Hillsboro City Council passes vacant property ordinance

Hillsboro City Council members voted to approve an ordinance to enact Chapter 165 of the Hillsboro Code of Ordinances to provide for the registration of vacant commercial buildings after a months-long debate over the proposed legislation.

Property maintenance and restoration committee chair Ann Morris spoke about the vacant property ordinance, reporting that the committee met Jan. 21 to discuss the proposed legislation.

"It was agreed upon that very little or possibly no changes may be needed to be made to the ordinance to proceed with it at this time," Morris said. "It was determined the city is simply looking to make the town a safer, more pleasing place to work, live and have a business, as well as make an attractive alternative for out-of-town residents to shop."

"Were there changes that were made in this?" council member Bill Alexander asked.

Morris replied that they updated the police chief's name and removed the Hillsboro fire department's name.

Alexander asked if local Realtor Robyn Coomer, a vocal opponent of the ordinance, was agreeable to the legislation, as she attended the committee meeting.

"We answered all her questions, and she seemed fine," Morris said.

Although the vacant property ordinance was placed under the first reading of ordinances and resolutions section of the agenda, council president Lee Koogler noted that the ordinance did receive a first reading at an earlier council meeting and that it would have its second reading.

"The options for council at this time are if you wish to go ahead and enact the legislation at this time, you do have the ability to suspend the three-reading rule, but if not, it will have its third reading next month," Koogler said.

Council member Dick Donley moved to suspend the three-reading rule, which was passed, 7-0. A motion to approve and adopt the ordinance was also passed, 7-0.

Council members also approved three ordinances for two planned water system improvements projects.

In the auditor's report, Hillsboro auditor Gary Lewis spoke about the three ordinances presented to council regarding refinancing water bonds, which were discussed at a recent joint meeting of the finance and utilities committees.

"The city can refund the bonds at a lower rate," Lewis said. "That rate currently stands right now at 3.55 percent."

Lewis said that city water/sewer maintenance supervisor Randy Barr "has indicated for many years now that there needed to be a new looping system in the Woodland Drive segment of our water system" and that "this is a vital water repair need."

The Westover Drive project is also "vital," Lewis said.

As explained by Lewis, the three ordinances are all related to financing these projects, with the first ordinance for "the additional money to take care of these problems, along with various fees associated with the financing," in the amount of $615,000. The second ordinance "is associated with refunding the current balance on the original bond," and "the third ordinance combines the first two together."

Finance committee chair Donley and utilities committee chair Rebecca Wilkin both advised that their respective committees recommended the passage of the ordinances.

The following ordinances were each passed by a 7-0 vote, after a 7-0 vote to suspend the three-reading rule on each ordinance:

• An ordinance providing for the issuance of not to exceed $615,000 of bonds by the City of Hillsboro, Ohio, for the purpose of constructing improvements to the water system in the city, and declaring an emergency.

• An ordinance providing for the issuance of not to exceed $2,620,000 of bonds by the City of Hillsboro, Ohio, for the purpose of refunding water system refunding bonds in the city, and declaring an emergency.

• An ordinance providing for the issuance of not to exceed $3,235,000 of bonds by the City of Hillsboro, Ohio, for the purpose of constructing improvements to the water system and refunding water system refunding bonds in the city, and declaring an emergency.

The final piece of legislation before council, a resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a county-wide resolution for the Highland County Emergency Management Agency, was the only legislation tabled.

"I do have issues with this resolution, and the fact that, to be quite frank and honest, I don't understand everything that's in it," safety and service director Todd Wilkin said. "I have several questions. I know the mayor has reservations with it as well."

Hillsboro Mayor Drew Hastings addressed Highland County Emergency Management Agency Director Jim Lyle, who was in attendance.

"I understand that this is a resolution authorizing me to sign a resolution authorizing the formation of the Highland County Emergency Management Agency, but in fact, it has been formed for a long time," Hastings said.

Lyle said that the resolution Hastings was given was "the original resolution that was signed in February 1992, establishing a county-wide emergency agency."

"I've been operating under an EMA board since '92," Lyle said. "I just more or less have been running the office, in a sense, through the commissioners. They proposed back at the beginning of last year to maybe put Emergency Management underneath the county."

Lyle said that some trustees and village and city leaders "wanted to have their input when it comes to what the emergency agency's going to be."

According to Lyle, Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins added a page to the original resolution "where we raised the per capita," and a vote was taken to establish a new board, in April 2013.

"Basically, what we were asking for was to get a new resolution by the county," Lyle said.

Lyle said that he would have to get signatures from "the mayors and city managers, the township trustees, the three commissioners and the county prosecutor."

"It's basically reestablished under the same resolution I originally had, but instead of '92, it'd be whenever it's passed by commissioners," Lyle said. "We're not reestablishing anything. The EMA has been there since 1992, as far as county-wide."

Lyle said that his board determined that in 1992, it was established that "the commissioners would provide the director of EMA with office space and all of his or her utilities, plus $1,800 a year," but that "there hasn't been a dime paid since 1992."

"What we chose to do, rather than get commissioners to pass it first, was to go to the mayors, the townships and everyone concerned who needs to sign and get them to sign it first and take it to the commissioners and say that everyone has agreed that they should pay a fair share," Lyle said.

"My concern with this document has nothing per se to do with money," Hastings said. "What I would like to know, Jim … right off the bat, it appears that in the event of emergency or disaster, that essentially, control of the city is handed over to the executive committee of EMA or yourself. Essentially, we turn over all power to you."

"That is not correct," Lyle said. "Neither my board nor myself have any control to come in and take over your city, or villages or townships."

Koogler said that he would place the resolution in the street and safety committee to give council members, the administration and Lyle the opportunity to discuss the resolution.

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In his report, Hastings said that the city has submitted "a lot of great applications" for grants for various city projects.

Wilkin also expanded on Hastings' comments on the city's grant proposals, including ones to ODOT and the Bluegrass Pipeline project, during the safety and service director's report.

"The grants we have applied for have totaled more than $600,000," Wilkin said.

Wilkin said that the city has already been granted funding to repair failing wastewater treatment pumps and to construct an additional storage building at the wastewater treatment plant.

"Over the past few months, the city has been awarded over $1 million from Ohio Public Works to go toward infrastructure repairs," Wilkin said.

In his report, Wilkin said that "the city will utilize the money to upgrade the water systems for loops at the Woodland Drive and Westover Drive properties," as previously stated.

Hastings also announced that new Hillsboro Police Chief Todd Whited was sworn in last week.

"We think this is going to mark a new era for our police department," Hastings said. "We'd like to see a really responsive police department, a little more so than I think we've had."

Wilkin also spoke about the appointment of Whited as police chief and plans for the police department, including plans to hire additional employees.

"These new hires for the department will be specifically used to help with the eradication of drugs in Hillsboro," Wilkin said. "With this addition, we're also looking to add a walking patrol around Hillsboro."

Hastings said he was happy to see the arrival of two new businesses in the historic uptown district, with The Kraft Shak expanding to a second location and Rome Jewelers moving into a newly remodeled location. He also reported that a new public access studio is nearly completed and welcomed "any council member, or citizen, who would like to do something on our public access channel."

Hastings also reported that the Hillsboro Planning Commission has appointed John "Buck" Wilkin and Todd Heskett as new members in its reorganizational meeting. The commission also held a special meeting for a "request for the commission's approval of a modification of a land installment contract for a property on South East Street." Hastings said that the commission "agreed to approve the modification."

In the safety and service director's report, Wilkin spoke about weather-related issues in town, particularly clearing the streets. He said that the city has added a third plow truck, but that the city is limited to four employees.

"To the best of our ability as a city, we have three trucks on the road as often as possible," Wilkin said. "We're actually utilizing as well some of the sewer and maintenance guys."

Wilkin said the city has "received several complaints over the past week on snow and the potholes."

"All I can say at this time is if you can just be patient, eventually it'll melt away," Wilkin said. "If you can be patient, we're hitting all streets. The other night, they worked about eight hours and removed 145 dump truck loads of snow from the middle of town.

"When we're removing snow, potholes don't get fixed, but when we're removing snow, potholes appear. We did see a local business put up a sign, 'home of 10,000 potholes.' Yes, we have a lot of potholes right now. As the weather breaks, I'm just asking for patience."

Wilkin also reminded local business owners and citizens to clear the sidewalks in front of their respective businesses and residences for pedestrian safety.

• • •

In his committee report, street and safety committee chair Justin Harsha spoke about a recent Hillsboro business owner's complaint about the lack of two-hour parking signs in uptown Hillsboro.

"I went through town and counted all the parking signs, and there are four places where there are gaps with no signage there," Harsha said.

Harsha said that he and his fellow committee members discussed the issue at a Jan. 21 meeting and determined a need for "four or five" more signs, which he said the committee recommended.

"Is it the administration's intention, Mr. Wilkin, to move forward and place signage in those areas?" Koogler asked.

Wilkin responded that the administration agreed to the recommendation.

• • •

Council members heard from three citizens in attendance, beginning with Hillsboro citizen Bob Lambert, who spoke on behalf of the newly formed East End Community Group.

"The east end has typically been, other than the historic district, a working-class neighborhood of a variety of different types of people," Lambert said. "It's where I live. It's where I've invested my time and money and my fortune.

"I'd like to see that area receive representation, so we think by forming a semi-formal group, with a set of bylaws – a regular organization – we can better work with council and the city to address some of the issues there."

As previously reported in The Highland County Press, Lambert spoke at the Wednesday, Feb. 5 Highland County Commissioners meeting about the group's proposed project to change the name of Baker Street to Curtis Lane in honor of Imogene Curtis, "who was homeschooling children when they were locked out of Webster School" during the Brown v. Board of Education protest.

Lambert said that the group would like to put a bench with a plaque where Curtis' house had stood, "not as a civil rights marker, but as neighborhood pride."

"The time is right, and this is the right thing to do, at least to acknowledge what happened in the past," Lambert said. "If we can pull the east end together, we can pull every other neighborhood together. That's our goal, and this is our attempt. The 50th [sic] anniversary is next year, so we'd like to have the street name in place by then."

The landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision was handed down in May 1954.

Hillsboro Law Director Fred Beery advised Koogler to place the issue in the zoning and annexation committee. Koogler said the committee would look into the request and thanked Lambert for his "community involvement."

Sherry Young, a Hillsboro resident, spoke the condition of the streets and alleys near her house, asking for blacktop for the alley next to her home.

Young had addressed council at the April 2013 meeting about the numerous potholes near her home, which were later filled by the city's new Durapatcher.

"Four mayors I've been through, 17 years, and it's always 'we're out of money, we're out of money,'" Young said.

Koogler asked safety and service director Todd Wilkin to look at Young's request when considering street projects for 2014.

Greg Abbott of Abbott Image Solutions distributed packets of information about a planned signage project for Highland District Hospital to council members. Koogler told Abbott to "start the application process with the administration."

Wilkin advised that the matter be placed in the sign committee. Koogler assigned the project to the property maintenance and restoration committee.