STEUBENVILLE — Eastern Gateway Community College staffers expecting their final payout today are going to be disappointed.

Former faculty and staff members found out Thursday the money to cover the payout on their accrued vacation, personal and sick days isn’t available.

Jim Corrin, president of the EGCC Education Association, said the contractually guaranteed payouts are on hold until the governing board “has the appropriate funding and approval to pay the paid time off and sick pay to faculty and staff.”

“We were told today that faculty and staff would not receive their payouts tomorrow due to some ‘funding’ issues and that approval is needed,” he’d said. “The concern is that these PTO and sick days were earned by faculty and staff. However, none of us were notified we wouldn’t receive these payouts until a faculty member asked (Thursday) about them. “

Corrin said if there’s no money available to cover the payouts, “where is the funding coming from to pay all the salaries” for higher paid administrators who remain on the job as the college winds down.

“I just find it amazing they’re still paying those salaries but they can’t honor the contract,” Corrin said.

The college’s new governing authority, meanwhile, installed Fred Ransier, retired partner from the Columbus legal firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP and an experienced Chapter 7 bankruptcy attorney, as the defunct-college’s new director. Ransier had been appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine to serve as the college’s conservator, but by statute the college’s dissolution and closure process had to transition from the conservatorship to a five-member governance authority within 30 days.

Art Daly, the college’s senior executive vice president, said the new governance authority met for the first time Wednesday and its first order of business was to designate Ransier to provide oversite during the operational wind-down.

Daly, meanwhile, confirmed 39 employees remain on the job “because there was work that needed done” in the college’s final days “…and we (didn’t) know who needed to be retained to do that work.”

EGCC’s former board of trustees had voted in May to dissolve the college and set a Nov. 1 target date for the process to be completed.