[font=Verdana]Ohio-West Virginia Excavating Company has finished Phase One of a project that has saved the [/font][font=Verdana]Ohio[/font][font=Verdana]Valley[/font][font=Verdana] over an estimated one million dollars in demolition and clean-up costs caused by the 2004 flooding. [/font]

[font=Verdana]In what has been dubbed the largest public service donation in the history of Belmont County, the excavating company has demolished homes in Barton, Glencoe, Lansing, Maynard, Neffs, Neffs/Glencoe Road and various other locations. [/font]

[font=Verdana]The Belmont County Job and Family Services and the Belmont County Commissioners, decided which homes, 80 in all, would be slated to be demolished. All the homes were casualties of Hurricane Ivan. [/font]

[font=Verdana]The first home to be demolished, just before Christmas of 2005, by Ohio-W.Va. Excavating Company was in the Goosetown area of [/font][font=Verdana]Bridgeport[/font][font=Verdana]. [/font]

[font=Verdana]Belmont County Job and Family Services Director Dwayne Pielech, said the project should be finished within the next two weeks. [/font]

[font=Verdana]"As of this week, we have demolished just over 50 homes," said Pielech. "We have 10 homes left to do, mostly in the Neffs area." [/font]

[font=Verdana]He said there are about 15 other homes that are not being demolished at this time, because the county is waiting to learn if the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be buying the properties. [/font]

[font=Verdana]"When it's all finished, it will mean 75 homes have come down," said Pielech. [/font]

[font=Verdana]He said Ohio-W. Va. Excavating will also be using fill from road projects to fill in the spaces where the homes once stood, "making greenspace and taking eyesores out." [/font]

[font=Verdana]According to Belmont County Commissioner Chuck Probst, the Ohio-W.Va. Excavating Company has been working hard to get as many homes down and out as possible. [/font]

[font=Verdana]He said, "The agreement was that they would get as many houses demolished and taken away as possible until their business picked up again in the spring." He added, "That's what they have done; the last time I checked they had done 50 of the 80 they wanted to do but that was a while ago." [/font]

[font=Verdana]Belmont County Commissioner Mark Thomas had nothing but praise for the company. He said, "At this point the progress is moving along smoothly and we are all, but especially the home owners, pleased at what has taken place here." [/font]

[font=Verdana]He added, "All three of us commissioners are especially pleased with the Ohio-W.Va. Excavating Company's generosity resulting in the cleanup of these properties. Of course it will be a couple of years before we are totally finished with what has happened because of the flood." [/font]

[font=Verdana]Belmont County Commissioner Gordie Longshaw said that the free services from the Ohio-W.Va. Excavating Company is the greatest gift a corporation can give to a town. [/font]

[font=Verdana]He added, "I think it was just great that they stepped up to the plate and saved us so much money." [/font]

[font=Verdana]Longshaw also noted that while everyone involved - homeowners and commissioners alike - thank the Ohio-W.Va. Excavating Company for its hard and generous work, those homeowners who had to live next to dilapidated homes thank them also. [/font]

[font=Verdana]He said, "The residents everywhere tell me about how bad the odor of rotting, moldy wood was. They are really happy to get those homes taken care of so they can get on with their lives." [/font]

[font=Verdana]During the razing of the first home, Probst said, "This program will have a major impact on the county especially since the Army Corps of Engineers originally agreed to remove the homes themselves and then changed their minds."[/font]