The Lawrence County Commissioners’ meeting was held at the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce building in South Point on Tuesday morning.

Lawrence County Treasurer Stephen Dale Burcham was the first officeholder to give a report.

“I want to remind everybody that second half taxes are due July 5 this year,” he said.

He said that sales tax collections for the month of May were up $42,586 from the prior year.

“Year to date is up $197,285 over the prior year.”

In his position as the county’s Land Bank president, he announced that it would soon be doing its 200th demolition on July 15 or July 16.

“And we are targeting the old Shenanigans bar in Ironton,” he said. “We should have a big program. We have invited some of the folks who have been involved since the beginning.”

The land bank, which started in 2016, targets dilapidated properties that are abandoned and tax delinquent. Once a structure is demolished, the land is brought up to construction grade and resold.

Rick Blankenship, the assistant director of Lawrence County Department of Jobs and Family Services, reported that things are going well, although they were replacing another air conditioning unit at their building.

“There are 20 some units in that building and we are replacing them as they go out,” he said. “Things seem to be going pretty well so far.”

Bill Nenni with the Lawrence County Airport said that the airport is currently closed.

“We are in the middle of a $1.5 million runway renovation,” he said, adding that 90 percent of the money came from the FFA, five percent from the Ohio Department of Transportation and five percent from the rent paid on hangers and tie downs at the airport. “It also includes a lighting project. It should be finished sometime the middle of this month.”

Commissioner Freddie Hayes Jr. commended the parade committee for putting on another successful annual Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade.

“They had a record year, with 35,000 people,” he said. “We had a great time.”

In items on the agenda, the commissioners:

• Approved a resolution authorizing Emergency Management Agency director Mike Bost to be the liaison with the state and federal emergency management agencies in all federal emergency assistance and agreement matters.

• Approved a status change for Michael Campbell from part-time advanced EMT to full-time EMT.

• Awarded Tri-State Construction and Enterprises LLC for the restoration of public restrooms.

• Approved floodplain permits for several construction projects including a maintenance project on County Road 31, material storage and bridge repair on State Route 217, filling, grading and stream maintenance on State Route 217, a filling and grading project on County Road 1A, stream maintenance and debris removal project on McKinney Creek along County Road 36, and a stream maintenance on State Route 378.

• Approved appropriations and transfers.

• Approved a fiscal year 2020 grant agreement for the Department of Youth Service Care and Custody.

The commissioners also had four executive sessions, one for pending litigation, one for property acquisition, one for real estate and one for a personnel matter.