(Photo by Amber Phipps) The Washington County Commission moved its regular Thursday meeting to Wednesday morning. Commissioner James Booth was absent for the meeting. From left are Clerk Ben Cowdery and Commissioners Charlie Schilling and Eddie Place.

Washington County Commissioner Charlie Schilling was appointed to the Eastern Ohio Development Alliance Board of Directors during Wednesday’s commission meeting.

His term will begin Jan. 1, 2026, and end Dec. 31, 2027.

“It’s an organization that we’ve been members of for going on four years now,” said Schilling. “It’s an entity that has a really good connection with industry throughout the 16 counties here in the eastern and southeastern part of the state.”

The EODA is a non-profit organization that was formed in 1990 with the mission to establish networks between counties to improve community development.

Schilling said that being a member of EODA has provided a lot of insight and knowledge about what adjacent counties are doing for programs and initiatives.

The commissioners also approved the appropriation to transfer $92,653 from the general fund into the Community Development Fund.

“This is interest money that was paid a year in advance from the port authority for the investment that the county made in the AMP site,” said Schilling. “So that partnership is certainly thriving and I appreciate the efforts that they’re doing.”

Director of Job and Family Services Flite Freimann said this transfer is moving invested interest dollars from one investment to the next. He said the Community Development Fund is money that was raised through taxes and is then invested into other funds when needed.

“Think of it like an interest-bearing checking account and those interest payments are then put into a separate account,” said Freimann. “They’re still public dollars but they aren’t tax dollars in the sense that they were generated through sales tax revenue.”

Freimann said his concern originally was on if the port authority could pay back the $1.5 million in county investments.

“The county got a great deal out of this and they were able to invest their money back earlier at the same interest rate that it would have been had they stayed in the state investment, and the money was spent here locally,” he said.

Schilling said the initial investment into the port authority is paying off and they’re on schedule to pay off the $1.5 million in about 10 years.

Washington County Engineer Roger Wright said there were five tanks remaining for the Devola project and it’s estimated the tank completion date will be around Oct. 1.

From Sep. 22-27, there will be purple lights displayed on the courthouse tower on behalf of the Mid-Ohio Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s. The two-mile walk will take place at 8 a.m. Sep. 27 at Tomlinson Park in Williamstown.

For more information, go to act.alz.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=walk_homepage