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Precinct location still up in air

The Warren South Side precinct still doesn’t have a home.

For the second straight meeting, the Warren County Board of Elections struggled to find a home for voters from the south side.

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said he approached the Warren Forest Counties Economic Opportunities Council about returning to the Seneca Head Start location on E. Wayne St.

He told the board that officials previously couldn’t house the precinct because of an expansion of office space into the room where the precinct occurred. “With COVID in the short term,” he added, “that space is filled with equipment from other rooms” in order to ensure adequate social distancing for the students.

He said it would be “practically impossible” for the 2021 election to be held at that location and a “real challenge to do it even in the future.”

Eggleston then recommended moving the precinct to the Days Inn on the west end, noting the hotel was willing to host the precinct for the 2020 election which would have been a much “bigger production.”

He further suggested the distance is shorter from the south side to the Day Inn than some in the northern precinct have to travel to Holy Redeemer.

“(I) would have to recommend against the Days Inn at this point,” Solicitor Nathaniel Schmidt told the board, explaining that the election code prohibits voting in a location where alcohol is served.

He suggested approaching city officials about the possibility of the conference center at the city’s sewage treatment plant as an alternative but Eggleston said the county had already done so and the city was “pretty adamant” that the “space is not adequate to conduct an election in.”

Eggleston circled back to the Days Inn, noting that the election space would not have direct access to where alcohol is served.

Schmidt said the alcohol issue is the most significant “shortcoming” of the proposal.

“I think the board would be advised to find a building in an adjacent polling district,” he added, such as a municipal or school building that would mode “clearly fit” under the definition of a public building.

Commissioner Tricia Durbin highlighted the two entrances at the Days Inn while Eggleston added that he doesn’t “know if you’re going to find a better location than that.”

He said if the board didn’t move with that recommendation that he would like to see Schmidt authorized to find a better location.

“I don’t think that the alcohol issue… is really a concern,” Eggleston said. “I think everybody would be happy with the space. I would suggest just moving forward with that.”

Schmidt said he would be happy to help finding a location.

“We need to find a home for them,” Elections Director Lisa Rivett added.

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin asked for an update at the commissioner’s Feb. 22 work session with the goal of finalizing a location at next month’s Board of Elections meeting.

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