STEUBENVILLE, Ohio -- The Jefferson County Commission accepted bids for a new water project that would improve the Brilliant Booster Station in the southern part of the county Thursday.

"This ties into the entire water supply of the southern end of Jefferson County and it allows us an opportunity to not only service Smithfield, but to take on a lot of new customers," said Jefferson County Commissioner Tom Gentile. "We've been strapped for capacity on the southern system and we've identified this many years ago as a problem."

All bids announced at Thursday's commission meeting were over a million dollars.

Before the commission could bid out the project, issues with the Smithfield water system had to be addressed. The county is taking over water lines in Smithfield because officials say the village had an outstanding county water bill and could not maintain older lines that kept breaking.

"We've got a meeting on Nov. 29 to meet with all the attorneys to work that agreement out. Our goal is to have it done by the end of the year," said Gentile. "Hopefully, when we go into the future, we'll be able to hook into Bradley. Those customers have been waiting for a very long time for water service. It's all apart of a big plan we've been working on for a while."

Officials said the county would see more revenue by taking on new customers. It's estimated that the county will see a minimum of $200,000 a year for adding 400 customers to the water system. The additional revenue could help the base rate for all customers in the long run.