring what would be called frivolous lawsuits against others.

The series of events began in 2002 when CIT Holdings leased three credit card machines to a general partnership, Farmers Feed & Supply. Jimmy Williams was a partner in the partnership. In October of 2002, one of the machines was released from its lease and returned by Williams to CIT Holdings in exchange for continuing the lease on the remaining two machines. All billing for that machine ceased in Feb. of 2003. The leases on the other two machines were also fulfilled.

At some point after CIT's dealings with Williams, they sold their debt to Pushpin Holdings, LLC. On Feb. 26, a full ten years after the account was settled, Pushpin sued Williams in Cook County, Illinois court for the remaining term of the lease for the returned machine, for penalties, a decade worth of interest, and attorney fees.