WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners on Wednesday unanimously voted to allow Select Water Solutions LLC to improve 978 feet of McMullen Street in Brookfield that leads to what last year had been a disputed injection well on property owned by local businessman Joseph Hray.

Select Water Solutions LLC., which operates the injection well, has agreed to pay $100,508 for the repaving of the road.

Two of the three commissioners in 2024 fought against allowing the company to use a county-owned access road leading to Hray’s property. Hray is a farmer and owns several other businesses.

He owns approximately 110 acres in the Brookfield area. He purchased the land at the center of this dispute because it borders his farm.

Hray’s property and the county-owned property crisscross one another. The county-owned access road crosses the properties. The county has a water tower and has a new MARCS tower on 3.4 acres of the property.

At the time, commissioners Mauro Cantalamessa and Niki Frenchko, in a rare show of unity, each argued against allowing noncounty employees to use the access road, which, at the time, was the only direct way to get to the well site.

Cantalamessa, at the time, expressed concern about the injection well being so near a local school.

Frenchko, at the time, said the commissioners were acting to protect county property by not allowing noncounty employees to use the access road.

Commissioner Denny Malloy, at the time, argued their actions were discriminatory against the businessman because of how he planned to use the property.

Malloy is the only one of the three 2024 commissioners that is still on the board.

On Wednesday, Malloy said he was not aware the county engineer had negotiated an agreement for Select Water Solutions LLC to pave that portion of McMullen Street.

Hray said the injection well has been operating for about a month-and-a-half.

“The county would not give us an easement,” Hray said. “Select Water built a secondary road around the county’s property.”

Hray said the situation was politically motivated.

“The commissioners were misinformed,” he noted. “The reason why western Pennsylvania sends their water to Ohio is the rock formation under their land will not take the water, while ours will.”

Hray said he harbors no ill will about what happened last year.

“There has not been one issue,” he said. “It is being monitored by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. There has not been a complaint.”

Hray believes the county needs to attract jobs.

“Steel mills are not coming back,” he said. “We have to attract newer and different types of businesses. With new businesses there will be jobs and new tax revenue to fund police, fire departments and schools.”