From left, Daniel Baker, Sarah Tome, Darren Shearlock, Ronnie Marquez-Posey, Stephanie Canfield, Neil Polk, Zachary Ludi and Flite Freimann hold a check for $19,034.10 at the Washington County OhioMeansJobs office on Thursday. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

Washington County OhioMeansJobs was awarded $19,034.10 for the Vets Ohio Network for Employment Initiative grant award Thursday.

Washington County earned second, the silver level statewide, for the services provided for veterans through OhioMeansJobs.

“This award will actually help us to enhance and make more visible the services that we have offered and can offer to our veterans here,” Supervisor Stephanie Canfield said.

Canfield announced the award during the Washington County Commission meeting Thursday morning.

“It’s a good collaboration and I’m pretty excited,” she said.

OhioMeansJobs and the Washington County Veterans Service Commission office collaborate when it comes to assisting veterans with employment. WCVSC Executive Director Darren Shearlock said helping veterans find jobs is usually the first step when they arrive at the office.

Veteran Program Manager Zachary Ludi for Veterans Services with the state and Bureau Chief of Specialized Workforce Services at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Ronnie Marquez-Posey presented the check at OhioMeansJobs at 311 Third St.

Southeast Ohio Building Department Chief Building Inspector Rick Dostal received an award for building code official of the year from the Central Ohio Code Officials Association.

“We appreciate all you do,” said Commissioner Charlie Schilling.

Dostal announced he was asked to serve on the Washington County Career Center Advisory Board. He said they’re looking into an apprenticeship program.

“I was pretty excited to be part of that,” said Dostal.

Marietta resident Dee Arnold asked the commissioners if they would attend the Washington County for Clean Drinking Water meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. The meeting will be held at 710 Colegate Dr.

“Clean water is the top priority in this office and it always has been,” said Schilling.

He said even though he wasn’t planning to attend, they would continue to look into the matter from proponents from the state and specialists.

Commissioner Eddie Place said they have spoken with Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Ohio EPA, geologists and Marietta College personnel.

“We haven’t seen a circumstance where it has contaminated an aquifer,” said Place.

Commissioner Greg Nohe, who was appointed to the position as commissioner in November, said he is still weighing the evidence and is new to the issue.

“I’m still gathering the information to form my own opinion, not necessarily the opinion of a county commissioner, but my own opinion on what the risk is,” said Nohe. “It’s all about risk assessment and what the risk is of contaminating those aquifers because nobody here wants that.”

Nohe said he wants to listen and gather evidence on all sides before coming to any conclusions.

Arnold said there will be three specialists who will present at the meeting who have various backgrounds in biological and earth sciences.

“We want to find out what is going on here and all we’re asking for is for people to come and listen,” said Arnold.

Schilling said he’s spent many hours speaking with people on all sides of the subject about injection wells and he’s comfortable with how things are regulated right now.

“I appreciate your efforts on this and the educational piece is very important,” he said.

Washington County Sheriff Mark Warden provided updates about the newly installed commander system at the Washington County Jail. He said the old system was antiquated and the new commander system is running and fully installed.

“The system does enhance the safety of the facility,” said Warden, thanking the commissioners for their support.

Warden said there will be citations given out to citizens who don’t have their dogs tagged or licensed. He said the reason is to help the kennels who receive sales through tags. The sales from the tags provides funding for those kennels.

If a dog is found and untagged and the owner is identified, the owner will receive a 24-hour notice to license their animal. He said if it’s a holiday, the notice is 72 hours.

Warden said he’s working with Marietta and Belpre police departments to ensure animals found while officers are on duty are licensed.

“We’re doing that to enforce and to pick up those dog tag sales to help the dog kennel funding,” he said.

Visit www.doglicenses.us/OH/Washington/cs.php for online dog licensing in Washington County.