Animal shelter will get new roof

NEW CUMBERLAND - Cats and dogs at the Hancock County Animal Shelter will soon have a new roof over their heads.

The Hancock County Commission approved a bid from Shamrock Enterprises Inc. of East Liverpool, Ohio for the installation of new roofing at the shelter.

Shamrock Enterprises estimated the project at $12,500, which will include the removal of old shingles, placement of titanium paper, installation of new shingles and shingle vents, and the hauling away of all debris.

The second bid for the project came from Hurley Builders Inc. of New Cumberland, which proposed to install fiberglass shingles and place felt underlay, in addition to removing the old shingles and hauling away all debris. Hurley estimated the project at $11,750.

"The bids were very comparable even with the $750 (difference)," Commissioner Jeff Davis said. "It was really kind of a flip of the coin."

The commission sought assistance from Maintenance Supervisor Dennis McAbee at the meeting before making a decision.

"Shamrock looked good, he's using a good grade of paper. That was the plus between the two," McAbee said.

In other business, the commission approved a bid for an indexing system to be used in the county clerk's office. The county clerk's office chose the company, but the commission's approval was necessary for the project to go forward.

The system will create electronic versions of all documents that go through the county clerk's office and will create electronic files for all records dating back to 1997.

ACS Enterprise Solutions Inc., and Cott Systems both submitted bids for the indexing system, according to Executive Director of the Office of Technology and Communications Tom Zielinsky.

"ACS came in at a much lower cost than Cott Systems," Zielinsky said, which led to the final choice.

When the system is in place, Zielinsky stated, a date will be selected in which electronic copies will start being made of all new documents.

"(The documents) will be recorded by a computer as opposed to having to leaf through the books that we now have," Zielinsky said.

Funding for the project, estimated at $49,854, was previously approved by the commission, and will be no additional cost to the county, Zielinsky said.

The commission also approved a special projects request from Hancock County Circuit Court Clerk Brenda Jackson.

Jackson stated the transfer of some files to microfilm and electronic copies will begin on Oct. 1, using a grant received from the West Virginia Department of History and Archives.

According to correspondence, the estimated cost of the first phase of the circuit court project is $9,400. The grant funding will pay $8,000 of the estimated cost.

COMPUCOM Inc., has been selected as the company to handle the microfilm and digital reproduction.

According to Jackson the county is obligated to pay the remaining $800 for the project, as stipulated in the grant agreement.

"This (digitalization) is going to be a great asset to making these records more readily available to the public and to the office," Jackson said.

Jackson stated record books in the circuit court currently date back to 1848 and are becoming increasingly fragile. The company will create electronic copies of records dating from 1848-1976.

(Matsick can be contacted jmatsick@reviewonline.com)