A public hearing on the prospect of the county issuing $400,000 in bonds to build a new barn and arena at the fairgrounds is still set for 9:15 a.m. Thursday, even though the county commissioners will not be at the hearing.

The hearing had been set before Sen. Tom Niehaus and an Ohio development company scheduled a meeting on the status of a long-running project to build an electric arc steel mill at the Scioto-Lawrence counties border.

That meeting will be at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the Scioto County Courthouse with Lawrence and Scioto county commissioners, New Steel International, the developer, Lawrence Economic Development Corp. officials and the Southern Ohio Port Authority.

Economic leaders are hoping to resurrect the project that had seemed dead after a Russian steelmaker expected to construct the mill pulled out about four years.

The commissioners’ presence is not required at the public hearing, according to Commissioner Bill Pratt. Commission Administrator Tami Meade will log all comments made at the hearing and forward them to the commissioners.

The commissioners will then hold their regularly scheduled Thursday morning meeting at 2 p.m. that day to vote on issuing the bonds.

This fall the commissioners agreed to act as the fiscal agent for the fair board borrowing the $400,000 for construction. The fair board had come to the commission in order to take advantage of an interest rate savings that would happen if municipal bonds were issued.

The bonds with interest will be repaid from pledges made to the fair board to build the barn. The commission can issue the bonds for 2.99 percent interest rate, less than rate quotes the fair board would have had to pay to banks for a loan.