WARREN - Much of the first revenue sharing payment that Trumbull County has received from the new casinos in Cleveland and Toledo is being used to buy new vehicles for the sheriff's office.
The purchase of four new 2013 Ford Police Interceptors for the office follows what commissioners said they would do with the money. ''That money will be largely be spent on capital projects,'' said Commissioner Paul Heltzel.
The $130,868 for the cars eats up most of the $182,668 the county received last month, the first of quarterly payments from the state under a law that calls for a portion of the gross revenue tax paid by the casinos to be distributed among counties, select cities and others, including school districts.
The money will be paid to the counties and the state's eight largest cities, Youngstown being one of them, every three months. School districts will receive payment twice a year, starting in January 2013.
The amount is based on population.
Also Wednesday, commissioners awarded four contracts worth $565,561 to demolish 73 homes in nine communities and agreed to move ahead on buying portable scales to monitor the weights of trucks traveling on county roads.
The homes that will be demolished under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a federal program that addresses abandoned and vacant homes and stabilizes deteriorating neighborhoods, are in Girard, Newton Falls, Niles, Warren, Brookfield, Howland, Hubbard, Liberty and Warren Township.
Receiving the contracts were C. Crump Inc. of Hubbard, $93,500 for 13 demolitions; Holton Inc. of Lordstown, $204,911 for 19 demolitions; M&M Inc. of Vienna, $73,850 for 12 demolitions; and Siegel Excavating, $193,300 for 29 demolitions.
Five other companies provided bids.
Commissioners are advertising for bids for 14 sets of portable scales, which cost about $75,000, to be used by the county engineer's office to weigh trucks on county roads. The cost will be advanced by commissioners to the engineer's office and will be repaid from enforcement fines.
The sheriff's office also is participating by having two deputies trained to use the equipment and do the enforcement. The scales take about two months to build once the order is placed.