PORTSMOUTH — The Scioto County Board of Commissioners has been tracking a continuing loss of sales tax revenue, and is warning county officeholders to watch their budgets.

“We are continuing to see a lull in our sales tax revenues,” said Commission Chair Bryan Davis.

The revenue loss comes to about $91,000 for the year.

For example, May 2024’s revenues were down $27,091 — compared to May 2023.

“We’ve been talking about this now for a while — it’s still going in the wrong direction,” said Commissioner Scottie Powell. “So I encourage our fellow officeholders: watch your budgets. There may or may not be additional funds this year that we’re able to allocate.”

It’s time for Scioto County government to tighten its belt.

“The time to tighten the belt .. it’s actually already passed,” he said. “But it’s still not too late to do so here in August.”

In other news, the commissioners also:

* Authorized the posting of the position of Director of the Dog Kennel

“If you’d like to apply for this position, it’s imperative you like dogs,” Davis said. “It’s a very public position and does require a lot of interaction with the public.”

The position is currently posted on the Scioto County Commissioners Facebook page.

* Authorized the clerk to post a notice for bids on the Scioto County Truck Garage

“Engineer (Darren) Lebrun is working to get more of his equipment out of the weather,” Davis said. “This is a project that is going to be paid by him out of his funding. … They’re going to renovate and make it better.”

* Congratulated John Hemmings III on his retirement as director from the Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission. The new director is Stephanie Gilbert.

“John has been such a huge benefit to the area and being the director of Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission and he’s done a wonderful, wonderful job and brought millions upon millions upon millions to our region in grants and loans,” Davis said. “We wish John well, we’re going to miss him.”

* Recognized that three homeowners have satisfied their mortgages with the Community Housing Improvement Program, which allows owners to occupy and rehabilitate their homes

Reach Lori McNelly at [email protected] or at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1928. © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved