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4 minute read
Commish hear about hydrogen hub
By Cornelia Grace Harrison News-Herald Reporter
CADIZ — The Harrison County Comisisoners met for their regular weekly meeting on Wednesday, July 12.
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They began by approving purchase orders and vouchers for the County Home and the Department of Job and Family Services before moving on to appropriations for the recorder’s office and the County Home.
Commissioner Paul Coffland read the names of those being nominated to the Local Emergency Planning Committee. According to the EPA, “Under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, Local or Tribal Emergency Planning Committees must develop an emergency response plan, review the plan at least annually, and provide information about chemicals in the community to citizens.”
The committee must consist of different representatives from around the county, including those from law enforcement, civil defense, healthcare, elected officials, and media. The county’s LEPC will include representatives, such as Hoepdale Fire Chief Mark
Marchetta, Deputy Health Commissioner Katie Norris, and Sheriff Ron Myers.
At the end of the meeting, Nick Homrighausen gave a brief update on the Harrison County Community Improvement Corporation, with which the commissioners just recently entered into a cooperative agreement.
He began. “You’ve heard about the hydrogen hub, I think there’s been a couple meetings with a couple companies. I know they’ve been out talking with landowners and there’s been a lot of news around it lately. … We thank you for your support. Currently the Department of Energy is evaluating all the applications, but they’re being very tight-lipped about the process.”
He explained that the money for the project is DOE driven. He recently spoke with JobsOhio who said that they believe it will be almost winter before anything is heard on DOE decisions.
“The hydrogen hub makes a lot of sense with the robust industry we have within the tri-state region and the oil and gas potential of our region,” Homrighausen continued. “But it’s not going to be a physical hub. What we’re understanding is it will be a series of pipelines and entities spread throughout a very large area. Which means you’re going to have different pockets of pipelines and entities from maybe some of the larger metropolitan areas. … There’s going to be a lot of players involved in this. It’s a very complex, long-term project full of multiple projects that we’re still understanding as we get into this further. We obviously don’t know how it’s going to play out but, again, it’s going to be a long project to say the least.
“Barring any 100% driven, private investment, this will take decades,” he continued. “It will probably change along the way as new technology comes on board. There are plans for there to be multiple hydrogen hubs across the U.S., but we continue to work with companies that are evaluating our area and it’s highly data driven at this point.
“We are part of the Hydrogen Hub Coalition so we get regular updates and see whenever we need more support letters.”
Homrighausen and County CIC President Dave Wheeler set up a meeting with the commissioners to share some additional informa tion.
Freeport working on water plant
By Cornelia Grace
Harrison News-Herald Reporter
FREEPORT — After taking role call and accepting the minutes from June’s meeting, Freeport Council moved on to a few points of old business.
It was reported by Dan Snyder that the media in the water plant has been replaced.
The media is part of the filtering process and needs to be changed every few years, depending on use. Last month, Village Administrator Bill Morrison had reported that the water was testing high in manganese and that this violation would soon put the village in hot water with the EPA.
“Yesterday we successfully got the media changed,” Snyder said. “The criteria for that is to let it soak overnight and take a sample in the morning… I’ll get a call in the morning as soon as he gets that and I’ll turn the water on.”
He said that there are still some issues with a control panel and several valves in the plant. The control panel is working, but needs to be replaced. The valves have been an ongoing issue. They work but require some extra time to make sure they’re functioning properly.
Council briefly discussed the need for tree trimming on several roads in town and Snyder said that Morrison was already working on getting that done.
Council then talked about the ongoing sewer project. Many residents have still not signed their user agreements, which need to be turned in as soon as possible while the project is ongoing. The agreement allows the contractor to put in the tap on a resident’s property. If a user agreement isn’t signed now, the resident will be responsible for all costs associated with joining the sewer system later.
Last month, council requested that Village Solicitor Brett Hillyer create and ordinance regarding filling the position of clerk/treasurer when the current clerk steps down. Unfortunately, Hilyer was not present at the meeting and had not provided the ordinance to council for review.
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Council wants to remind residents to cut grass and trim weeds around their water meters. Workers have been having trouble around town reaching the meters. Several res -
Supplier issues delay Ohio executions
By Cornelia Grace Harrison News-Herald Reporter
A recent press release from Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has “issued the following reprieve of execution: Keith Lamar, who was scheduled to be executed on Nov. 16, 2023. The new date of execution has been moved to January 13, 2027.
“Governor DeWine is issuing this reprieve due to ongoing problems involving the willingness of pharmaceutical suppliers to provide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), pursuant to DRC protocol, without endangering other Ohioans.”