By ROBERT A. DeFRANK

For The Intelligencer

The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders of the Barnesville Middle School Robotics team gave a demonstration of the robot that earned them victory at first and second place at during a recent championship.

In April, the team competed at the Vex Robotics World Championship competition in Louisville, Kentucky, and ranked 39th out of 184 teams from across the world.

Commissioners J.P. Dutton, Josh Meyer and Mark Thomas met with the students and their coaches during the commission’s regular meeting Wednesday.

“We use competition robotics as an extension of Project Lead The Way,” said robotics team coach Jon Jordan who also said the program is active at the middle school and high school levels. “This is the second year that we did it at the high school level.”

The team will get to work when the championship releases the next challenge, along with approved material.

“From there, you have to design a machine that can carry out those tasks,” said Jordan said who also said the challenge will include launching projectiles at targets.

The team demonstrated the prior task of picking up and stacking cones. It also presented the extensive programming language of their robot.

County officials called the team’s effort an example of the importance of science technology engineer and math fields.

“It’s unbelievable what you guys have accomplished,” said Dutton. “In an engineering field or a mathematics field there’s so many possibilities and so many avenues.”

“Never stop learning, always keep pressing the envelope,” said Meyer.

“For you to be here, you had a major accomplishment, for which we are very, very, very proud of you,” said Thomas. “Keep challenging yourself and good things will happen to you.”

“This has been one of the most impressive things I’ve seen come out of a school district,” said Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer. “This is more of what our school systems need to be doing.”

“You young people are at an exciting time in Belmont County,” said Port Authority Director Larry Merry. “Sciences and engineering are going to be in great demand in this valley in the very near future. It truly was a worldwide competition. You were the best competing against the best, and that makes you elite.”

Students indicated they intend to continue pursuing robotics and technology-related fields.

“Competing with the best of the best, the best in the world, but it was really rewarding when you place 39th and there was 184 teams,” said Ethan Leach, one of the students.

In other matters, the commissioners approved the expenditure of $4,439.99 to Digital Data Communications Inc. for firewall defensive software for the courthouse. Dutton said this was a preventive measure. He also said recent hacking attempts at Licking County where among the reasons the county decided to improve its software.

The board also approved the hiring Christian Mozie as a full-time water plant operator at the Belmont County Sanitary Sewer District at a rate of $20 per hour, and Ronald Hess as a full-time utility worker at the sewer district at a rate of $15 per hour. Dutton said the district has been understaffed and the positions require advanced certification.

The board also hired Benjamin Mankin as a full-time assistant dog warden at the animal shelter at a rate of $13.15 per hour. Dutton said the shelter has been using temporary workers and some have retired recently.

The board also approved expanding the job description and duties of Katie Bayness, Human Resources administrator, to include that of Loss Control Coordinator, and to approve an annual salary increase of $9,091. That brings her salary to close to $75,000. Meyer said Bayness has saved the county close to $15,000 last year through taking on these duties, including analyzing risk issues to reduce claims and costs by making sure the county takes appropriate safety measures. Bayness said these will include training programs and working closely with the County Risk Sharing Authority of Ohio.

“It’s been through a lot of training that we’ve done, partnering with our elected officials and our department heads to do some on-site training for them,” she said.

The board also approved the hiring of Kelly Dobrovich as a part-time human resources generalist effective May 14 at the rate of $17 per hour. She will likely work 15 hours per week on updating the county policies. Meyer said the policies have not been updated since 2008. The commissioners will review the project in six months. Meyer said Dobrovich will not focus on any particular issue with the policies.