Commissioners approved a $150,000 bank loan Thursday to purchase two Sixth Street properties.

Friday, November 05, 1999

Commissioners approved a $150,000 bank loan Thursday to purchase two Sixth Street properties.

The county bought an option on the lots at118 and 124 S. Sixth St. this summer intending to turn them into government office space at a later date.

"Regardless of what happens in the years to come, this would give us the opportunity to build," commissioner George Patterson said.

The property is available now, so the county took the option to buy now, he said.

"If we don’t build, we could use it for parking," commissioner Paul Herrell said.

The commission has speculated that the property could be used for new jail construction, although the county does not own the entire half block between Park Avenue and the alley beside the current jail.

Also Thursday, commissioners voted to waive dog adoption fees at the Lawrence County Dog Shelter, beginning Monday and running through Jan. 15.

The county waives fees during the holidays as a help for animals and people who are looking for pets, Patterson said.

"It helps people out at Christmastime and saves the lives of a number of animals," he said.

In other action, commissioners:

– Approved a lease agreement between the county and Lawrence County Community Action Organization for property in Aid to build a joint volunteer fire and ambulance station.

Plans call for a permanent foundation and a steel fabricated building that will become a station to house Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Service ambulances and Aid fire trucks.

"Having an ambulance there will cut the time in half that it takes to get to a hospital," Herrell said. "We truly need it out there."

The fire department also has needed a new home for some time, he said.

The empty lot across from the Symmes Valley ball fields is ready for construction, prepared by the fire department, and the commissioners hope to have the station built by the end of the year.

George Fuller and family donated the land and the CAO fronted the purchase money, Patterson said.

"It’s a community project or we could never be able to do it," Herrell said.

The contract with the CAO will allow the county to purchase at a later date, Patterson said.

– Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department detective Carol Kitts, director of the county’s Marine Patrol program, presented two state awards the department had received.

The Marine Patrol education program, which began two years ago, took the Outstanding Boater Education Program at a state conference last week, she said. Ms. Kitts received the Outstanding Educator award.

The commission also approved Ms. Kitts’s request for a resolution of support for the next boater education grant.