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The Washington County Commission approved a notice of award of $694,926 to the Washington County Health Department to aid in renovations to a new building during its meeting Thursday.
Commissioners noted $150,000 of the money being used for this project is coming from a grant the Health Department procured.
The rest of the money is coming from the county's general fund in kind.
The new building is located directly across from the parking lot of the old building. The money will be going towards renovations to the new building. County Clerk Ben Cowdery said he hopes the renovations will be done by the end of the year so the Health Department can start moving in.
The commissioners also approved two letters of approval for the ongoing sewer project in Devola, the project in which County Engineer Roger Wright noted "permanent restoration is underway."
During the discussion of the Devola project, County Commissioner James Booth said he heard about some Devola community members being "disrespectful" towards the engineers working with them on the sewer project and wanted to note to the community that the workers are only doing their job and the county was court-ordered to carry out this project.
Booth also noted to the community that, due to the flooding in April, there will be rocks in people's yards from the river.
"It will not be a good year for yards," Booth said.
During the meeting, the commissioners also approved an agreement with the county engineer for Hune Covered Bridge Rehabilitation.
Wright noted during the meeting that the bridge needed to be taken down. He said the nearby pier was damaged and that was affecting the stability of the bridge. According to Cowdery, the bridge is no longer safe for traffic and was deemed too expensive to get it back in shape.
"The thought is to put enough (money) into it for it to be safe for non-traffic," said Cowdery.
Wright deemed it better to close it off to traffic and make it a hiking bridge.
The commissioners also approved a jail contract with Vinton County to house their prisoners in exchange for money.
The commissioners noted the price of housing these prisoners is the same as housing prisoners from Washington County.
County Commissioner Charlie Schilling noted they have the same or similar contracts with 10 to 12 other counties.
Clara Noelle can be reached at intern@newsandsentinel.com.