COLUMBIANA CO. Money OK'd for group home

The county is adjusting its insurance coverage after an exhaustive reappraisal.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County commissioners approved spending nearly $30,000 for repairs to a group home for troubled girls that's to reopen this summer.
Money to fix the Kyes Group Home in East Palestine will come from a 0.75-mill five-year levy that voters approved in November.
The levy raises about $940,000 annually, which is used to benefit troubled children placed by the courts in the custody of the county department of job and family services.
Eileen Dray-Bardon, job and family services director, told commissioners Wednesday that her agency wants to reopen Kyes by July 1.
Closed in crunch: Kyes closed in July 2000, the victim of a budget crunch brought on by voters' decision in May 1999 to scrap the county's 1 percent sales tax.
Before Kyes can open, crucial repairs must be made to the building, Dray-Bardon said.
Those fixes include window and door replacement, roof and gutter repairs and improving the house's electrical system.
Kyes provides a temporary residence for up to 10 girls ages 6 to 18, many of whom are victims of abuse or neglect.
The home, built about 1900, was donated to the county in 1959.
Insurance cost: In other matters, commissioners learned that the cost of the county's liability and property insurance is increasing.
Last year the premium was $190,653. This year it's $206,838.
The cost increase results largely from an exhaustive reappraisal of the county's property that set its value at $72 million. It previously was set at $56 million, which had left the county underinsured.
Although the county will pay more now for insurance, it's no longer underinsured, commissioners said.
Insurance is paid from the county's general fund.
The county is part of an insurance pool consisting of 46 Ohio counties.
Policy board: Commissioners named Ron Graff Jr. of Lisbon to the Mahoning and Columbiana Training Association's Workforce Policy Board.
Graff is an executive with Columbiana Foods Inc. of Youngstown, which operates grocery stores in Mahoning and Columbiana counties.
The work force policy board helps decide how federal and state job training funds will be spent.