SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2020
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COVID cases continue to spike, county remains Red By JD LONG
jim@harrisonnewsherald.com
CADIZ – Last Wednesday the county recorded 71 new cases of COVID-19, which was down from the weekly record of 91 just the previous week. Those numbers also catapulted Harrison County into the alert status of Red for the first time. For this week another 71 cases were reported including four new ones by end of Wednesday. Harrison County Health Administrator Garen Rhome said at
Wednesday’s commissioner’s meeting that a key fourth indicator had been tripped last week, which was the seventh: “Flagged if percentage of the occupied adult ICU beds in each region goes above 80% for at least three days in the last week, AND more than 20% of adult ICU beds are being used for COVID-19 positive patients for at least three days in the last week.” Rhome stressed the need to continue avoiding person-to-person interaction, as well as any gathering that doesn’t necessarily have to be very large, as he explained in last week’s meeting. “For residents, for county, for the
community it means we want to take our mitigation efforts and our awareness and our vigilance up yet another notch,” he stated. The good news is that 62 more individuals recovered for a new total of 327. But with that comes some bad as Rhome announced four additional deaths as the result of “complications related to” COVID-19. This brings the total to 10 deaths in the county now that have been connected to the COVID virus. Rhome said these latest deaths were related to a long-term health care facility for two of them (two additional deaths were recorded later
on Wednesday). In cases per 100,000 population Harrison County actually moved up from a ranking of 30 in the state to 21 with 1,050.5 cases per, which was 817.8 just last week. In comparison Rhome said that Harrison County’s ratio is worse than Cuyahoga County, which is 1,024.8. The ranking of 21, though, was through Nov. 12 and Rhome later stated that a new set of numbers were released on Dec. 15 showing that a new two-week period dropped the county down to 35 with an occurrence rate of 984 cases per 100,000.
“I’m trying to scare you a little bit,” Rhome told Commissioner Don Bethel after the commissioner asked the question half-jokingly. “It can’t be understated,” he told the board. “The increase in spread and the amount of spread in our community.” He said Harrison County moved out of the top twenty-five percent but it was only because the spread of the virus was worse in those other top counties and not because Harrison was improving. For some perspective of how bad it
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Commissioners approve another step in new jail project, say it will be built to facilitate any emergencies, anything that comes into the sheriff’s office and nine oneone center.” Carter told the board more equipment would be coming along later to what’s being agreed upon now but he called this agreement the “key piece” with getting the actual radios in place. He said a recording system also comes with this allowing the recording of all radio channels where an emergency could be reviewed “instantly.” Carter said if the agreement is signed by Jan. 1, 2021 it would save the county $62,927. Maintenance from years two through five comes to $186,095 bringing the total cost of the project to $589,999 for the next five years. The commissioners wanted clarified that having three stations doesn’t mean three are needed. They wanted to know if a third person would be hired “just in case” they’re needed or hired regardless. “We’re not hiring anybody, we’re not
By JD LONG
jim@harrisonnewsherald.com
CADIZ – Wednesday, the Harrison County Commissioners approved $403,904 worth of new MARCS (MultiAgency Radio Communication System) equipment to service the new jail at the armory on E. Market Street in Cadiz. Kyle Carter of Motorola, appeared before the commissioners to secure the agreement. He explained that the 911 system would be moving out there as well and with that comes a new radio system, which the commissioners later approved. “It’s going to expand the current nine oneone answering positions and radio answering position to be able to run three dispatchers at a time,” Carter explained. “Currently we staff two dispatchers twentyfour seven…” and stated that if there is something additional going on such as a storm, a third dispatcher has to work around the other two. But with this agreement Carter stated that they would now have “three fully operational positions
See JAIL- Pg. 3
Oil & gas prices up in 3rd quarter, revenue rises By JD LONG
jim@harrisonnewsherald.com HARRISON COUNTY – The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), upon the release of the third quarter oil and gas production (horizontal), revealed that oil rose by an average of nearly twelve dollars compared to the second quarter (Q2) and gas by almost thirty cents. The July through September numbers are based on the average of oil and gas and only as a rough estimate. Every month of the third quarter (Q3) saw oil prices over forty dollars beginning with July at $42.07 and ending at $40.6 for September. August saw the highest price since the first quarter at $43.44. Second quarter prices never rose above $39.46 for June reporting. Gas prices also rose in every month of the third quarter compared to the second. September saw the highest price ($1.92) since the first quarter and the average price of $2 also topped the first quarter’s best average of $1.91. The second quarter’s average came in at $1.71 and never climbed higher than May’s $1.75. The third quarter rebound showed itself in Harrison County’s oil production where it topped the second quarter by 157,000 barrels and gas by more than 60.5 million mcf (one thousand cubic feet)(oil based on YCharts and
HARRISON
NEWS-HERALD
natural gas based on Henry Hub). Looking at estimated revenue Harrison County pulled in $84.5 million compared to $56.1 million from the second quarter. Natural gas was also up but by a much larger figure: $211.9 million in Q3 versus $77.7 million in Q2. In breaking it down by township Notthingham drew the most barrels with over 430,300 followed by North (379,800) and Monroe (322,200) and Franklin (320,200). In natural gas production Green Township produced the most with 23.4 million mcf followed by Washington at 16.6 mcf. The remainder of the townships all produced nine million mcf (Athens, Cadiz, German) or below. Total barrels of oil from the county for Q3 were just over 2,010,000 and 105.9 million mcf for natural gas Total oil and gas revenue came in at $296.4 million in Q3 compared to $133.8 million in Q2. As far as Severance Tax is concerned the estimated return for oil was $201,000 in Q3 versus $185.3 in Q2. For natural gas the difference was more significant with Q3 coming in with $2.6 million versus $1.1 million in Q2. Indications are that these figures will only
See PRICES Pg. 2 AREA
Pictured from left: Max Snyder, Brinn Snyder and Hunter Snyder. They are showing some of the items that were brought to the packing station to go on the way to a nice Christmas.
Kids send Christmas joy to military By ESTHER McCOY CADIZ - The Harrison County military and some from nearby counties will receive boxes of various goodies, games, hats, socks, books, sports equipment and even letters from pupils in the first, third and fifth grades from the Harrison Elementary School. These were gathered together by the Snyder children, Hunter, 11; Brinn, 8; and Max, 6. They are the children of Tom and Stephanie Snyder and grandchildren of Vicki Snyder and Ellis and Donna Fulton.
This is not all the children have done to bring joy to the military recipients. They worked through the spring and summer, taking care of small plants they put into the soil and cared for during the growth period. When the veggies reached the ripened stage, they picked them and prepared them for selling to regular seasonal customers and at their home. This money was put aside until the holiday season was near. Then it was off to the shopping malls to buy sports
See SEND - Pg. 2 OBiTUARiES
SPORTS Randy Clemens Freeport, Ohio
Volunteers prepare cookie packs for veterans | PG 3
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Huskies open season with divisional split | PG 10
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James W. Hennis Bowerston, Ohio
Donald Robert Shaw Cadiz, Ohio Karla S. Blackburn Liggett Bolivar, Ohio
Dorothy E. Dowdel Jewett, Ohio
Charles J. Singer Louisville, Ohio
John O. Norquest Cadiz, Ohio
Terrence E. Remas Adena, Ohio
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