Southeast Ohio Building Department Chief Building Inspector Rick Dostal, right, shakes hands with Washington County Commissioner Charlie Schilling after receiving the 2025 State Building Code Official of the Year award Thursday. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

Southeast Ohio Building Department Chief Building Inspector Rick Dostal was awarded the 2025 State Building Code Official of the Year by the Central Ohio Code Officials Association.

The Washington County Commissioners presented Dostal with the award from the State of Ohio’s House of Representatives.

Commissioner Charlie Schilling said Rep. Kevin Ritter sponsored the award on behalf of the members of the House of Rep. of the 136th General Assembly of Ohio.

“I can’t say I’m surprised at all for him to get this recognition from the state and from Rep. Ritter’s office,” said Schilling.

Schilling said since Dostal joined the building department about five years ago, the department’s general revenue increased from $400,000 to $700,000, respectively. He said the response from the community when working with the building department has always been positive.

“Thank you very much,” said Dostal. “I attended a meeting Monday night with South Zanesville and they did their first readings so we’ll be doing residential inspections there soon … and in two weeks I’m going to Hocking County to make a presentation to them as well.”

Dostal was hired as chief inspector of the building department in February 2021.

Schilling said the commissioners were going to be out of the office Thursday to visit data processing centers in other counties.

“We’re going up north to look at data processing projects and then we’ve got meetings in Columbus in the afternoon and we are also going to Union County tonight where three of those developments are currently happening,” said Schilling. “The township association in Union County is holding a public meeting in Marysville.”

Schilling said there’s a lot of information for them to evaluate with the data center project.

“Eric Phillips, the Port Authority director in Union County has been a good friend of mine for a few years and he’s really been able to provide us with a lot of data to look at and work out through this process,” he said.

The commissioners also approved the resolution to recognize Ohio Loves Transit Week 2026 from Feb. 16-20.

The resolution stated, “Ohio’s 67 urban and rural public transit agencies which serve 70 counties across the state will observe the eighth annual Ohio Loves Transit Week.”

It read that the state’s public transportation provided more than 70,000,000 rides per year.

“We advocate at the State House on the 17th that week to talk to our representatives of the importance of our transit,” said Buckeye Hills Regional Council Mobility Manager Julia Hinzman. “We usually have free fares on the transits that week.”

The commissioner said they were happy to support the resolution.

Washington County Engineer Roger Wright said they are looking to open the Hune Covered Bridge in Lawrence Township to pedestrian traffic only.

“The community out there is pretty disappointed that we’re not going to be able to open it back up to traffic,” said Wright. “The original concept for the bridge was to relocate the covered bridge to a new location and build a bridge on that site.”

He said due to the lack of funding they have to complete the project, they’ll utilize what they have to open the bridge for pedestrians only.

“If we don’t fix the project or don’t fix what’s going to happen, the bridge is going to collapse and wash downstream,” said Wright.

Wright said they’re working on “stacking funding” to make the project happen.