Trending
BELPRE -- Assistance from the Washington County engineer may help the City of Belpre save hundreds of thousands of dollars repairing a slip on Drag Strip Road.
During Thursday's Belpre City Council meeting -- conducted online using the Zoom app due to state restrictions on gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic -- Mayor Mike Lorentz said three test pilings done earlier in the day indicated the project might not be as expensive as initially thought.
"That, in all honesty, could save us a half-million dollars," he said.
Lorentz said work by county Engineer Roger Wright saved the city some money by not having to hire an outside engineer and the potential solution could wind up costing around $100,000.
"Our county engineer's really coming up to bat for us," the mayor said.
The slip happened about five months ago, when a neighbor was doing some excavating work near Drag Strip Road, which is off U.S. 50, Lorentz said.
In other business, council voted 6-0, with Councilwoman Penne Riffle briefly absent due to technical difficulties, to approve the first reading of a resolution seeking requests for proposals to provide ambulance service to the city. Belpre's contract with medical transport company Pro Care is up at the end of August, Lorentz said.
Council voted 7-0 to approve the second readings of ordinances establishing a credit/purchasing card policy for the city and designating Citizens Bank as the public depository for city funds.
Councilman Elmer Lee Shutts said he'd received a memorandum of understanding from Belpre City Schools for use of the ball fields at Civitan Park. He scheduled a parks and recreation committee meeting for 6 p.m. Tuesday to review it. The meeting will be conducted via Zoom, with links on the city website and Facebook pages. People must be registered Zoom users and sign in to participate.
Lorentz said a Buddy Bass tournament is being held for kids at 9 a.m. Saturday at the pond in Civitan Park, in conjunction with a fishing tournament for adults on the Ohio River. It's one of the few activities Belpre Homecoming organizers felt could still be held with social-distancing measures after the annual festival was canceled due to the pandemic.
Lorentz said people should be at the park by 8:30 or 8:45 a.m. to participate in the free kids' event.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.