Commissioners, sheriff's office discuss upcoming repairs, medical contract

Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades met with representatives from the Highland County Sheriff’s Office to discuss several different contracts during their Wednesday, Jan. 28 meeting.

Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve a $2,599 repair to the current boiler at the Highland County Justice Center, due to its repeated gas leak issues. A vote on a new system was pushed back again due to only receiving one quote. Britton had said Jan. 21 that it is the original boiler from when the Justice Center and will need replaced, but it will be “a pretty good expense.”

Britton said Wednesday the county has “had three different contractors come in and look at” the current boiler, and Frye Mechanical identified the issues and provided the $2,599 repair quote. He asked the three Highland County Sheriff’s Office representatives in attendance Wednesday — Chief Deputy Jennifer Schinkal, Captain Chris Bowen and Lieutenant Keith Brown – “how big of an effect is it going to be as far as heat” for the jail while the boiler is repaired.

“They advised it will probably just take a couple hours to fix most of the gas leaks,” Brown said.

The group from the HCSO also spoke with commissioners to brainstorm ideas on medical care for inmates moving forward, as they have been informed their longtime provider, Dr. Anthony Wetherington, will no longer be continuing in that role after June.

“We've spoken with some neighboring counties to see if maybe we can get in on a plan or something with them, with Fayette and Clinton County just exploring options,” Schinkal said. “The sheriff did speak with [Highland District Hospital President & Chief Executive Officer] Tim Parry this morning at Highland District. 

“Our jail nurses we've had, two of them have been there over 20 years. They do a great job, so hopefully we can figure out something that works out. This is all-new news, so we’ve made a few phone calls in the last few days.”

Schinkal added that they “hate to see [Dr. Wetherington] go. 

“He and his nurses have done a great job for us,” she said. 

On another topic, Brown told commissioners that the sheriff’s office is in the process of updating their video control towers, having received a $7,100 estimate from Securitech for two new towers. 

“One of them burned up,” he said. “They said that to rebuild it, it would be obsolete. It’s actually a Windows 10.

“[The new towers] will take care of all 88 cameras we have in the building. Right now, the cameras are freezing, and the officers trying to watch the inmates outside the security building have to reboot the system every time.”

Bowen added that is becoming “a safety issue.”

Britton asked if the sheriff’s office was paying for the new systems, and Brown said that they believed they would handle it but would “come back” if they needed additional funds.

In unrelated action, commissioners also voted 3-0 to approve a renewal of their annual planned service agreement with Johnson Controls for fire suppression systems at the Justice Center.

In other discussion:

• Highland County Treasurer Vickie Warnock conducted an investment advisory committee meeting, sharing end-of-year figures for 2025.

Totals as of the end of the calendar year as presented by Warnock included:

—STAR Ohio, $309,226.63 interest,  $7,229,799.52 balance and 3.69-percent interest rate;

—STAR Plus, $100,139.88 interest, $3,567,506.66 balance and 2.34-percent interest rate;

—Fifth Third (CDs): $329,413.45 interest,  $11,661,277.01 balance and 3.31-percent average interest rate;

—Checking account: $398,465.90 interest, $10,955,000.70 balance and 4.16-percent interest rate; and

—ICS account: $1,213,732.26 interest, $25,485,312.69 balance and 3.89-percent interest rate.

The total interest for 2025 was $2,350,951.12, which was “down a little over $48,000 from 2024” due to lower interest rates, Warnock said.

“The bank is paying is matching our ICS to what Star Ohio is paying us, and those funds are liquid funds for us to have any time that we would need it,” Warnock said. “As long as the bank’s agreeing to pay us what Star Ohio is paying us, I wouldn't move anything, because it's available if you guys need it for anything. 

“Like I said, it is going down some, but compared to what it was a few years ago, it still is substantial. We're still getting a good interest rate on all of it.”

Warnock also gave an update on the county’s work with NAR Ohio, Inc. to combat delinquent property taxes.

“We sent letters out around October 1, and they had until October 31 to either come in pay the taxes in full or to set up a contract, which the prosecuting attorney’s office set up several contracts during that time period,” Warnock said. “We had a little over $141,000 come in, in that time period, of people coming in paying their taxes in full because they received the letter. 

“We then received funds from NAR for $502,710.89, which was for the properties that they did put a tax lien on, and then we have 98 tax liens to be filed with the recorder for that money.”

Daniels asked about the “criteria used” to put someone on a contract for a payment plan versus the tax lien. Warnock said that they are legally required to offer “at least one contract.

“After that, we can give them another if the prosecutors determine that they want to, but by law, we have to give them at least one contract,” Warnock said. “If it is one that they've had one, we've defaulted it, have another one, we defaulted it — no. We’re sending them to NAR, and they will determine what they will do after that.

“It's not ones that they just became delinquent and we're putting a tax lien on it. We’ll give them a contract. As long as they pay it, we're fine with that. We don't want to have to go through all this, but it's ones that we've tried working with before and just haven't gotten anywhere.”

• Daniels reported that the commission received a brief update on Spectrum’s broadband expansion in the area.

As previously reported, in November 2021, commissioners approved “a resolution to support, by monetary contribution and public resolution, a Residential Broadband Infrastructure Project by Spectrum Mid-America, LLC as managed by Charter Communications, Inc. in Highland County.” According to the resolution, the county “pledged to contribute … $500,000 for Charter’s Residential Broadband Infrastructure Project in Highland County,” in addition to offering a letter of support for the company’s application for an Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program.

Daniels said that Spectrum wrote to them to let them know about their work to provide broadband service to “2,300 additional homes and businesses previously underserved or unserved in Highland County.”

• Highland County Job & Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff said that progress is being made on the roofing project at the Hi-TEC building, which sustained damage during a winter storm last January.

Commissioners also made the following approvals, each by a 3-0 vote:

• Five separate contracts for a continued general partnership agreement with the Economic Development Department and area municipalities, including the City of Hillsboro and Villages of Greenfield, Leesburg and Lynchburg, as well as one with the Chamber of Commerce.

• An amendment to a 2023 Residential Public Infrastructure Program agreement.

• A resolution to approve the appointment of Mary Remsing as CORSA Loss Control Coordinator for Highland County.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the 2170 Community Probation Department fund in the amount of $2,000.

• A resolution to grant authorization for listed “then and now” purchase orders and authorizing the county auditor to issue warrants for their payment.

• A request from Job and Family Services for a transfer from Child Support Enforcement Fund (2015) to Public Assistance Account Fund (2050) in the amount of $31,315.51.

• A request from Job and Family Services for a transfer from Children Services Fund (2115) to Public Assistance Account Fund (2050) in the amount of $138,442.

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