City of St. Clairsville
City of St. Clairsville

SCAM ALERT IN OHIO!

The City of St. Clairsville Police Department is urging all citizens to stay vigilant as a new type of scam is expected to make its way into Ohio. “Brushing” package scams involve the delivery of unordered items to your home, disguised as packages from Amazon or other companies.

If any citizen sees a package that they did not order and it has a QR code (see image), DO NOT SCAN THIS WITH YOUR PHONE!!! The item delivered can be kept or thrown away, but DO NOT SCAN ANY CODE!!!! Once you scan the package’s QR code, it exposes your phone’s personal information—including banking and financial details—which then gives scammers access to all the contents in your device.

How to avoid brushing scams

The FBI provided tips on how to protect yourself against the brushing package scams:

  • Do not scan a randomly found QR code
  • Be suspicious if, after scanning a QR code, the site asks for a password or login info
  • Do not scan QR codes received in emails or text messages unless you know they are legitimate. Call the sender to confirm
  • Some scammers are physically pasting bogus codes over legitimate ones. If it looks as though a code has been tampered with, don’t use it

PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION OR CALL OUR LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT 740-365-0123

https://www.timesreporter.com/story/news/2024/09/26/brushing-package-scams-fake-qr-codes-ohio-how-to-avoid-them/75376871007/

3.18.24 UPDATE: City’s Water Distribution System Improvements Project

UPDATE ON 3.18.2024:

Starting in the next two weeks, excavation and boring work will begin in your area and then will return at a later date, to connect water lines for the City’s water line replacement project.

Affected addresses are:

E. Main Street- 106 through and including 194. Even numbers only.

Woodrow Avenue-101 ½, 125, 131, 133, and 201.

S. Sugar Street-103, 104, 106, and 106 ½.

As this project progresses, residents may experience periodic:

Traffic in neighborhood, and no “on street” parking to allow the contractor to perform the needed work.

During this period, the contractor will cooperate with the residents to provide temporary access to existing driveways.

Sidewalks, streets, yards, etc., will be restored after completion of the work.

If you have any questions, please contact the Utility Office at 740-695-1410.

Thank you.

ORGINAL NOTICE REGARDING WATER LINE REPLACEMENT PROJECT POSTED MAY 2023:

Excavation and water line replacement work will begin in your area on or around Tuesday, December 26th, 2023. Tap replacement work will follow at a later date. This work is part of the City’s Water Line Replacement Project.

Addresses that are affected:

Edgewood Street- 99 and 101

Norris Street- 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 109 ½, 110, 111, 112, 113, and  113 ½.

E. Main Street – 252, 262, 270, 276, and 278.

Orchard Drive- 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 120, and 122.

John Avenue- 119.

Young Lane-203

Neff Street- 101, 106, 107, 107 ½, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 120, 126, 127, 129, and 131.

Clark Avenue-103.

As this project progresses, residents may experience periodic:

Traffic in neighborhood, and no “on street” parking to allow the contractor to perform the needed work.

During this period, the contractor will cooperate with the residents to provide temporary access to existing driveways.

Sidewalks, streets, yards, etc., will be restored after completion of the work.

If you have any questions, please contact the Utility Office at 740-695-1410.

Thank you.

Additional boring, water line installation, and tap replacement work will occur at a later date.

The City Council voted to award this contract to The James White Construction Company of Weirton, WV, a firm with experience in this type of work and which presented the lowest and best bid.  The subcontractor retained to perform the boring work is D&D Underground, which trucks may or may not contain company information.

As this project progresses, residents may experience periodic:

  • traffic in neighborhood where construction/boring work is ongoing; and
  • no “on street” parking to allow the contractor to perform the needed work.

The contractor will cooperate with residents to provide temporary access to existing driveways during this period.  Sidewalks, streets, yards, etc. will be restored after completion of the work.

If you have not already done so, please sign up for the Belmont County CodeRED emergency notification system.  The City’s Utility Office places calls to City residents using CodeRED to alert them of time-sensitive or emergency issues around the City.  To the greatest extent possible, the Utility Office narrows the scope of the notifications so that only the residents who need the information are contacted.  The CodeRED system is the most efficient and timely way to communicate information to residents impacted by the construction / installation of new water lines.  Staff in the Utility Office can quickly set up in CodeRED a resident’s desired method of contact.  The City administration urges all residents to take advantage of this convenient, free service.

The City appreciates residents’ cooperation as this important project moves forward.  The inconvenience which residents face will be temporary but necessary.  The City estimates that over the last ten years, it has spent roughly $2 million dollars to fix water line breaks in nearly 100-year-old pipe under the City.  This project is the first step in eliminating this wasteful spending and improving the quality of the City’s water and water delivery network.

Additional work and notifications will follow later.  If questions, please call the City’s Utility Office (740-695-1410) between 8:30 A. M. and 4:30 P. M.; after normal business hours, please leave a message with the answering service.  Thank you.