STEUBENVILLE — With the Market Street Bridge closed to traffic, the red light at Third and Market streets has served to annoy drivers more than it has controlled traffic, but that could be changing.

Councilman Tracy McManamon said Tuesday he’s been “getting a lot of complaints” about the light, which forces traffic to stop so non-existent bridge traffic can pass through the intersection.

And since the state of West Virginia has no plans to reopen the bridge — and a replacement is still years away — McManamon said that’s not going to change.

“People are asking, ‘Is that light necessary’,” he said.

City Manager Jim Mavromatis said he would sit down with Engineer Mike Dolak to talk about options, suggesting a three-way stop — or a four-way stop — might be doable.

Dolak wasn’t present for the brief discussion, and afterwards was non-committal. Before he can make a recommendation, he said he’d “have to review conditions at the intersection.”

“I can’t comment without taking a good look at it,” he said.

Mavromatis, meanwhile, told council the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has given the city six extra months to find a new Class 4 water plant operator. The position was vacated by the retirement of the former Class 4 operator.

Class 4 operators are in short supply, particularly in Ohio. Mavromatis previously told council the city has three Class 3 operators — two of whom aren’t interested in the higher certification. The third, Water Superintendent Jim Jenkins, has only six months as a Class 3 — far short of the required three years.

“We’ve been working on certification for the water department,” Mavromatis said. “OEPA gave us a six-month extension. It seems to be a workable solution. Right now we’re still going to look but it is extremely difficult to find a Class 4 operator — it’s very difficult and very costly. We’re working with OEPA on a solution, but right now we have a little breathing room.”

Wastewater Supervisor Chuck Murphy, meanwhile, spent 30 minutes fielding questions during a utilities committee meeting about an engineering study he’s requested to address a sinkhole on the old Weirton Steel property. The third reading of legislation that would authorize city officials to commission the study was tabled three weeks ago.

Council was, among other things, concerned that Murphy hadn’t issued a Request for Qualifications from firms interested in landing the contract, but he pointed that under the Ohio Revised Code they’d have had to review any proposals submitted to pick their top candidates, interview them then score them.

The idea, he said, is to force governments to choose the most qualified, not the cheapest contractor.

“You cannot do it based on price, that’s against the ORC,” Murphy said.

But even more important, he said, is that HDR Engineering, the firm he’d like to have tackle the sinkhole engineering, did a report eight years ago “that’s part of the long-term control plan.”

“If you switch horses in the middle you’re going to have to do it all over again because no company is going to want to use theirs,” he said.

Council appears ready to consider bringing the legislation back to the floor for a vote, though McManamon said he’d like to keep it on the back-burner for another two weeks so Law Director Costa Mastros can update the wording of the proposed ordinance.

“He clarified some issues, but we really had to look deep into this,” McManamon said afterwards. “Tough questions had to be asked since this is the public’s money and at the end of the day we have to be good stewards of our limited resources. (The question now is) is this really something we need to address right now? Due to our very aged infrastructure, we have to be looking ahead, not behind … I don’t believe any of us want to kick this can down the road, but we have to move prudently. (And) the ordinance has to be updated to reflect the new fee structure.”

Councilwoman Heather Hoover also weighed in, saying the additional information Murphy had provided over the last few weeks “and (with) his assurances to council that the final timeline and project costs are now what he had initially thought, I now feel comfortable in moving forward with this project.”

Dolak also made his hour-long budget presentation, including updates on various projects currently under way — including the Lovers Lane widening, which he expects to be completed around Halloween, “give-or-take two or three days.”

“We’re getting close to the final course of asphalt,” he said.

He said the Beatty Park Bridge project also could be done around Thanksgiving. “It’s going good so far,” he added.

Dolak said he expects to add Oregon from Brady Boulevard to Oxford to the 2025 asphalt resurfacing project.

Sunset Boulevard also will be resurfaced next year from Welday to Efts Lane, but that work is “100 percent federally funded,” he said.

Retiring Urban Projects Director is recommending they replace him with a city planner who has experience working with businesses and developers to bring growth and opportunity to the city. He also recommended staffing adjustments in the building department so the city would have a full-time plumbing inspector, and asked for at least $100,000 in the new budget to fund demolition of dilapidated properties.

Mayor Jerry Barilla also announced the hours for trick-or-treating in Steubenville will be Thursday, Oct. 31 from 5-7 p.m.