New SSD attends first council meeting

In his first council meeting in his new position as safety and service director, Todd Wilkin was introduced to Hillsboro City Council members and the community Monday night, explaining his background and his plans for Hillsboro along with the work he has accomplished since taking over the position last month.

As previously reported in The Highland County Press, Wilkin was named safety and service director in February, replacing outgoing director Richard Giroux.

Giroux was terminated in December by Mayor Drew Hastings following a Nov. 25 charge of operating a vehicle while impaired in the city of Hillsboro.

Wilkin told council that he has spent the past 10 years working in Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati with a developer in renovating old buildings. He is married with three children, ages 9, 6 and 2.

At the request of council member Dave Shoemaker, who served as acting president for the meeting, Mayor Hastings introduced Wilkin.

"I think Mr. Wilkin is going to be a really good fit for what we're trying to do and what hopefully everybody's on board with," Hastings said.

Wilkin addressed council regarding his work in the past three weeks as well as his future plans.

"I am officially celebrating my three-week anniversary," Wilkin said. "I have very high expectations for myself, and I also have high expectations for my fellow city employees for the next year and beyond."

Wilkin said that he has an "open-door policy" for both city employees and citizens.

"I do want to encourage positive and positive thinking for all individuals who live in Hillsboro, who work in Hillsboro, and also who visit Hillsboro," Wilkin said.

Wilkin said that he is "laying the foundation with the city staff," including meeting individually with many city employees.

Among the reports delivered by Wilkin were the following announcements:

• Two left turn signals, one for each direction, will be installed at the U.S. 62/Harry Sauner Road intersection (near McDonald's), which Wilkin believes will interrupt traffic for approximately one week.

• Wilkin reported that the city is currently in talks to find a new contractor to clear the grit from city roads from the winter, as the owner of the previous company employed by the city passed away. Wilkin said that he and street department superintendent Steve Pence have spoken with county and township employees, who lack the equipment necessary to finish the project, and are trying to find a new company.

• Wilkin also announced that the city now possesses a new DuraPatcher, a spray injection system to fill in potholes. Wilkin said that city employees have been trained to use this and will begin using it to treat street issues in the city.

• Wilkin said he is meeting with engineering, contractors and wastewater treatment plant staff members to deal with unresolved issues at the plant as he has received numerous complaints on failing equipment.

• The city has submitted a request for quotes to paint the Oak Street water tower.

• The water office has implemented new financing software.

• Wilkin also announced the city's plans to introduce legislation for the upkeep of vacant local buildings.

"That's … making people responsible for the buildings they own," Wilkin said. "Everybody has a responsibility to maintain their building, to make sure it's fitting properly within our community, and not making it an eyesore, but giving our city credibility."

Wilkin said that such legislation would be submitted to council within the next few weeks and requested that the information be immediately placed into committee and discussed at the May council meeting.

• Wilkin said that the city plans to implement radio-read water meters throughout the city, as approximately half of the city already has such meters.

"This will save the city a tremendous amount of money," Wilkin said. "e don't have to send out two meter readers to go do a final read and then shut off a meter. The final meter read can be done within the office, within the hour."

• Hillsboro firefighters are being trained to test fire extinguishers in the city buildings, which Wilkin estimated will save approximately $1,000-$1,500 per year.

• Wilkin plans to compose a list of alleys the city wants to vacate.

• Wilkin reported that the city is "creating flow charts for pretty much every process the city is involved in."

"Mr. Wilkin, how long did you say you've been on the job?" Shoemaker asked.

"Three weeks," Wilkin said.

"That's a long list for three weeks," Shoemaker said.

In his mayor's report, Hastings addressed the job situation in Highland County, as well as the ongoing discussion over billboards in the city of Hillsboro. Hastings said that the recent announcement of the closure of Greenfield's RR Donnelley plant moved him to meet with Hillsboro employers "to do everything we can to keep them in place."

"I think the economy [being] the way it is, it's very hard to woo employers here, mostly because there aren't many opening, and so it's important to keep the ones we have and find ways to grow them," Hastings said.

Hastings said that city administration met with such local businesses as Weastec, PAS Technologies, Highland District Hospital, Heartland, the Hillsboro Board of Education and "a handful of others."

Hastings also proposed an idea for a variance to limit or stop the building of more billboards in the city, after council spent several months discussing a billboard proposed for North West Street.

"We're getting a lot of requests for large billboards throughout the city," Hastings said. "Bonnie [council member Parr], wasn't there some talk a while back of just banning billboards in the city?"

"Right," Parr said.

"If it's OK with you guys, I'd like to introduce legislation, you look at it, see if it sits OK with you, and we'll put something together," Hastings said.

Shoemaker said that Hastings' upcoming proposal would be put in the sign committee overseen by Parr.

In the auditor's report, Hillsboro city auditor Gary Lewis presented the year-to-date fund report and bank report for the city. Lewis also introduced two new resolutions.

• Resolution No. 13-9 reads that: "The auditor is hereby authorized to increase appropriations in the Street Fund by $30,000, specifically for the purchase of salt ($28,000) and to cover the cost of replacement of a lift cylinder on a snow plow ($2,000)."

Lewis said that this resolution is necessary to "get the salt at a more competitive price than what [the city] has procured it for in the past," at approximately $60 per ton compared to the $78 per ton in years past. Lewis said that the lift cylinder had already been replaced on the snow plow, but that it had "depleted funds."

• The other resolution was to "clear up an appropriation error," as money was mistakenly appropriated into an incorrect fund. The resolution reads: "The Auditor is hereby authorized to increase appropriations in the Sewer Fund by $10,000 for the purpose of preventative maintenance to be completed on lift station generators and pumps. The Auditor is also authorized to decrease appropriations in the Water Fund by $10,000 specifically reducing the Capital Equipment line item by that amount."

Neither resolution required the three-reading rule, and both were passed 4-0 by members of council.

For the planning commission report, Hastings reported that in an earlier meeting, it was agreed that the alley on 73 and Terrace Avenue should be closed. Council voted 4-0 to approve the closure of the alley.

Shoemaker reported that the review of indigent burials in the city remains in committee, and that Finance Committee Chair Peter Pence would like to meet with local funeral home directors before pursuing the issue further.

• Council members also voted to excuse the absences of Lee Koogler and Peter Pence, while Mary Brown Turner's absence was unexcused as no council members had heard from her.

Council heard from three citizens during the meeting:

• Sherry Young, who said that she has lived in her home since 1997 and has met with city administrators repeatedly in the past about issues with potholes in the alley surrounding her home.

"Since then, they've blacktopped every street and alley in Hillsboro but ours," Young said.

Young said that previous administrators had not repaired the problem and asked that Hastings and Wilkin pursue the matter.

"I've had broken tie rods every six months or so," Young said.

Hastings said that her alley would be a good testing area for the city's new DuraPatch machine.

"We'll get it done," Hastings said. "I promise you that."

• Brian Mains, who expressed his appreciation for Wilkin, saying that he has had an unresolved problem on his street for over five years and that Wilkin has been helpful thus far.

• Richard Stiffler told council he was concerned with the lack of jobs in the area.

"Our administration has been in office for close to a year and a half now," Stiffler said. "The residents of Hillsboro were told that when Drew was trying to get elected as our mayor that he'd bring jobs to Hillsboro. We're seeing a few jobs here and there … but I'd like to see some industries come to town.

"There's a lot of people in Hillsboro who are unemployed, like myself … We need jobs that are going to hire 300 or 400 at a time, not jobs that's hiring five or 10."

"Being in office only a year and a half does not fully qualify that jobs will be here immediately," Shoemaker said. "Jobs are an important thing to him, and in his defense, he is working on it."

Stiffler also said he was concerned about the fading lines in the uptown crosswalks as he said he was nearly hit by a car earlier in the day as he was in the middle of a crosswalk.

"Most Hillsboro residents know there's a crosswalk there," Stiffler said. "This car had Kentucky license plates. If they don't know that crosswalk's there, guess what's going to happen? Someone's going to get hit, and I almost got hit."

"They do have a problem seeing the lines," Shoemaker said. "It's an ongoing issue that I'm sure the street department is taking care of."