Department's failure to pay for use of lab to be probed

The unpaid debt stretches back nearly two years.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- The Columbiana County Health Department's failure to make quarterly payments to Leetonia in a water-testing lab contract will be examined as part of an ongoing probe that's reviewing health Commissioner Robert Morehead's spending practices.
The health department owes Leetonia an estimated $4,000 dating to July 2002 for use of the village-owned facility, village Administrator Gary Phillips said Tuesday.
"We have not received any compensation," Phillips said, although the health department was to have paid every three months since 2002.
When Prosecutor Robert Herron learned from The Vindicator of the village's contention, he said without elaborating that the matter will be incorporated into the investigation.
Phillips said he met with Morehead in the past few weeks and was assured by him that the money owed the village would be forthcoming.
Phillips said he couldn't remember if Morehead explained why the department had failed to make the quarterly payments he and other health department officials agreed to, Phillips said.
Morehead did not return a phone call Tuesday from The Vindicator.
Phillips said he is confident the health department intends to make good on its debt.
The deal
Leetonia and the health department struck a deal in mid-2002 that would allow the health department to run the lab and expand the testing services offered.
The gentlemen's agreement entered into in July 2002 was formalized in a November 2002 contract, but payment was to date to July of that year, Phillips said.
In exchange for the health department's using the lab, the village would get a 10 percent share of the $15 testing fee, and any testing village government needed to be done would be free, Phillips explained.
It was a beneficial arrangement, which is one reason village officials hadn't pressed for payment, Phillips said.
In recent weeks, the health department has said its involvement with the lab is unprofitable and it intends to stop running the facility at the end of this month.
The village will continue operating it, however.
Investigation
Herron ordered an investigation of Morehead's spending practices Sunday after The Vindicator detailed his use of a county-issued credit card to charge hundreds of dollars in personal expenses.
Morehead has said he repaid at least some of the buys but offered little proof.
Herron has said the spending could constitute improper credit card use.
The county sheriff's office is conducting the criminal probe and has seized the department's travel records.
Herron also has asked the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to assist because of the close ties between the county and state health departments.
BCI has yet to respond to the request, Herron said Tuesday.
Herron also has asked the state auditor's office to examine the health department's spending.
State auditors will comply with the request, department spokesman Christopher Slagle said Tuesday.
Yet to be decided is whether the auditor's scrutiny will be a special audit or part of a routine audit of 2003 county finances that already has begun, Slagle explained.
Regardless of which method, the review probably will be paid for either by the health department or from some other source in county government, Slagle said.