The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community and Connections Season 2 Episode 14 with JP Dutton

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Welcome back to Community and Connections. I'm your host, Drake Watson, along with my co-host, Jason Garsick. We have another incredible guest lined up, and we are talking today to J.P. Dutton, JP, how are you? We appreciate you. Good. How are you? Given your time today. We're not bad. I can't speak for Jason. Great to have you here, JP. No, it's always great to do you guys.

We got a lot of things to talk about. First of all, just a little bit of an introduction. Your county commissioner since the term began in 17? 2017. And you're not limited. Do you have any idea as to how long you would like to hold that seat? Man, that's a question right out of the jump. Yeah, I don't know.

I'll say this, man. I absolutely love being a county commissioner. And, you know, I hope that people and residents and voters appreciate the work that I do as long as they do. You know, I'm just, we have a lot of projects that we're working on. get into some of those later. And I just feel like there's still a list of things we're trying to get done as long as I feel like I'm effective at it and people appreciate the fact that, you know, we're doing it, then, you know, I'd like to continue. Sounds good. Well, we, I guess a more, more logical way to go is how you kind of got your start and what led you to, we'll call it right

out of high school or right out of college, into the position you're in now. Yeah, it's a little bit of a longer story. I mean, I've always been, you know, as much as I wish I was a math or science type guy, which I, you know, enjoyed a little bit in school, but knew that probably wasn't a career path for me. I've always been a little bit more interested in some of the other subjects, you know, history, kind of personal interaction type things and things that kind of honestly kind of lend itself a little bit to be in a, being a county commissioner. You know, as in high school, we used to have a program called Close Up, and that program would take some high school kids to Washington, D.C. for a week.

I didn't make the cut to make the program. So my parents were like, well, you know what? You know what? I had an uncle that lived in Washington, D.C., I said, listen, we'll still go out. You know, you were looking forward to this potentially, and we'll still go. So we still went and had a great trip and stopped by our local congressman's office. And at that point, it was Congressman Bob Ney. Yeah.

This was the spring of 1994. he was in his first year in Congress. And this is going back a little bit. This is sort of the time of what was called then the Republican Revolution. The time of Speaker Newt Gingrich, the Democrats had been in control of Congress for a very long time. The Republicans had just taken control. He had a brand new congressman. And I remember we went to go to his office and it was like, I don't know, 7.30, 8 o'clock in the morning.

And the person that led us into the Longworth building was Congressman Ney. Like he came down to the front door. I'm thinking, well, shouldn't there be someone else, like, coming down to the door besides, you know, besides him? But he came in and had a great visit with him. Again, he was a new member. And as we left, he mentioned the page program, which was an active program at the time on Capitol Hill. He said, hey, you know, he should consider it. So it's like, oh, you know what, I will consider it.

So I ended up put an application in and ended up being a page in the U.S. House representatives for a summer. It was only about, I think, 100 of us or so. He had to be selected through the Speaker of the House's office. I mean, it was a huge deal. I was floored, actually, when I got the opportunity to do that. And that's where everything kind of kicked off. Kind of made up for the not going in the house. Yeah, it did.

Next thing you knew, it was a page on the House floor. And I learned later on when I eventually became a staff person there, and we can talk about that stuff, that I never had the access that I had when I was in, basically in high school was a page because they had all the same access as members of Congress did. So you hung out on the House floor. You were back in what was called the cloak room, the speakers gallery, all those types of things.

So, man, it was like a completely eye-opening experience for someone, you know, from flushing to then, you know, kind of be thrown into that environment. And I would say from that point on, you know, it led to internships while I was in college, even though I was kind of pursuing more of a business degree. It led to me then thinking, oh, when I graduated, well, maybe I'll, you know, there's an opening on Capitol Hill. maybe I'll just try that for a year or two. That turned into seven, you know, and just, it's always kind of, since that point, it's always kind of been part of my interest. That's awesome. So then what made you run for a county commissioner?

Yeah, you know what? I mean, so those seven years working on Capitol Hill, I worked with a lot of county commissioners. And, you know, I had two parts of my job, main parts of my job while I was there, other things too, but one was sort of policy. and kind of there's a few of us in the office who worked on certain policy issues you know laws are coming up you're trying to you know brief the congressman on what those are they take votes but another part that i was really involved with was economic development and um our congressional district was about all are parts of 16 counties so you work when you're working with economic development over that wide of an area you work with a lot of county commissioners and so you know i really enjoyed you know that part of the job because it's like you were seeing actual projects happen you know sometimes you're you're you know, you're working on policy in Washington, D.C., and same thing now, although I think it's probably worse now. But, man, you feel like you just kind of keep maybe running into a wall. Yeah. And you keep kind of hitting the wall, and maybe you're denting it, maybe, you know,

you just, sometimes you just think, man, are things really changing? Sure. When you're working on an economic development project and, you know, it's a waterline project for individuals that do not currently have water and you see that actually happen. It's like, wow. Like, you really see, you know, government in action. all joking aside about the speed of government and government here to help and all those types of things, you know, when you see projects like that, you know, you realize that there really are places where government can have a complete impact on people's lives for the better and not just for a moment,

for a very long time. So I think, you know, that took my interest in that general area, even to a more specific area to say, boy, I mean, but, you know, my time on Capitol Hill kind of, you know, it, there was a lot of things going on at that time, and I kind of stepped away from it, and I didn't know that I would ever really run for office myself. But when I moved back to Ohio and was working for, and still do on a part-time basis for an energy company, and we work with the Department of Energy.

And a few years had passed, I think maybe about eight years passed between when I finished up my time working on Capitol Hill and when I decided to run for office. And during that time, interestingly enough, a couple things were happening. One is there was a lot of things changing here in the Ohio Valley as it pertained to energy. I mean, it's long been an energy region, coal, power,

you know, even from steel production as well. And everything was happening with oil and gas. There was a lot of movement happening. I felt like, geez, I had a lot of knowledge in that area. And then the other thing, too, is some of the projects that I was working on, you know, eight years prior, transportation projects, those types of things, were actually, those things sometimes take a long time.

And they were actually, you know, ground was breaking on those and maybe start thinking about it again. Like, you know, maybe, you know, I didn't think I would run, but maybe now would be a time to maybe think about it again because I thought I could really bring a lot to the local level from my energy knowledge that I had gathered at that point and also just my knowledge on some of these projects that were kind of the last stages, but I also knew how to put more projects together, I felt like.

So that's what really kind of spurred me. me to finally decide, you know what, maybe it is time to try to see how I can help out here. I think when I left working on Capitol Hill, I think there was always a part of me that kind of missed that. I really enjoyed my work, and I love the topic of energy, but I missed that part of feeling like you're really involved in making something happening in your community. And I think I felt like this was a way to kind of give back to my community with the skills that I have. You know, everyone has a certain skill set that can, it is extremely helpful to their community. And you just try to find your niche.

And I felt like that was something that I could provide back. Where does your, they always say, where does your talent and your passion overlap is what I've heard? Do you find that in county government or even just even state or local government, do you find that things move quicker than they do in D.C. Or what's that like? Because the way you talk kind of makes me think that, you know, you feel like you're running into a wall sometimes. DC and then you look at some of the things that are taking place on more of a local level in in a congressional district even though it's 16 counties some of those things moving a little

more quickly is that something that you is that an accurate depiction uh yeah no I think things move very fast in Washington DC you know events meetings all this time everything is fast everything about it's fast I mean like for a member of Congress typically your meetings are 15 minute increments. So you may have one meeting every 15 minutes. You're talking to, you know, farmers from Belmont County. Sure. Yeah. And 15 minutes later, you're talking to steel workers from Jefferson County. And so it goes and it goes and goes. And in local government, your day is as active as you want it to be. Okay. You can choose to run 100 miles an hour all day every day. And you can, you know, you don't necessarily have to. But I think that what's more fast-paced is results.

I think there's a lot more results happen on the local level in a shorter amount of time than do at going all the up to the national level. And you have the state level in there too. So I think you can really make a quicker impact, I think, at the local level. Yeah. I was just thinking in terms of legislation and how, you know, it can go through so many different processes when it comes to D.C. And take a long time to get passed. Yeah, it's very hard to pass. I mean, it's extremely hard.

It's extremely hard to take an idea and either. either in that bill pass on its own or somehow get absorbed into something larger. I mean, it's not easy. Sometimes things do happen quickly just by circumstance. Right. But if not, you know, it's hard. It's very hard. Were there a lot of late nights you're up just reading, just reading legislation and policy

when you were in D.C.? Yeah. I mean, you know, you always hear sometimes on TV about the late night votes. And yeah, I mean, if that was your area, you were there. So it wasn't uncommon for a day to start. you know, we usually started around, you know, we were usually in our seats by 730 in the morning. And then, you know, there were days where it was like a 2.30, 3.30 in the morning type situation. So, I mean, that's not, I mean, all the time. And listen, you know, it was more of a,

I would say more of a traditional nine to five type situation when Congress wasn't in session. August is a big break, right? And then, you know, around Christmas time and those types of things. But when they're in session, you know, those are, you know, those are 60, 70, 80, hour week. week type situations and especially if you're you know if you're a staff person you're expected to kind of be there and every office is different every every every congressman runs their office differently you know we we were one that really it was you know you know work hard play hard and probably work harder than play hard even but it was like it was it was a very defined expectation that everyone was to be working as hard as possible if not you were an outlier what what does

somebody like you do you know late hours of course you were younger back then and young people have you know more of an ability to put in those late hours yeah but you know and you say now as commissioner you can choose to go 100 miles an hour maybe some days you really don't do that and and i imagine there are times when you have to do that uh in the position you're in now what is somebody like you do to just stay i guess sane um you know that can take a toll i'm sure on your on your health um your mind and things like that, what do you do to kind of keep that in check? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I do, be honest, I don't know if I do a really good job that, to be honest

what I do. And I'm going to say, like, when I say you can choose not to, it's not as though you're not working as far. And there's a difference, too, in terms of you get farther in your career in terms of that nature and the job differences, you know, when I was in my 20s doing that job, it was very, you know, activity-based staying on top of that. And there was, there was a strategy to it, too, to a certain extent. I would say being a commissioner with the experience I've gained over these years too.

You attack things differently. You go about things differently. I think it's just the nature of everyone as they mature and get a lot of experience behind them that they can then use to make themselves even more effective. You know, something that may have taken you, you know, a few hours to research when I was, you know, 26. I mean, I can probably, you know, now spend 20 minutes right now just talking about that without, you know, even looking at something type of thing. So it's that type of aspect to it too.

But yeah, I mean, listen, it's challenging. I think everyone deals with that, right? Everyone deals with, you know, trying to balance work and family and trying to do and being involved in the community. There's so many people that are involved in a variety of things. I mean, I run to this people every single day. And I think everyone's just trying to juggle. It just seems like life continues to move faster.

And, you know, there's a lot of things that people are trying to, you know, keep the plate spinning. Yeah. You talk about county commissioners being able to, you know, know, be there to see the results that happen for their constituents, like you mentioned about a waterline project. Could you, and I know every week is different for you, but could you walk us through, like, maybe what a typical week is like as a county commissioner?

I know you have, you know, work sessions and public meetings that go on, but what else goes on? Yeah. I mean, I would say that a typical week kind of is this. You start on a Monday morning, and in Belmont, every county is a little bit different, too. So by, let me just step back for one quick second. So what are we required to do? So in the state of Ohio, you have three commissioners, right?

Three commissioners that all serve four-year terms, and we are required to hold 50 public meetings a year. Basically, one a week, you know, and you get two weeks that you don't necessarily have to hold a meeting by law. We meet that every single year, and that's met through our business meeting where we pass our motions. I'll talk about that here in a second. Now, some counties do this, some counties don't. In Belmont County, we do. on Monday morning we hold what's called a work session meeting. It's also a public meeting. It doesn't count towards those 50. And I would say it's really an information gathering strategy session type is for the

three of us to get together. We have an agenda. We have people come in and they talk about various issues that maybe there's a little bit more time to talk than during our regular Wednesday business meeting. So, you know, so Monday morning we start with that. And we usually go till about mid-afternoon or so depending on how many people would come in. And we talk about a ton of different issues, things that are very pressing in some cases or things that are 10, 15 years out. That's our Monday.

And our Wednesday is our business meeting, but that's where we tee up a lot of things. We usually run through a list of motions. That's the actual actions our board take. That's sort of almost like, it's not passing laws. We can't make laws as county, but it's sort of our actions that we take. And then we can sometimes, you know, do some ceremonial things at that point.

Sometimes you'll see us, you know, honoring a certain thing or recognizing a certain thing. We usually do that towards that part of the meeting. But the rest of the week really is kind of up in the air to a certain extent. You know, that's where commissioners will sometimes do work on their own and not as a board. They'll delve into certain issues. Well, maybe there'll be a certain issue that I'm taking a lead on. I'll meet with with residents or businesses or associations on those certain things. You know, and like this week, even, and sometimes we'll have events that will come up for projects that we worked on.

This Tuesday, you know, Governor DeWine was in and we worked on a project with him. And, you know, we try to, you know, obviously I'll be there for meetings of that importance because it's always great to visit with the governor, visit with the state representative, state senator. So those things happen on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. You just fill those days with what you think really either need your attention or you really want to put some time in to try to get it further up your agenda to make another project happen. That was, I'm still upset that I missed that when DeWine was in, he was in Morristown, correct? Correct. Yeah.

Yeah, I saw that on Tuesday morning. And of course, we're back in the end of June, and I don't know that anybody listening to this is going to hear it until way later on but in June DeWine visited Morristown the Black the Black Horse Inn. Yeah, I was upset. I saw that around middle of the day and it was in the morning and as is typical for young folks, you know, your day is kind of shifted as opposed to the societal timeline and we're going to be honest. But yeah, that was cool stuff. Well, you obviously would have a history when it comes to campaigning, and you talked about your history in the business world. So naturally, sales is kind of mixed into that.

So to use that to frame this next question, we talk with everybody about why the Ohio Valley is kind of the sentiment. And if you had to, you know, let's say you had five minutes or whatever, and you had to sell somebody on the Ohio Valley, obviously you've kind of, you're always from here, you're from flushing, went to D.C., you've been, a few places and obviously you're still here. It sounds to me like it was never really a question for you coming back, but for some folks, you know, they've come and gone back. For some folks, they're new here. What's your pitch to somebody, you know, why the Ohio Valley?

It's kind of a long-winded way to ask that. I apologize, but. Listen, I mean, it's a tremendous place, sort of period, end of sentence. And I think there's a lot of aspects to that. But it is, I was absolutely blessed. to be raised here. And I'm absolutely blessed to have the opportunity to raise my family here. I think that I think sometimes human beings can be most critical of things that sometimes is in their own backyard.

And they try to find criticism or sometimes the negative. And sometimes I think we're guilty of maybe overlooking or not, you know, emphasizing the positive enough. and I think we have a lot of tremendous assets in the Ohio Valley. I think we're located in a tremendous area of the United States. I often rule my eye. Hopefully I don't roll my eyes in person. But when people say, oh, there's, you know, as if you say, there's nothing to do. And I think, man, if I lived in, you know, South Dakota,

and nothing against the people of South Dakota. It's beautiful out there. And it is beautiful out there. But if I had to drive, you know, eight hours or something to a city this side, of even a Columbus or Cleveland, I think that's really kind of, you know, that's a different way of life obviously, right? You know, where we live here to have the ability to be in so many areas in a relatively short amount of time. And that's not taking away from everything that we have to do here as well. I think that that's why there's a tremendous opportunity here. There's a

reason why so much economic growth for our nation happened here. We talked about that a little bit briefly about just energy development, industrial development. I think we're seeing that turned a little bit again. I think our part of the country is poised to again capitalize on that after some tough years, some really tough years. The state of Ohio, I think, has really been a fantastic job to try to further development in the state and turn a corner. After, I would say, kind of a low water mark, you know, 10, 15, 20 years ago. There's a lot of things to be optimistic about in the state of Ohio and in the tri-state region, really. So I would encourage anyone to really look at what we have here and feel blessed what we have. Yeah, you talk about,

you've got, I mean, speaking from, kind of from St. Clair'sville specifically, you've got Pittsburgh about an hour away, Cleveland, two and a half, Columbus is two hours, but even then, the valley you've got places like where we are in wheeling um that's incredible stumvinville's great uh and st clairsville is great as well with some of the things especially on main street uh barnsville i love going to barnsville um just a lot of the places in belmont county specifically i know that's where you represent so i'm trying to um but that's also where i live so there's a little bias there but st clairesville barnsville morristown flushing even um you know all those places belair and shady side um that what I like to do honestly is go through what's like the main strip through each of those towns

and see just what's there you go to St. Clairisville and you've got the Knowlestown diner. You've got Audrey's just opened up not long ago. You know, many things to do and you go to places like Barnesville and look for similar things. Same thing with Bel Air and Shadyside in those places. And I think if folks were to do that, they might find that little dining. on the rough that they might become a regular at whether it's a business or or if it's you know a coffee shop or even a library or any of those things i think most of us and i'm i'm guilty too of it uh i think most of us there's probably something within 15 maybe 15 minutes but 30 minutes of us

yeah that probably is something that we either have thought about doing or you know would want to do that just you know because of life for whatever reason we haven't i mean and i think that's that's not just here that's other places too is this though man i didn't ever knew this was really right down the street type type comment i think everyone could pinpoint a thing or two that just is right in their own backyard that they just haven't taken the opportunity whether they're just busy with life whatever it is so again um you know you really sit and think about you know what we're blessed with the outdoor activities we're blessed with the the park systems the the state land all those types of things i think there's a lot i'm going to get some we're again i'm focused on belmont county but

you're right right now we're currently in wheeling You know, how many cities the size of Wheeling has an Ogilby? How many cities the size of wheeling has, right down the street here, has a symphony. A West Bank Arena. Again, so, again, there's a lot of things, I think, to feel fortunate about. But that doesn't mean that we don't want to see things continue from a growth standpoint. And that's what we're working on every single day. And, again, trying to look 10, 15 years out, trying to lay that groundwork to make sure that those things are more likely.

to happen. Things don't, you know, sometimes you're blessed. Sometimes things just happen to fall in place, but a lot of times things come about because there's been a lot of unsexy groundwork laid for a long time to get it to a point where it's more attractive. And I would say that's the nuts and bolt stuff that we really spend a lot of our time focusing on is trying to build up those different foundations to make those types of things more, to increase the probability of things like that happening. Yeah. We used the example, at least I use the example of Wheeling's Main Street a lot to kind of speak to what you just said, how I don't think anybody was happy with it for the longest time when it was all tore up. And then you heard nothing but how good it looks as soon as it was done. And it was kind of the things we talked about it right in the middle of it over a year ago, how it was, you know, it was difficult, but people need to see the vision and what it would be afterwards. And I think that's, you know, you could use that for a lot of things like you just said. Yeah, exactly. You talk about some of the strategic visioning that you are laying the groundwork for, you know, that you envision for Belmont County.

I know you've got a number of projects going on in the county. You're underway with a new health department building, coroner's office, records built. What all do you have going on that you're working on right now or even if you can discuss it laying a foundation for? Yeah, I think, I mean, I would say some of the things were really. you know, we have, I would say, a few primary responsibilities as county commissioners. I'll step back on that, just for a quick second. One is budgetary. You know, we oversee what was called our general fund. We also have a responsibility to maintain and make sure that we are, have adequate facilities to provide the services that we need to provide for residents. And then we

also play a role, I would say, in the infrastructure and economic development part as well. infrastructure sometimes vary directly, meaning that we oversee Belmont County Sanitary sewer district was basically our water and sewer department, sometimes indirectly, meaning working with our port authority, working with our county engineer on maybe an occasional road project, although that's his primary focus, things of that nature. So let me come back to that. So when you think about things that you're doing that maybe doesn't always catch the eye, I think a lot of things when it comes to some things that I would, again, consider sort of unsexy,

that's, you know, water, sewer, infrastructure type things, facility type things. I would say we've been on a run here of trying to update and modernize Belmont County facilities for the last, really, my two terms. And I think we're getting really towards the end of that wave. We have either changed or upgraded 15 different departments when this project is done. And that's not to say. And for those out there thinking, oh, my goodness, I mean, that's just government growth and that's government spending. We're talking about situations that were neglected for a very, very long time. And I'll give you a few examples of that.

A few years ago, we did a major building project sort of near the Ohio Valley Mall. It was the former offices that people recall that of the health plan. County bought two buildings there. And that became the home of about five or six entities. But a couple of those entities, you know, we had a. a prosecutor's office that was on the second floor of a temporary space, but had been, quote, unquote, temporary for, you know, about 20 years at that point. It wasn't ADA accessible. We had a Western Division court that was basically in a closet. We had entities that were paying nearly

$100,000 in rent that were like, you know, we can actually put it, you know, fit them in here, get rid of that. So those are the types of things I'm talking about. You know, what we've done at, I met recently with our farm bureau I think of the things we've been able to do from an agriculture standpoint. I mean, a few years ago, our fairgrounds, and now I'm getting off topic, I understand. I'll get back on this.

This is great. Our fairgrounds just, you know, came from nothing, a new site about 15 years ago, a little of 15 years ago. I think we have one of the greatest fairgrounds in our part of the state. I would take them up against a lot.

You go to the agrients. For those that you haven't been to the agriculture sale on Thursday night of the fair, I would ask you just to go down there, grab a sandwich, and just enjoy the activity and all those kids down there doing their projects. But with our fairgrounds now houses our Belmont County Soil and Water District, our OSU, Ohio State University Extension Office, and our fare board. There's new buildings there. So now if anyone needs something from agriculture, from a county perspective,

they go to the place they should go, our fairgrounds. Our newest project that Jason just mentioned is, again, another example. of things that needed to be addressed. We are building a facility right now on state route 331 near High University Eastern, and it's going to house our health department, which currently has space, but it is outgrown at space, and it cannot do some of the programming it would like to do in the current space. But on top of that, it's going to house the Belmont County Corridor. Belmont County Corridor has never had government space. Really? Our Belmont County Corridor has always housed all their things, and whatever the private office was of the corner at the time.

That's not good government to operate that way. It's also going to house for decades to come Belmont County's records. I'm embarrassed to say this, but Belmont County's records is in a facility that needs to be torn down. We've secured the records that are in there, but frankly, it's deplorable the facility that it's in. So this building will also allow us to move, those records out of that out of that facility tear down that facility and and and and

move it into this into this new location so yeah it may look like I don't want it to you do these projects and these aren't luxury type projects they're expensive so they maybe they are a luxury for as expensive these projects are to do like it to do these days but but there are really strong needs on why these things you know need to occur and I think that when we complete this project we're we're in a very good spot in terms of as a whole there's always things still to do. There's always still projects to do, but we have caught up tremendously in the last eight years worth where we stand from a facility standpoint. And that's, again,

if you don't act on this, you can, you know, you can, you could do other priorities, obviously, but all you're doing is leaving a legacy for the folks coming behind you that gets more challenging with every year. Sure. So the, from a, from a taxpayer's perspective, who might look at that. Your, I won't say argument, but your perspective is these are things that, you know, it's not wasteful spending at all or luxury spending. It's things that will allow the county and government to be more effective at what they do. And that's kind of the pitch when somebody might have reservations from a tax perspective.

Is that an accurate? Well, yeah, I would say here's a good reason to have a tax, you know, concerned by it. If, you know, we were really spending an inordinate amount of tax dollars towards projects like this, but we've had really good plans. Eight years ago, we had a significant amount of county debt. We still have some debt. County should have debt. If you don't have debt, it probably means you're not pushing the ball enough, in my personal opinion.

Some would maybe argue that and say maybe they shouldn't, you know, you should always be sort of debt-free. I think you're not really advancing projects if you don't have a little bit of debt. So we have different pots of money in Belmont County. We oversee what's called the general fund. and those are sort of more versatile funds. That project I just mentioned, we purchased those two buildings

and we're able to solve a lot of facility issues with our county courts, our prosecutor, our board of elections, our title office, not one dollar of general fund dollars has gone into that project, and that was nearly about a $12 million project if I have the numbers still recall.

We are about to have that completely paid off, next year. We use funding that comes from the state of Ohio that are casino revenues. We've always used those for facility-type issues, so that's what makes our payment each year. When that wraps up, those funds will then move on to the project

that we just discussed on 331. Now, that's an expensive project, and that's going to take some time. But that is the only piece of debt as we stand today where general fund dollars could potentially go to a piece of debt. That's very reasonable. opinion. So to be able to to touch those 15 or so spaces without incurring debt until this this

project that we're talking about right now and not to use any general fund dollars to date with no intention to really do so in the near future I think it's really responsible. So again, I think that's how government should be. You know, you need to it's great to take on projects as long as you have a good plan and you can and you can stick that plan. Things come up. Things can knock you off course. I'm not saying everything always goes to plan, but you have to have a solid vision and not just act because you feel like you need to act without doing the due diligence. Yeah. We really appreciate that insight and the detail and kind of the transparency that you give when breaking down all those projects. You mentioned 331. We've got to get you out of here soon.

You mentioned 331. You're a 331 guy. You know, I'm from New Athens originally. I need a shirt. We even get shirts and say three. I might get one since Route 9, but close enough. Yeah. You Carpenter's Pizza guy? Yeah, absolutely. There you go. Absolutely. There we go. That's the one I really needed to hit on. I think that was the question I knew I had to ask.

But Jason, do you have anything else? I will have that there's the January 1, 2, and 3 that you have to talk to me, talk to somebody who's, frankly, me, who's ignorant about that. Like, what is that? What is the reason for the January 1st, 2nd, and 3rd when it comes to county? Yeah, if you run for county commissioner, you have to pick the date on which your term starts. And you pick January 1st, January, 2nd, January 3rd. That's because each of the three commissioners have a date that their term starts. It's a way to keep everything staggered.

We don't all – our terms don't all end at the same time. That's for every other county in Ohio that has a three-member board, which is all but two. So you guys – Belmont County is 26, and then the other two are 28. One is 26 and one is – two are 28. Yes, my term ends in 28, along with one other commissioner, and then we have another commissioner term ends in 26. So you're never turning over more than – you're still turning over. majority of the board when you turn over two obviously West Virginia is just real quick

is slightly different they have six year terms every two years it's one commissioner so it's like the Senate yes okay yes yeah interesting yep so those really other than just the sake of being staggered don't mean anything much other than that it just means that they're staggered and then that's just a way to make sure that the terms are starting and not on the exact same moment okay yeah yeah that makes sense but you have to make that decision so by making that decision you're choosing that particular seat. Yeah. And if there's a person currently in that seat, you're choosing to either run against that

person or if it, you know, they've retired, it's an open seat type situation. But when you make, when you pick that date, you're picking that exact seat. Interesting. And you're, you're January 2nd, correct? January 3rd. Okay. Okay. And the first is the, is the gubernatorial election.

Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You're testing. Yeah. You're testing. Yeah. I'm very interested. use this to kind of take advantage as a strong term, but to kind of pick your brain a little bit

as to, you know, the things that you could provide. And just a fun fact on that, I think a majority of the county elected officials actually started on the first Monday of January. Oh, really? Because that's when my term starts. Okay. So whereas the commissioners are actually a specific date. Yeah. Most of them can kind of float around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In Beaumont County has like 17 elected officials. And I would say, I don't know the exact number, but a majority are on the same schedule that I on the same schedule that Jason's on. There's one commissioner in the auditor that are not. Judges have a little bit different term cycles, but most of your

county officials usually are on the same four-year cycle. Well, Jason, you have anything else to add? No, I think this was a great conversation. This is great. I learned some things, too. Yeah, that's one of the things that I really wanted to accomplish as well as anybody who might be listening who might be maybe of a younger age or even, you know, an older age and they're not super invested or interested in it just to kind of bring. And I thought when you spoke on things that are coming up in the projects and everything like that,

I thought that did a really good job of really, I mean, it made me optimistic. I want to go get a Belmont County T-shirt now because of how optimistic I am for the future. Should be. Yeah, it should be. Listen, I want to say one quick thing, and that is for those, you know, that have interest, doesn't necessarily have to be wanting to, you know, run, to be a commissioner or be an order, whatever it is. But if you have any interest in trying to get engaged your community, just do it. Just find what you think of your niche is. Try to find a place. where you can kind of to help out and and listen we need we we need more leadership um in local government we need more leadership at the county level at the city level village level township level

all these things um you know we need those young leaders we need new leaders not to necessarily be young you could be in your 60s or 70 maybe you've never done it before new ideas yeah there's there's there there's always a need for that so uh for anyone that's out there thinking that you know man you know maybe maybe i could get involved just just just just do it because because there is always a need. What do you say to somebody, we're keeping you over here, I apologize, but what do you say to somebody who is young

and they do want to get involved? What's the first step for them to take? Oh, there's so many, there's, again, there's so many resources right outside your door that you may either take for granted or just not think of just because you're not sure, just like I maybe wasn't sure. But you have a Belmont County recorder,

he could tell you so much about what it's like to be an elected official, Belmont County or elected official in general. My point is you have all these individuals that you could cold call any one of us. And I would be surprised if you do not get someone that really wants to have that conversation with you and take the time to talk through, you know, what their experiences are, what they've learned, you know, what are things to kind of, you know, look into opportunities that may exist, whether it's a, you know, an internship or things of that nature like I did. I mean, again, there are, there is so many individuals.

that are right outside your door that can be resources to you. You just have to reach out to them and find them because we don't know. We don't necessarily know. If we see a crowd of people, we don't know that this one individual may have that interest. But you kind of have to take that first step and make the approach. And if so, there's a world of information right outside your door. That's good to hear. Well, we appreciate your time.

Speaking of reaching out, if you want to reach out to us about the show, you can reach us by email at OUEEPodcast at Ohio.edu. Visit Belmont County, shop in Belmont County, if you don't already live there. JP, we appreciate your time. And absolute pleasure being here. I appreciate the fact that I really appreciate this venue and appreciate being here and can't say enough

the work you guys are doing. Likewise. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you everybody else for listening. For Jason, I'm Drake. Thanks for listening. and have a great day.