9/11 Never Forget
SATURDASEPTEMBER Y, JUNE 26, SATURDAY, 11,2021 2021
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You may have seen Dirk Harkins, a local veteran, on one of his long weekend walks around the county. This picture was taken along Route 151 between Jewett and Scio, but he travels different roads each time. Accompanied by Doug Satterfield for the first time, Harkins carried his 22-pound rucksack in honor of the 22 veterans who commit suicide each day. In his rucksack are all the essential tools needed for combat and an American flag—the one he flew in Iraq and carried on all of his missions. To Harkins, the ruck sack represents the burden of life each person carries, and he noted that, “When you are struggling, I’m here to help you carry the load.” Harkins orchestrates treatment for PTSD, anxiety, mood, and focus for veterans and first responders at the Sheriff’s Office in Harrison County. This cutting edge technology is free in Ohio and seems to be garnering overwhelmingly positive results. Call 740-491-7125 for treatment inquiry.
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Western Magnesium Steps into Harrison County
Headline 3 Headline 3 North Township takes no action on Scio annexation
Headline 4 By JD LONG jim@harrisonnewsherald.com Headline 4 SCIO—A Sept. 20 deadline is looming for
the Harrison County commissioners’ decision on Scio’s bid to annex more than 700 acres of land (including the Williams, Utica East Ohio plant). But North Township trustees revealed Wednesday that they had elected not to take action on Scio’s offer to include the township in any potential annexation revenue. At the August meeting, Scio passed Ordinance 2021-006 and cemented their promise to include the township, which isn’t a prerequisite for annexation. But as mentioned, the township has taken no action, and Scio’s village administrator Jason Tubaugh credited that decision to the township’s attorney, John Albers, who had
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made the recommendation. Albers was reached Thursday, and he referenced remarks made at Aug. 20’s public hearing — ones that had county commissioners imploring a meeting between Scio, North Township trustees, and Utica East Ohio to iron out their differences. “So, we were waiting to see if that is going to happen as requested by the county commissioners,” Albers explained his recommendation to the trustees. “We were under the impression that some kind of mediation would occur or would be convened, and so we have been in contact with Utica East to the term of whether or not that mediation is going to occur.” Albers stated he’d heard Utica East and at least one county official had been in contact but
Headline 6 COVID cases soar Headline 6 for 6th straight week BY JD LONG jim@harrisonnewsherald.com
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HARRISON COUNTY—COVID-19 cases Harrison have hitlook 53 new posiThe in bulk of our County paragraphs will Regular Body tivesthis! since lastCopy week, largely because of the delta like variant. cases are up from 34 the previous The bulk The of our paragraphs will look week, like this! according to Harrison County health administrator Garen Rhome. It’s the sixth consecutive week that COVID cases have risen. Rhome said the vast majority of COVID cases (more than 95%) result from the delta variant, which has led to many more young Small Body Copy In casebecoming we just *really fit in more people sick;have theytoare the group most words than we bargained for. resistant to getting vaccinated. Small Body Copy “We’re still*really seeing more In case we just have to fitminors in moregetting sick words weRhome bargainedsaid for. earlier this week. He eachthan day,” said of the 53 cases that 14 were found in peoPHOTO CREDiT ple ranging fromNHthe 20s to 50s. Rhome said PHOTO BY ED BANKS the vaccine-hesitant ones will finally agree to PHOTO CREDiT the vaccine after it hits home, like seeing someNH PHOTO BY ED BANKS one they know catch the virus. Of Ohio’s hospitalizations since Jan. 1, Cutline 97.5% are unvaccinated patients, Rhome also This is theover text 500 that captions all of our said. Just of the 22,132 hospitalizaCutline beautiful tions werepictures. for vaccinated cases — the rest were This is the text that captions of our unvaccinated patients. He all said they are conbeautiful pictures. cerned with the breakthrough cases: vaccinat-
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ed COVID patients that have been hospitalized or have died. To add to those statistics, a whopping 98.9% of COVID deaths were people not fully vaccinated, meaning just 80 of the 7,247 Ohio deaths (1.1%) since January were fully vaccinated. Rhome talked of Region 8, which encompasses Harrison County, and out of 630 in-patient beds, 25% are COVID cases. Rhome called this “staggering” and added that out of 76 ICU beds occupied, 43 are COVID patients. And he said in Region 7, south of Harrison County, it’s much worse. “We’re very, very concerned,” he said. But, when asked how bad it would have to get before officials begin discussing lockdown measures, Rhome said they are there now. “We are sounding the alarm now,” Rhome said when hearing from public health and health care officials. Rhome said the variant spreads and strikes quicker than the original COVID-19. “It’s getting worse quicker with a steeper curve than before in the wrong direction,” Rhome explained. Just this week the city of Columbus announced that mask-wearing is now mandatory for all indoor spaces.
Harrison News-Herald Photo/JD LONG On Tuesday, scores of state and local officials joined with the Western Magnesium Corporation executive team to witness the signing of the due diligence process that will bring a proposed 200 permanent jobs to Harrison County. The plant is relying on EmberClear’s Harrison Power Plant coming to fruition, along with local rail lines.
BY JD LONG jim@harrisonnewsherald.com
be around $1 billion, but the 200 permanent jobs promised is just a start — it could mushroom into hundreds more if everything goes HARRISON COUNTY—The Western according to plan. And the plan also includes Magnesium Corporation followed through this working in conjunction with the Harrison Powweek after recently announcing its plans to open er Plant that EmberClear has proposed for Ina first-of-its-kind plant in the United States and dustrial Park Road. Expectations on the power plant have the first magnesium plant in 50 years. A document was signed late Tuesday morning com- dragged on for years, though there are indicamencing the company’s due diligence while a tions that plans for the natural gas plant are still host of Harrison County, state, and federal of- moving forward. When asked how much the ficials was present, including U.S. Congressman power plant would affect the magnesium plans, Bill Johnson (R, District 6), State Representative Ataya said it is “part of the due diligence proDon Jones (R, District 95), and State Senator cess.” He added that managing expectations and doing the due diligence, two common themes Frank Hoagland (R, District 30). Finding the best site lasted 16 months, which used throughout the event, amounted to the included approximately six months of JobsOhio 16-month process that landed Western Magneand Harrison County Community Improve- sium in Harrison County (with some help from JobsOhio and other community members). ment Corporation involvement. “So, it’s not an easy step that you take. It’s just Rep. Johnson said it was only the beginning, “Today, the Ohio of Health part of the Department due diligence process,” Atayaamended explained. and he sees other companies possibly piggyits remaining health order to conform to thestart, new When asked when the actual process would backing Western Magnesium’s move. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “Today, the Ohio oftoHealth he saidDepartment now and pointed a droneamended hovering above. “You will not find a harder working group guidance, which allows those who have been its remaining health to conform toand the new The droneorder was already marking surveying of people and such a strong work base for what vaccinated to stop wearing masks. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) you’re trying to do,” Johnson told the crowd. land that would be used by Western Magnesium, who have been even as allows the event those was taking place. And Sen. Hoagland followed byguidance, expressing which vaccinated to stop wearing masks. Harrison County Economic Development hope the county’s youth would have a place to work with a better future. State Rep. Jones also Director Nick Homrighausen said the process said, “We have to find reasons for our kids to began with a “state lead” where JobsOhio — stay,” as he thanked JobsOhio and southeast then the Harrison County Community Improvement Corporation — assisted Western Ohio for their efforts. Executive President and CEO of Western Magnesium in finding the right area as they Magnesium Sam Ataya talked about building narrowed it down to a few locations. The Harrison County Community Improvean eco-friendly environment. “So really, overall, it’s an exciting opportunity for creating not only ment Corporation president, Dale Arbaugh, a corporate culture but an eco-friendly culture said they were excited about the proposed 200 as well,” Ataya stated. “And it speaks volumes jobs being brought to the county. He said the to a state that is considered industrial and was exciting part was that even though the oil and dealing with coal and other, what we might con- gas brought Western Magnesium to the area, it industry but rather a sider environmental issues that come along with won’t be directly tied to the See COVID - Pg. 2 it and hear it’s the opposite of that; it’s exciting.” branch of oil and gas. “Currently, Western Magnesium has successAtaya said his company has been pushing toSee COVID - Pg. 2 magnesium in a pilot-scale ward this for years and continued to stress the im- fully produced ‘green’ reactor and will continue to demonstrate the techportance of building the magnesium plant here nology in a methodical manner to achieve the goal in the United States and operated by Americans. of commercial-scale production,” per a statement “We can build it here. We can be competitive SeeAtaya ELECTIONS - Pg.2 described the plant here and have our own people working here,” on their official website. Ataya explained. “It’s what drove America initial- as taking up around 300,000 square feet and conSeebuildings, ELECTIONS - Pg.2 but they will begin by ly. I don’t know why we’ve lost touch with that.” sisting of multiple Ataya said the cost to build the plant would using just 50 of the 122 planned acres.
MWCD revenue rebounding from COVID-19 impacts
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BY JD LONG jim@harrisonnewsherald.com
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net revenue continues to sprout in the black. The August meeting revealed the revenues were nearly $4Text million higher compared to last year at Crossword this time, according to Chief Financial Officer Jim Crandall. Crossword Text The figures through July came to just over $9.2 million compared to a little more than the $5.3 million last year. Operational revenue was also positive with $19.3 million, 81% of their budget compared to just 63% last year. Another item covered by Crandall was interHARRISON
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est revenue, which he said pulled in $512,000 or 51% of the budget. He said they were slightly behind for interest revenue, which wasn’t something they had forecast. Crandall called park revenue “very strong” at 95% of the budget, bringing them to more than $8 million through July. Reports of strong park revenue have been streaming for months, and the report compares very strongly to 2020’s $5.6 million. “We are really just knocking it out of the park, no pun intended,” he told the board after stating they were at 77% of 2019’s budget. Park camping’s numbers were even stronger at 106% of the budget, with a few warm months still remaining.
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“Our July numbers were actually slightly down from the last July,” Crandall explained when asked if this would be a reasonable comparison from year to year. However, he added that last July was a catch-up month and felt some timing issues had now been settled. “There were some changes in seasonal camping payments, so I think that while there could be a little bit of timing with that, this is in large part, we’re just ahead of the game at this point,” Crandall explained. Marina revenue was also up by 11%, and Crandall noted how both the parks and marina revenues were doing well last year, and it continued into this year. Expenses were 54% of the budget, but he said they are up 6% from last
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year. “Again, some of that’s planned. But like we mentioned before, last year we pulled in the reins on some of the capital spending and the hiring of folks due to COVID,” Crandall said. He added that park expenses are also up by 9%, likely because vacation cabins at Pleasant Hill had a whole year, and special events and programs were scheduled, too. Capital improvements and the Master Plan continue within the budget, and maintenance assessment funds were at $731,000 for July but mostly due to sediment removal. He said yearto-date, it came to 35% of the budget. Crandall said July payment of bills came to $1,344,929, far less than the $3.6 million for July 2020.
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