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LISBON -- The Columbiana County commissioners approved an emergency purchase of road salt in their meeting Wednesday.
The commissioners unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the purchase of rock salt from Hoopes-Edwards Capital, LLC for $126.50 per ton at a cost not to exceed $124,999.99. While in years past the county has obtained its road salt through the Ohio Department of Transportation's cooperative purchasing program, Commissioner Tim Ginter said that the board was informed the county would be unable to do so again until January next year.
The county previously advertised for bids to purchase its road salt in July but received no bids. Since then, Columbiana County Engineer Bert Dawson obtained informal estimates to purchase salt from five suppliers with Hoopes-Edwards Capital LLC quoting the lowest price per ton.
The commissioners also unanimously approved four resolutions authorizing Charter/Spectrum to work within county right of ways to install fiber optic cabling in sections of Butler, Salem and West townships. Other financial matters approved included the repayment of $50,000 from the Columbiana County Drug Enforcement Task Force for an advance approved by the commissioners in their May 13 meeting.
The commissioners were also updated on upcoming changes to the Beaver Valley Power Station's emergency notification plan.
Beaver Valley Offsite Emergency Preparedness Specialist Jennie Stiefel said that the power station would be shifting its primary warning method from outdoor sirens to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Integrated Public Alert & Warning System effective Jan. 1, 2027. Stiefel said that IPAWS does not require residents to sign up for alerts and will automatically broadcast warnings to all cell phones, TVs and radios in the alert area.
The plant's backup notification method will be the Mass Notification System which will also send alerts via cell phone, as well as landlines and emails, which Stiefel said all three counties within a 10-mile radius of the plant have been using since 2018.
"The emergency plan update has already been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as FEMA, and FEMA has already held a public meeting on this topic in both our FEMA regions. We're making this change across our fleet because the update will deliver emergency information to the public more quickly," Stiefel said. "The afterwarning sirens are only meant to be heard outside. The IPAWS emergency alert system and wireless system and wireless emergency alerts can be received whether individuals are indoors, outdoors, in their cars, or on the go, and the plan also does account for transient populations so anybody traveling through the area [will be alerted]."
The board of commissioners will meet next at 9 a.m. on Sept. 9.