Chavez, Jones visit Belmont County

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Ohio Sen. Brian Chavez and state Rep. Don Jones visited the Belmont County Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday to discuss Capital Budget Bill funding awarded to Sargus Juvenile Detention Center to improve bathroom facilities at the center.

The Capital Bill is money set aside by the state to go back into local communities. Eastern Ohio projects looking for Capital Bill funding submit applications to both Jones’ and Chazev’s offices to be considered. For a project to be selected, it has to be a bondable project that can be tied to a state agency, and Sargus met both qualifications.

“That facility serves both Belmont and Harrison counties, which are in my district as well as the senator’s district. But more importantly, it’s something that was really needed,” Jones said, adding that he believes the responsibility to update the facility shouldn’t fall on the commissioners because the county’s budget is tight. “It all comes down to what the senator and I can convince our financial teams in Columbus that we need. And we don’t always get what we want — we’ve had some asks for a million dollars and we may have only had half a million or $400,000, but sometimes that’s enough to get the ball rolling.

“Nobody wants to be the first dollars going into a project. They would like to be the last dollars, especially for grants.”

He noted that it’s difficult to figure out which projects are going to meet the greatest needs and that he sympathizes with individuals who put time and energy into a project that isn’t able to secure the funding.

“But that’s the hard part of our jobs,” Jones said.

Chavez agreed.

“It is a collaborative effort between the House and the Senate because we’re representing the district,” he added. “Representative Jones has a very large district that he represents, and I have the largest Senate district in the state.”

He added that his office alone received over $150 million in requests that he deemed to be very good projects.

“You know, you want to fund them all but you can’t,” Chavez said.

Commissioner Jerry Echemann responded that the board as a whole wanted to extend a thank-you to both him and Jones.

“It must be tough when you’re talking to people like this Capital Bill that you just don’t know all that well yet and really that just comes with time, I’d think, and then you enroll. But I think it’s got to be tough at first,” Echemann said before asking Jones and Chavez if they think they spend the majority of their time on the Capital Budget Bill.

“To say that we spend the majority of the time would be a hard one, because we’re changing hats 15 times a day. But whenever it comes down to crunch time, we may spend hours and sometimes we may spend half the night there trying to get things done,” Jones replied. Echemann then asked Jones if it ends up being one bill passed by both chambers.

“Yes, it’s agreed upon by both, and that’s the collaboration that has to happen between the House and the Senate,” Jones said.

Sargus Juvenile Detention Center Executive Director D.J. Watson was on hand Wednesday morning as well. He thanked the staff at the offices of Chavez and Jones for assisting him through the process of applying for the funding.

“I think it’s important to say thank you to Senator Chavez and Representative Jones for believing in what we do enough to go and fight to bring back $500,000 to Belmont County so we can further cement what we’re working on out there. I think everybody in this room is aware we’ve got an old building,” Watson said. “When we talk about strategic funds, I think we’ve been up here for a few years talking about strategy and how we can prolong serving kids in the best way possible.”

He added that with the Capital Bill funding, he plans to update the bathroom and shower facilities in the center as well as addressing some air quality issues involving heating and cooling.

“It’s tough for us to get by, so an effort like this goes a long way for us and really, in the end, it goes a long way for the kids that we’re serving. And when you look at the kids we’re serving they are genuinely the most in need,” Watson added.

Echemann said when people hear this large amount of money will be going to a bathroom project they may be confused, but the bathrooms at Sargus aren’t bathrooms that you would see in a house or even in a courthouse; instead, they are detention grade.

Watson agreed that the facilities would surprise most people.

“When you see a price tag on the restroom and shower remodel it would probably shock most people who aren’t in that arena, but everything in there is stainless steel and of course has to be indestructible, so it’s built in a manner that is safe for not only our staff but the residents we’re serving every day.”