SOUTH POINT — State officials are commending South Point for its use of its portion of the $5 billion dividend it received from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Comp.
The village used the funds to purchase automatic external defibrillators for its fire, police and village workers.
The devices allow for the diagnosis of someone having cardiac arrest or other issues and allow treatment through the use of electronic defibrillation.
The device will be in each of South Point’s police cruisers, in two of its fire trucks and there will one at village hall and the sewer plant.
“This is one-time money that we can’t use for salaries, so we decided to put it toward public safety,” Mayor Jeff Gaskin said.
Roger Hoback, BWC Industrial safety consultant specialist wrote about the village in a lengthy post on the agency’s blog.
“Working with employers like South Point Village is the most rewarding part of my job,” he said. “With all their efforts, there is no question that the safety and health of the village’s employees, first responders, and citizens is top priority.”
Gaskin said the village was honored that BWC decided to do an article on the funds and that officials from the agency would be at a council meeting later this year to discuss the subject further.
In other news, Gaskin said renovations on the village’s community center are “very much on schedule.”
“We should do drywall this week and be ready to paint next week,” he said.
The village received a $200,000 grant from the Ohio Legislature for the work and Gaskin said this will include new handicapped-accessible restrooms, a new HVAC system, new storage and new electrical service.
He said the building only had about four outlets before the work, but now it will have 18 double outlets, which will have USB chargers for devices.
“We modernized the building,” he said, pointing out that this had not been done since it was built in the 1970s. “It will be a good venue to have receptions and will have a capacity of about 100.”
Gaskin said that this week is the village’s clean-up week, which takes place twice a year, as well as its monthly brush week.
“So our village employees are working very hard,” he said.
South Point’s village council will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
