LISBON — Three Columbiana County businesses will benefit from more than $1.1 million in Maritime Assistance Grant Awards announced during Monday’s meeting of the Port Authority board.

According to Port Authority Executive Director Penny Traina, the grants require a 50 percent match, so while the county will see $1,113,140 in grant dollars, the total cost of the projects benefiting companies along the river will be $2,226,280.

“We particularly want to thank Mark Locker at ODOT,” Traina said. “His assistance has just been invaluable to me and my team as we maneuver through the grants. We’re very excited. We have been awarded three major grants. We’re going to help three businesses along the Ohio River and we’re going to continue to increase total tonage on the Ohio River.”

S.H. Bell Company, will be using $630,500 of the money toward the purchase of a new Manitowoc cable boom crane at a total cost of $1,261,000.

Quality Liquid Feeds will be using $422,620 of the grants toward purchasing various equipment as well to improve their property, production efficiency and additional storage with protection for the product. The purchases, which will total $845,280 total include a new man lift, new Mitsubishi fork lift, a new 40-foot by 60-foot by 16-foot storage building, a 4,000-pound capacity barge line hoist, a new 235 horsepower Vaper Power steam boiler, a concrete slab for storage, boring lines under the railway for offloading molasses from the barges and bringing it into the facility and a new air compressor with dryer.

Pier 48 Stevedoring LLC will be purchasing two new Caterpillar skid steers, spending a total of $120,000 with $60,000 from the grant.

This is the second time Traina said the Columbiana County Port Authority has been successful at obtaining Maritime Assistance Grants since the Ohio General Assembly enacted the program with three local companies benefiting in sharing $1.43 million in grant dollars in the first round.

Traina said the grants allow the Port Authority to assist in increasing the capabilities of moving cargo and creating commerce in the region along the river. In 2018, Columbiana County moved 2.3 million tons of cargo on the Ohio River.

The grant dollars and projects related to them go along with a project completed last year when the Port Authority worked with local partners and ODOT in order to create the Mid-Ohio Valley Statistical Port District, covering 220 miles of the Ohio River including seven Ohio counties and nine West Virginia counties. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the district, now the number one inland port in the U.S.

Columbiana County is the northern most county in the group.

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