Photo by Michelle Dillon Washington County Commissioner James Booth, left, reads a statement regarding a proposal to loan the Southeastern Ohio Port Authority $1.5 million to buy the former AMP-Gorsuch site to turn it into a road, river and rail-served facility, during a Washington County Commission meeting Thursday morning, while Commissioners Charlie Schilling, center, and Kevin Ritter, right, listen. The proposal was tabled by the commissioners for a second time Thursday due to commissioners’ concerns, with the first tabling occurring in May to give a private buyer a chance to purchase the property.

Washington County Commissioners re-tabled a proposal as tension ran high Thursday. to loan the Southeast Ohio Port Authority $1.5 million to purchase the former AMP-Ohio Gorsuch site to turn into a road, river and rail-served port facility.

During the meeting Thursday morning, the commission approved in a 2 to 1 vote tabling the proposal due to various concerns of some of the commissioners and the County Prosecutor Nicole Coil.

Commissioner Charlie Schilling was the only no vote. This is the second time the commissioners have tabled the agreement.

During a March 28 meeting the commissioners approved in a 2 to 1 vote a motion to allocate $1.5 million for community development and to accept a proposal from SeOPA to buy the Gorsuch site. The proposal sought to borrow the funds from the commissioners to be repaid over 10 years with a 5% interest rate.

Commissioner James Booth was the lone no vote at the March 28 meeting for several reasons according to him, including the impact it may have on local businesses of having a port so close to them, the availability of utilities at the site and his belief that local governments should not compete with private businesses. According to Washington County Fiscal manager Ben Cowdery, the motion that was passed was for the general idea of the proposal from SeOPA.

Then at a May 30 commission meeting, Schilling and Commissioner Kevin Ritter introduced a motion to accept the SeOPA proposal and its terms and during the discussion that followed, Marietta Industrial Enterprises CEO Scott Elliott said his company had entered into negotiations to buy the site, but AMP stopped talking with MIE and associates of his at JLM want to buy the site and had sent AMP an offer.

According to meeting minutes, at the May 30 meeting, Ritter and Booth introduced a motion to table the proposal and its terms and it passed 2 to 1, with Schilling voting no. During the meeting Schilling suggested in order to move forward, if a company does not purchase the site in a certain period of time the county is ready to move forward with the SeOPA proposal, which resulted in a motion being unanimously passed to allow 28 days, until the Thursday commission meeting, for a private entity to enter a purchase agreement with AMP for the site.

Elliott spoke again at Thursday’s meeting before the vote on the motion to table was made. He informed commissioners that JLM has withdrawn its offer for purchase of the Gorsuch site because AMP prefers to sell to a public organization.

“I wanted to come today to thank the commissioners and the port authority for their assistance in this matter and trying to help us out and to apologize for wasting everybody’s time,” Elliott said.

Schilling and Ritter introduced a motion during Thursday’s meeting to bring the SeOPA proposal and its terms back to the floor for discussion. The motion was approved. Then a motion was made by Schilling and Ritter to approve the proposal and terms and it was followed by discussion of the proposal.

Ritter said he had questions about the proposal that he wanted answered before he can vote to approve or deny it.

“Last night I got an email from the prosecutor giving us direction on this and she raised a number of questions,” Ritter said. “I don’t see those questions being a roadblock to completing this deal but I need answers to those questions before I make a vote.”

Booth also brought up concerns, some old, some new, reading a prepared statement into the record. He mentioned the approval of the request to purchase the site on March 28 that commissioners passed with the 2 to 1 vote.

“That is how a board of commissioners works,” Booth said. “Sometimes we do not agree, and this is one of those times. With that being said, allow me to clarify my thoughts. Just because progress is being made with attorneys (County Prosecutor’s office and Zack Eddy for the Port Authority) this does not mean that the final approval of the loan requirements and conditions have been agreed upon. I reference what was approved at a previous meeting. “

Booth went on to list some of his concerns. He said he is willing to abide by the vote but he feels it is his duty to protect taxpayer money.

Some of Booth’s concerns include, whether SeOPA has provided a financial forecast for where it will get the funds to repay the loan; SeOPA having the insurance policy that indemnifies the county from any liability for accidents, injuries and environmental contamination; the desire for SeOPA to set aside funds to cover any potential default on the loan; and using the $1.5 million for other county projects like the Devola Sewer project and expanding broadband.

Schilling commented too, saying that the commissioners are looking at two different things, the proposal and its terms now and an intergovernmental agreement with SeOPA at a later date, and then he said he would like to make a motion for the commissioners to approve the terms of the contract. Booth said he would not recognize the motion until the discussion of the proposal was complete.

Ritter also said he would like to table the agreement since the terms of the intergovernmental contract have not been set. Ritter and Booth introduced the motion to table the proposal so the questions and concerns raised could be explored.

Later in the meeting, Tom Webster, a lawyer at the firm that represents SeOPA, spoke.

“I would like to ask a question of the commissioners,” Webster said. “When were the concerns by the county prosecutor’s office brought to your attention?”

Ritter said he received the email with the concerns Wednesday night but Coil brought up some concerns previously as well.

“We have already delayed 30 days, this project, and the sellers want to sell this property before September the 1st,” Webster said.

Booth interrupted Webster at this point, stating, “That’s their problem.”

“Well , no wait,” Webster said. “We have an ever changing ever moving set of rules that we’re going under here … we need a decision on this so that something can be completed by September 1 with the seller … otherwise their consideration is they’re going to take it off the market and that could be to the real detriment to the citizens of Washington County.”

Booth responded that the board needs to do their due diligence because this is taxpayer money.

SEOPA Director Jesse Roush said a special meeting may need to be held at SeOPA about the concerns about the proposal and he asked Booth for a copy of his statement.

He made no comments about the vote to table the motion during the meeting.

Booth pointed out at the end of the meeting that the discussion about the SeOPA proposal is not personal.

“Nobody’s disliking anybody here … just because we have a disagreement at times does not mean we’re not working well together on other issues,” Booth said.

Roush shared his thoughts on the commissioners’ decision after the meeting.

“After 4.5 years of due diligence we were asked to stand down for 28 days to allow the customer of Mr. Eliott of Marietta Industrial Enterprises to try to buy the property … there really wasn’t an opportunity to have (a) conversation about what the terms (of the proposal) would be,” Roush said about the May 30 meeting.

Roush said that he is happy the commissioners are willing to work with SeOPA on the proposal.

“We believe very much this is an exciting opportunity to do something … it makes a big impact,” Roush said. “It’s right in line with our mission. We’ve worked with multiple state agencies on this project. This is four years of due diligence, we’re just trying to get to the finish line.”

Roush said he is optimistic that all of the issues with the proposal will be resolved before Sept. 1.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com