Deputy: Columbiana bomb threats could be work of two

By D.A. Wilkinson

The commissioners will discuss the county’s response.

LISBON — Deputies are checking into the possibility that two people — not just one — may have called in bomb threats last Thursday that closed four county buildings.

Allen Haueter, the chief deputy for the Columbiana County sheriff’s office, said Tuesday he thinks there were two callers.

One call was made about 8:45 a.m. to East Palestine police from a pay phone at a store in Negley.

Haueter said a woman who saw a man near the phone was shown photos but could not identify him. The man wasn’t doing anything unusual, so she did not pay attention to him.

A second telephone bomb threat was made about 11 a.m. to the county’s Department of Job & Family Services.

The first call was disguised by an electrical device. The second was not.

Sheriff David Smith has said he thinks the two calls were not a coincidence.

“The sheriff and I disagree on this,” Haueter said. He thinks the second call may have been made from someone watching the search at county buildings.

The call to the J&FS couldn’t be traced because of its multiple phone lines.

“Nothing seems to be panning out for us,” Haueter said.

The first call said there was a bomb in a courthouse, which resulted in the evacuation of the courthouse and separate municipal and juvenile buildings. East Liverpool Municipal Court was alerted but didn’t close.

The commissioners plan to meet Friday with officials at the county’s Emergency Management Agency to discuss the county’s response.

Word leaked out about the bomb threat, and some county workers left the courthouse before commissioners ordered the alarm to be sounded.

“You just can’t go helter-skelter,” said Commissioner Jim Hoppel. The discussion will include making sure that “everybody knows the procedure,” he added.

Hoppel and Commissioner Penny Traina said they thought the evacuation and response by authorities went well. Tim Long, the deputy director of the county’s EMA, agreed.

Some evacuated workers went to the EMA while waiting for the all-clear, he said.

Because the threats were bomb scares, the Lisbon Volunteer Fire Department was in charge. The EMA, Long said, was more in a support role.

“The less you do, the less adept you become. The more you practice your plan, the better off you are,” Long added.

wilkinson@vindy.com