Highland County commissioners proclaim Red Ribbon Week

Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades issued a proclamation in honor of Red Ribbon Week, set to be observed Oct. 26-30 in Highland County, during their Wednesday, Oct. 21 meeting.

Accepting this year’s proclamation were Melanie Bice, Kelly Dennis and Adam Dyer of Paint Valley ADAMH, accompanied by representatives of several area school districts, treatment partners and the Highland County Prevention & Recovery Coalition: Creed Culbreath, Kim Davis, Joni Layne, Raegan Malblanc and Jeff Meyer.

Congress established Red Ribbon Week in 1988. The week raises awareness of drug use and the problems related to drugs and encourages parents, educators, business owners and other community organizations to promote drug-free lifestyles. Red Ribbon Week encourages the entire community to adopt healthy, drug-free lifestyles. This year's theme is "Make a Difference. Be a Hero. Stay Drug Free,” according to PVADAMH. 

Students throughout Highland County can participate by dressing up in a different theme throughout the week, including wearing red on Monday (Red Ribbon Kickoff); dressing as your favorite superhero Tuesday (Be a Hero Day); wearing pajamas Wednesday (Dreaming of a Drug Free Life); dressing in red, white and blue for America’s 250th birthday Thursday (United We Stand In Prevention); and wearing school colors Friday (School Spirit Day).

Dennis told commissioners that Paint Valley ADAMH is again sponsoring its annual Write In Red contest for high school and middle school students within the ADAMH district (Highland, Fayette, Pickaway, Pike and Ross counties). Scholarships and prizes are awarded to school and county winners selected for their essays.

“Your county is the biggest supporter of Red River Week of our five counties, and you'll see that when I tell you all the winners from 2025,” Bice said. “I think every single one of your schools is represented.”

Bice read the local winners from last year, including $500 scholarship winner Cathleen Smart of Hillsboro High School and $100 scholarship winners Jillian Harvey (Fairfield HS), Daphne Zink (Fairfield MS), Jillian Arthurs (McClain HS), Raylen Keeton (Greenfield MS), Addison Mootz (Hillsboro MS), Mahalia Baker (Lynchburg-Clay HS), Ally Carraher (Lynchburg-Clay MS), Jenna Canada (Whiteoak HS) and Alyssa Fultz (Whiteoak MS). 

After meeting with the group, Britton read the proclamation recognizing Oct. 26-30 as Red Ribbon Week in Highland County and “encouraging citizens to wear a red ribbon to show their support for a drug-free environment and to proclaim the message: make a difference, be the hero, stay drug-free.”

In other discussion regarding local Paint Valley ADAMH activities, Bice told commissioners that Davis, of the Highland County Probation Department, “was our Substance Abuse Advocate of the Year of the whole five counties this year, so we were really excited about that.” 

For an update on PVADAMH’s new crisis center, Bice said that the James Hagen Crisis Care Center has opened in Chillicothe but “is not fully 24/7” yet.

“It's just basically the mobile teams in there right now,” she said.

Bice also spoke about the Scioto Paint Valley Mental Health Center, which is one of the contract providers of PVADAMH for all five counties.

“They're in pretty severe financial concerns,” Bice said. “Over the years, we have helped them in various ways with a significant amount of money. They're our largest contract provider, and we cannot just hand taxpayer dollars. There has to be a plan. There has to be something that we feel is effective. 

“Our responsibility is for quality service and cost effectiveness. Because we don't believe they have a plan, we are trying to figure out what's available if they would go out of business because then we're responsible for all those clients and getting them care.”

Bice said they are “very concerned” about the potential ramifications of losing Scioto Paint Valley. 

“We're going to do a tabletop exercise at our office next week, bringing in all the providers just to find out who has what openings, talk to Department of Behavioral Health, talk to other ADAM boards,” Bice said. “We’re doing what we can, but we are definitely very concerned about this situation, and that I really just want to make sure that you guys are aware of that.”

In other discussion:

• Commissioners voted 3-0 to issue a letter of response to emails about proposed battery storage facilities from a concerned citizen, Eric Mathews, after tabling the matter to revise their letter Oct. 14. They also engaged in an in-person back and forth with Mathews, who was present for the Oct. 21 meeting. 

Mathews said his questions for commissioners were regarding the proposed battery storage facilities in various stages of development around the county. According to Mathews, he wanted to know “is somebody overseeing the collective effect of these three projects,” and “if not, why not.” As discussed at commissioners’ Oct. 14 meeting, Mathews also called for commissioners to host a meeting “addressing the cumulative effects” of the projects with the community.

Regarding oversight, Daniels said that “the Ohio Power Siting Board has the ultimate authority” over the projects, not the county. Similarly, he said that it would be up to the OPSB to host community meetings.

“We simply don't have the expertise here in the county to do oversight over these kind of projects,” Daniels said. “We are going to rely on [the OPSB] to do the background, to do the certificate of need, to do the environmental impacts, to do the historical impacts. Those are all things that the Ohio Power Siting Board does and takes into account when they go through permitting these facilities. They have the ultimate authority over that.”

Daniels added that although the prospective developers of the battery storage facilities have already hosted public meetings and “put on trainings with our local fire departments” already, the OPSB has contacted them about next steps for the Barr Energy project, which will involve another public meeting, plus the submission of comments.

“The next step is that people have the opportunity to intervene, put comments in their records on this, and if you go to the Ohio Power Siting Board website, it will tell you how you can end up doing that,” Daniel said. “The Ohio Power Siting Board will have a public hearing in the county, and then they will have their final hearing at their offices in the state. Those are the opportunities that everybody has to work through these.”

As he said at commissioners’ Oct. 14 meeting, Daniels told Mathews that zoning — which Highland County does not have — “offers the real teeth that give us the ability to control what happens on lands throughout the county.

“Since we've had solar, we've had battery, we've had these people come in making private contracts with private landowners — which is their right to do — we’ve not had one person come in here and ask us to implement zoning to give us the teeth and the authority that we've got any way that we can control these things,” Daniels said. “As far as whether or not we would host a meeting, we've got no answers to give you. The Power Siting Board is the one that has the answers that can answer all your questions, and they've already said through this process that they're going to hold a local meeting, so that people can ask those questions. They can get the answers from the people that have the authority and the expertise to manage these things.”

Mathews said the OPSB has not answered his requests for information, and commissioners said they could reach out on his behalf. However, Daniels also explained that the OPSB generally follows a process for answering the public’s questions.

“When they hold a public hearing, they will take comments and questions,” Daniels said. “After that public hearing, they will compile answers to all the questions and make them available to anybody that ends up signing up or asking for those things. 

“They do not answer questions there, and the reason that they don't is because when they start getting into a back and forth exchange, then things get heated.”

Roades agreed, saying speakers are typically limited to two minutes each, then “they take everybody's questions and they compile them at the end of the session and give them back.”

In addition to offering to talk to their OPSB contacts, Daniels also gave Mathews a copy of their recent correspondence regarding the Barr Energy project.

As previously reported, the up to 200MW Barr Energy project being proposed will encompass approximately 35 acres on Mad River Road in New Market Township, near state Route 138. If approved, this would be NextEra Energy Resources’ first battery storage facility in Ohio, as they already own and operate 50 sites across the U.S. and Canada, according to their website.

As written by Julie Graham-Price in an Oct. 19 email to commissioners, “the Ohio Power Siting Board has issued the Letter of Completeness, one of the major steps in the review process. 

“After an application is submitted, the OPSB staff conduct a preliminary review to ensure the application contains the information necessary to begin an investigation,” Graham-Price wrote. “It is not an indication of whether the project will be approved or denied.

“Now that the Completeness Letter has been issued, the OPSB staff will begin its investigation. In addition, dates will be set for the local public hearing in Hillsboro and the evidentiary hearing in Columbus. I will let you know once I have the hearing dates and the public hearing location. Finally, anyone who satisfies the Board’s intervention criteria may be accepted as a party to the case.”

• An area resident, Aaron Brown, asked commissioners to consider issuing a proclamation in recognition of Parental Alienation Awareness Day, observed April 25, and to “support community-level education and mental health resources” related to parental alienation issues.

• Commissioners announced that the county’s “payroll department has been moved back to the auditor’s office,” after being housed within the human resources department temporarily.

“We had some issues with payroll, and we've been working on that for the last two or three years, due to an employee situation that we had,” Britton said. “By law, the auditor is over the payroll, so we've moved that back to the auditor’s office at his request.”

As previously reported, the state issued findings for recovery against the auditor’s office, including the former payroll clerk, “for public monies illegally expended.”

• Roades and commissioners clerk Ashleigh Willey said that commissioners are continuing to review requests for quotations for proposed work at the Hi-TEC building and other possible projects and have narrowed their list to four firms.

On an unrelated note about the Hi-TEC building, Willey reported that Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins recommended that the commissioners office contact the County Commissioners Association of Ohio for advice on “a sample policy” after they received a complaint about restrooms at that building.

“The issue was transgender and restroom use, and then there were people that complained out there about who’s using what facility,” Daniels said. 

• After hearing from Cierra Moore of the county’s maintenance department, commissioners voted to accept an $8,920 quote from Weller’s Plumbing for 16 shutoff valves at the Highland County Justice Center. 

• Two matters involving petitions for alley vacations were canceled or tabled via resolution. 

According to the first of two resolutions, “Based upon information subsequently provided to the County Engineer, Ruble Lane has already been vacated, and no further action by the Board of County Commissioners is necessary. Therefore, the said board agrees to cancel the previously scheduled public viewing and hearing of Ruble Lane.”

For a planned alley viewing and hearing scheduled Wednesday on South Middle Street in Clay Township, commissioners voted to “postpone” both “until the County Engineer authorizes to proceed.”

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

• A motion to approve the appointment of Scott Grooms as the City of Hillsboro’s representative on the Highland County Land Reutilization Corporation (land bank) board. 

• A road use agreement among Highland County Commissioners Dodson Township Trustees, Highland County Engineer and  Ohio Company, Inc. (AEP).

• A resolution authorizing a “then and now” purchase order and authorizing the county auditor to issue warrants for payment.

• A request from the Sheriff for an additional appropriation from unanticipated revenue within the 1000 County General fund in the amount of $228.

• 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 $33,102.36.

• A request from JFS for a budget modification within the 2115 Children Services fund in the amount of $61,000.

• A budget modification within the 1000 County General fund in the amount of $37,000.

• A request from the Clerk of Courts for a budget modification within the 1000 County General fund – Clerk of Courts in the amount of $5,000.

• A budget modification within the 1000 County General fund in the amount of $3,000.

• A request from the Prosecutor for a budget modification within the 7210 DETAC – Prosecutor fund in the amount of $6,000.

• A budget modification within the 1000 County General Fund – Hi-TEC in the amount of $10,900.

• 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 $131,268.44.