STEUBENVILLE — If all goes as planned, Jefferson County Water and Sewer Director Mike Eroshevich says a much-needed water system upgrade in Amsterdam could get started a little over a year from now.

The county commissioners gave Eroshevich permission Thursday to apply for a loan through the Ohio Water Development Authority to pay for the project design and environmental testing.

“We hope to have everything in tomorrow. That puts us in line for an April loan, which means we can get started with the environmental process and design,” Eroshevich said. “We’re looking at April for the money, so we can get started.”

Commissioners welcomed the news, saying they’ve been “pushing for it” for quite a while.

“Yes, this is Amsterdam,” Commissioner Tony Morelli said. “But following Amsterdam, we plan to do Bergholz. We want to be clear to people, that’s our plan, that’s our mission — to do both.”

The project involves replacing Amsterdam’s failing system with new water mains, valves, residential service connections and hydrants. Eroshevich previously said there’ve been more than 100 water line breaks in the village during the past three years. The district currently has 400 current and potential customers in Amsterdam.

“Hopefully, by the end of summer we can get (the design and environmentals) off to OEPA for permitting,” he said. “At the beginning of next year, we’re hoping to be ready to go out to bid and then begin construction in the spring.”

Commissioner Eric Timmons said the village’s water problems have been “in the front of our minds.”

“Sometimes government works slow, and this process works slow, so we’re looking at probably next year before we can start (construction), but that’s the process. We’ve pushed it as hard as we could, now we’re kind of at the mercy of the process — but it sounds like there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

Commissioner Jake Kleineke said submitting the loan request “does answer the question, what are you doing?”

“Now we can actually say something is being done,” Kleineke said, though Morelli pointed out the commissioners “have been pushing this for years.”

Resolutions were passed authorizing Eroshevich to apply for and accept the cooperative agreement for planning the project, and another authorizing him to borrow the money for the design.

Commissioners also agreed to ask Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Blake if they can fund a grant writing position through the Regional Planning Commission.

“I think we want to make sure it can go through regional planning to hire them and we can use them in the capacity we want to, so all the municipalities, townships and villages that don’t already have one, can use them,” Timmons said.

Morelli said there’s a lot of work still to be done.

“I don’t want everybody calling next week because we don’t have our guidelines yet,” he said. “We just want an opinion that we can do it, then we can start the job search.”

County Engineer Eric Hilty, meanwhile, told commissioners a bridge replacement project on township Road 472 is expected to get underway this summer “and includes the replacement of a failing truss structure in Amsterdam.”

Estimated cost for the bridge replacement is $1,034,407, but the Ohio Department of Transportation will cover up to $804,000 of the cost, with the remainder coming from local sources.

Sheriff Fred Abdalla Jr. was authorized to apply for funding from the Capital Improvement Grant for Local Jail Projects “to repair and upgrade the hot water tanks and replace and upgrade the HVAC chiller.” Total project cost is estimated at around $269,800, and the deadline to apply is Monday.

Commissioners, meanwhile, were notified by Eastern Gateway Community College Foundation President Scott Campbell that while a name change is in the works — once it’s finalized, they’ll be known as the Eastern Ohio Community College Foundation — it won’t change their mission, which remains helping college-eligible students earn accredited degrees or certificates. Campbell said the volunteer board wants to see the college “come back to its roots as a technical trade school and provide hands-on learning for its students.”

“Trade-related education creates a strong workforce. This workforce would provide greater opportunities to create strong economic development in our region,” he wrote. “Our forefathers had the vision to create higher education for our youth, to keep them in this area and to make a living. It is time that we once again create or repurpose the property that once was EGCC. This cannot be done without your leadership and vision. We at the foundation would like to offer any assistance that we can. Together we can make the institution great again.”