LISBON Official proposes to cast bell at fair

A half-million-dollar waterline project is progressing toward completion.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- A Columbiana County commissioner wants to make the county fair part of an Ohio bicentennial event that entails casting a bronze bell.
A state-funded project is providing one of the 250-pound bronze bells to all of Ohio's 88 counties.
Each bell will be cast in the county for which it's intended. The state has hired Verdin Co., a Cincinnati bell manufacturer, which will use a portable foundry for the job.
Casting will take two days in each county, during which the host county may schedule festivities surrounding the event.
The bells will be produced in 2002 and 2003, the actual year of the bicentennial. Dates for each county's casting have yet to be finalized.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel said Wednesday that he'd like Columbiana County's bell casting to be in conjunction with the county fair, held annually in July.
The casting could be one of the fair's centerpieces, said Hoppel, who added that he's checking into scheduling.
The state is paying for the bells, but each county is responsible for any costs involved in hanging and displaying them.
One option for Columbiana County is to place the bell just outside the courthouse's main entrance on Market Street, Hoppel said.
Waterline: In other matters, commissioners were told by county Engineer Bert Dawson that a $550,000 project to extend a waterline to Beaver Schools is about half done.
School officials say they need the new waterline to replace the district's wells, which are not as reliable as municipal systems and are expensive to maintain.
The project, funded by federal, state, county and school district money, started about six weeks ago, Dawson said.
About two miles of waterline are being installed along state Route 7 to school district buildings near one another along the highway in Madison Township.
The line is large enough so that it can eventually supply nearby Beaver Creek State Park.