Commissioners approve renovations for new VSC offices

Jun. 21—JEFFERSON — The Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners approved a contract for renovations to the new Ashtabula County Veterans Service Commission building at a meeting on Thursday afternoon.

The commissioners approved a contract with DeClan Construction, of Brookfield, for a maximum price of $647,700. The term of the contract runs until Oct. 31.

The commissioners purchased the building, located at 1709 East Prospect Rd. in Ashtabula Township, in March of 2023, to be used as the new headquarters for the Veterans Service Commission. The VSC offices are currently located at 1212 Lake Ave. in Ashtabula.

The new office will give the VSC room to expand its operations to better serve veterans, they said in a release around the time the building was purchased.

In other business:

—The commissioners received an email regarding an 11-year-old who drowned in Conneaut earlier this month.

County Commissioner J.P. Ducro said every public beach has an overseeing entity.

"I think the most practical and easiest way to communicate is to get stick-in-ground signs you have, that are political signs or power washing business or whatever, and have some verbiage on there that says 'danger, rip tides,' or 'lake unsafe' that you could stick at the entrance point to beaches," he said.

It would be the cheapest, easiest way to get something done, Ducro said.

County administrator Janet Discher asked if that would cause those entities to assume some kind of liability.

Commissioner Casey Kozlowski said whatever is done should be done in a more universal fashion.

A letter will be sent to the city of Conneaut with a copy of the email the commissioners received, Commissioner Kathryn Whittington said.

—The commissioners approved a contract with Ronyak Paving for work on Footville-Richmond Road, at a maximum cost of $1.67 million.

The contract includes crack and seat work and paving on two sections of Footville-Richmond Road.