By Stephen Smoot
Commissioner Patsy Trecost opened last week’s County Commission meeting with an invocation referencing the Church Father St. Augustine, sharing that “you can see our Lord Jesus Christ in our life experience.”
Among the first orders of business lay in honoring special achievements. Commissioners read a proclamation honoring Bice’s Greenhouse in Enterprise for its 100th growing season and its legacy of providing high quality products, mostly grown or made in-house since 1925.
The Harrison County Community Educational Outreach Service, better known as CEOS, also was honored by proclamation. A representative shared that “we want to focus on things we do for the community” including supporting Hospice and the state veterans’ nursing home.
Commissioners also honored Billy Dunn, Chief of Spelter Volunteer Fire Department, as well as EMTs David Jones and Jonathan Sparks. Thomas explained why the Commission singled the three out from a number of first responders who worked a recent structure fire on Shinnston Pike near Erie.
She explained that Dunn expertly juggled a huge influx of units responding via mutual aid, ensuring that each asset went to where it could perform the most good. Sparks and Jones went beyond the call of duty by entering the burning building to rescue three individuals inside, risking their lives and experiencing serious smoke inhalation in the process.
“These guys showed that they were willing to take it a step further,” said Commissioner David Hinkle, who added that “you can’t say enough. They put their lives on the line.”
Commissioners heard a request from Benedum Airport to provide $500,000 to help them complete the new terminal at the facility. Thomas, Hinkle, and Laura Pysz-Laulis, Harrison County Administrator, discussed how to make that work within the budget.
They described the general budget as “spoken for” through fiscal year 2026, but the Commission reserves $100,000 per year for the airport. No one had used that fund yet, so $200,000 came from the FY 25 and 26 appropriation. They then took $150,000 from the video lottery fund for both fiscal years to finish the request. Video lottery funds most often support special funding and other requests related to fairs and festivals.
Commissioners also discussed again the action of the State Auditor’s Office in pulling tax tickets from the May 15 tax sale. This excited heated debate in the previous regular meeting. The developer Genesis had properties listed for sale on May 15 due to non payment. The company took their case to the State Auditor’s Office, complaining of an incorrect assessment by the Harrison County Assessor.
Hinkle made a motion to have a letter sent to the State Auditor’s Office requesting both an explanation of cause and guidance going forward. “I think we also need to follow up with a letter on how they told us they pulled them,” said Hinkle, who added “I also we need them to ask us how to advise them moving forward with the tickets pulled, and the reasons they pulled them, because we requested that they be sold and they did not follow our request.”
His other concern lay in the precedent set here that could encourage taxpayers to bypass the legally established review process at the local level. That takes place at a Board of Equalization and Review.
Trecost, who supported Genesis in the debate in the last meeting, stated “And just for the record are we going to pay people to do this for us because we are feelings got hurt last week?”
“No sir,” Hinkle fired back, explaining that “we are doing this because I don’t know how those sheriffs’ office would begin to know to address the tickets because nothings going to change in the way we calculated the taxes for the upcoming tax year and it’s not fair for this county to have tickets pulled when we don’t know why they were pulled other than we were told the assessor didn’t calculate correctly.”
Commissioners also came to a final determination about how to acquire the Sunset Ellis property. Last year, the iconic local restaurant burned and the combined eatery and drive in theater business shut down. The County Commission has worked to acquire it as a possible new home for a livestock barn and an animal shelter.
As of the last meeting, Commissioners tried to work around a request from the property owner to retain an apartment on the land that forms a part of the theater screen. Engineers, however, determined that the screen had structural deficiencies that would cost hundreds of thousands to remedy.
One option discussed at the time was to surround the screen and the apartment with a safety fence large enough to protect county property if the screen collapsed.
Pysz-Laulis reported that now “In negotiations for the property owner they are willing to give up their lifetime estate rights. They have requested a six-month lease that’s renewable for one term for six months while they get into a new place and also would be signing a waiver in the meantime. And the price will be the same and we will be able to close by the end of June.”
Trecost made a motion “to do as the county administrator spoke, ” which passed unanimously.
