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Charges may follow property intrusion
By D.A. WILKINSON
LISBON
The Columbiana County commissioners will decide whether to file charges against local preservationists who authorities said strayed onto the closed county-home property.
Jim Hoppel, the county commissioner who oversees properties for the commissioners, said Friday the full board will make the decision.
The other two commissioners, Penny Traina and Dan Bing, were unavailable Friday.
County Sheriff Ray Stone and Chief Deputy Allen Haueter were returning to the jail Thursday and noticed that several people were within an area marked off by yellow warning tape.
The commissioners want to demolish the county home, saying it is not safe. Hoppel estimated it would take $3 million to $4 million that the county doesn’t have to renovate the buildings.
After the issue arose, people started going to see the five buildings that make up the home property. Traina and a county worker then put up yellow warning tape to keep people out as a safety measure.
But Thursday, Stone and Haueter saw preservationist Stevie Halverstadt along with William Catlett Jr. and Charles Senanefes inside the tape.
Halverstadt wants to see the buildings and property restored. She has been restoring the oldest brick building in Ohio, which is located in Lisbon.
Haueter said he warned them about the danger of the crumbling buildings.
Halverstadt said she went into a courtyard that wasn’t taped off and was examining one of the original doors on one of the buildings.
She said another reason she was at the county home was because she was working with Red Hat Ladies Tour from Pittsburgh to possibly bring tours to the area between Lisbon, Hanoverton and Salem.