New cooling tower for county jail not ready until next May

Jul 28, 2023

LISBON — Columbiana County Commissioner Mike Halleck said the new chiller/cooling tower for the county jail probably won’t be ready for installation until May next year.

“Hopefully we can get through this year,” he said.

The commissioners on Wednesday awarded the contract for the chiller/cooling tower for the jail air conditioning system to Johnson Controls, who submitted the low bid of $416,400 last week when the bids were opened. The only other bid came from York Mahoning for $521,200.

According to Halleck, it’s estimated to take nine months to build the chiller/cooling tower. For now, the current system remains working, so he’s hoping that continue until this fall and winter.

In other business, the commissioners approved an emergency road repair for a portion of Valley Avenue in Liverpool Township that sustained heavy damage from flooding during a storm on July 1. An emergency agreement was approved between the commissioners and Shook Company to repair the road for an amount not to exceed $60,000.

Ohio Edison representative Troy Rhoades advised commissioners of some transmission line work being done to replace insulators on a transmission line that stretches through Boardman and Beaver townships in Mahoning County and Fairfield, Elkrun, Madison and Yellow Creek townships and Salineville in Columbiana County.

The work will be done from the end of July through October, with the majority of the work done via helicopter. Rhoades advised them that property owners will be receiving calls regarding the right-of-way and he wanted commissioners to be aware in case they get phone calls from residents concerned about the helicopter hanging around.

“We want to make sure people are aware that we’re out there doing the work,” he said.

Commissioners approved a public guardian contract for Margaret Ketchum with a ceiling increase of $750 funded through the Senior Services Levy for a period from July 18 to Dec. 31. The commissioners also hired Nicole Richey of East Palestine as a clerical specialist II in the social service division.

Commissioner Tim Weigle promoted the 2023 Wings-N-Wheels event at the Columbiana County Airport on County Airport Road, East Liverpool from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 26, with a rain date of Sept. 2. The event will include the ability to tour a C47, a 50/50 drawing, silent auction, dash plaques, food vendors, trophies and a disc jockey. Proceeds this year will benefit the Columbian County Search & Rescue Team.

The next commissioner meeting will be 9 a.m. Aug. 2 at the downtown courthouse, with a public hearing at 9:10 a.m. regarding proposed bans of large solar facilities or large wind farms in Elkrun, Hanover, Knox and Madison townships.

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