Junior fair position, SNAP suspension among topics at Highland County commission meeting

Highland County commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels met Wednesday, Nov. 5 with representatives of the Highland County Fair Board and Ohio State University Extension Office for initial talks on whether a partnership can be formed to fund the junior fair coordinator position moving forward.

Attending commissioners’ regular Wednesday meeting were Senior Fair Board president James Flowers and vice president Barry Stratton, along with OSU Extension’s Danielle Combs (Educator, 4-H Youth Development) and Ty Hamilton (Educator, Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Community Development).
 
According to Flowers, for over a decade, the senior board has funded the junior fair coordinator position, which currently pays about $9,000 a year for “1,100 hours of work.

“We just can't afford to fund it any more than it is, and it seems like we're at the point where we're going to have a revolving door of junior fair coordinators, which is not good for the youth of the county,” Flowers said. “We were just looking for a little help to try to figure out how we could give some more and retain, possibly, who we have in that position, or help contribute to find a new person.”

Britton asked if Extension “could absorb” the “extra funding” the fair board is seeking. Hamilton said that Extension would be “open to helping and doing as much as we can, however that needs to be done,” although he asked for the fair board to meet with them in the future to provide more specific details on what they are needing.

“That would be a conversation we would have to have directly with them about what that would look like,” Hamilton said. “We have support staff that can help and have educators there, but I don't think that I'm in a position to just speak for them, or them just for us. I think that's a conversation where we need to be in a partnership there to really outline that as to how that would look.”

In response to a question from Roades, Combs explained that Nikki Eyre previously served as the fair coordinator through Extension, but when she retired, the state had recommended “that junior fair coordinators try to be absorbed by ag societies” instead of through the 4-H program. However, Combs said that the current (Kaley Fannin) and previous (Jana Holbrook) coordinators have worked closely with the Extension office and the 4-H educators, “especially in the offseason” and through the Junior Fair Board.

“The fair’s kind of a cumulative part where everything comes together,” Hamilton added. “Throughout the year, in our office, we would work to get kids enrolled in 4-H. 

“Kaley’s role would be the coordinator for both 4-H and FFA to help alongside Senior Fair Board to kind of make all that work the week of fair, so I guess that's predominantly how it’s been done for 13 years in Highland County.”

Daniels asked if the Extension staff felt the arrangement is “doing a good job serving all the kids” who participate in the fair, and Hamilton said he did.

“I think those guys have done a great job and their team and being just more open to having conversations and making sure we're on the same page to continue to make the fair successful, get kids involved, get their families there,” Hamilton said. “There’s a little different goals, I guess, from each side, but they kind of work to each other, hand in hand.”

Britton encouraged the two groups to work together and “bring a proposal back to” commissioners for further review.
 
Flowers also briefly discussed the 2025 fair, which he said was a record-setting year with mild weather and high attendance.

“The fair went really well for us,” Flowers said. “We had a pretty good week attendance-wise. We had about 22,000.

“On the junior fair side, we set a record for sales at the auctions for the week. It was about $780,000 total that went through add-ons and actual sale, so we want to thank the community for their support of the youth for that.”

In other discussion:

• Highland County Job and Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff provided an update on the suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, affecting thousands of Highland County residents, due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

As previously reported, Ratcliff told commissioners Oct. 29 that barring any federal or state changes, no SNAP benefits would be issued in November. That information has since changed, with partial payments approved. 

However, in the meantime, Ratcliff said that he met with leaders of Highland County Community Action Organization, the Highland County Health Department and the Highland County Emergency Management Agency, with the groups releasing information Wednesday regarding food pantries. An updated list of food pantries is available at https://highlandhelps.com/core-needs/. 

For those in a position to help, Ratcliff encouraged the community to contact the food pantries directly to see what they need or make a financial contribution.

“If you really want to help, sometimes the best way is a monetary donation,” Ratcliff said. “That way, that food pantry can go out and buy what they need, probably at a bulk rate, because there are stipulations and restrictions on how food pantries are able to accept donations of food.”

After the meeting, Ratcliff also issued the following statement regarding the partial payments:

““The United States Department of Agriculture has directed states to begin the process of issuing partial SNAP benefits for November.

“The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has scheduled system maintenance for Monday, Nov. 10 - Wednesday, Nov. 12 to make the appropriate adjustments to issue partial SNAP benefits.

“At this time, we do not have a specific date for issuance of partial benefits for November. It will be after Nov. 12, 2025.”

Highland County EMA Director David Bushelman, who was also in attendance Wednesday, added that the groups are working together to “try to manage and mitigate this the best we can in the county,” as Ratcliff said that Bushelman called these partners together. 

• At 9:15 a.m., commissioners opened two bids — one from Lawton Parry and one from Knoblauch Lawn Care — for snow removal/ice melt on county property this winter. As Daniels said, there were “differences in all of them” regarding various options for each property, so they said they would be reviewing the bids before awarding the project.

• Highland County human resources director Amy Bradley submitted a final document to commissioners for their review following a classification and compensation study regarding county employees. The wage study project has been taking place through 2025 with the assistance of Clemans Nelson & Associates.

Commissioners asked Bradley to submit the final revisions made by the county to Clemans Nelson & Associates to ensure they have everything updated.

• Daniels issued a statement following the results of the 2025 election, which was conducted the day before their meeting.

“Thank you to everybody who ran for public office, to those people who wanted to serve their community, whether it be their school board, their city council or their township,” Daniels said. “For the people that won't be returning to office, I want to say thank you to them for their service. Governing is not easy, and a lot of times you make difficult choices that sometimes are hard to understand, but also hope that they have gotten some rewards out of their service to their community.”

Speaking to “the victors,” Daniels said he and the other two commissioners are “ready to be a partner” for those taking office.

“To the victors, I want to say congratulations,” Daniels said. “Enjoy the day. It's fun. You wake up tomorrow morning and find out you're in a position to govern. 

“I want to say that if you look at the way the votes come out, you didn't get them all. There are people out there that have good ideas that you may have met at the ballot box, but don't completely discount them. They represent a group of people as well. Again, I just want to thank everybody for doing what they did and thank the people that are serving.”

• Highland County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jamie Wheeler discussed several upcoming opportunities to shop local this holiday season. For more, see: https://highlandcountypress.com/highland-county-chamber-commerce-direct….

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

• A website service and license agreement with Pivot Point for the county auditor website.

“We will change vendors for our public county auditor’s website,” Highland County Auditor Alex Butler said. “This website will have more detailed information than currently is available with our current vendor. We will be able to update information more often. It is more interactive and visual based, more graphs and charts and things that are what I would call visually digestible. 

“It also will function better on mobile devices, and we will be able to upload better imagery that we currently have, but we're not able to host on our current website.”

• A standard fire alarm agreement with Greystone Systems, Inc. for the records storage building.

• A contract with the Highland County Prosecutor and Maximus for IV-D services.

• A change order increase of $44,529.59 for the Highland County Engineer’s 2025 county chip seal program.

• A public improvement notice of commencement with Jay Car Construction Company, Inc. for the new Highland County Engineer’s truck barn/office.

• The execution of a secondary manufacturers’ combined subdivision and release form.

• A resolution to create a new line item within (3130) SCORJDC Debt Retirement Fund, Transfers Out. Also requested is an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the (3130) SCORJDC, Transfers Out in the amount of $1,550.25.

• A resolution to create a new line item within (3200) Various Purpose Fund, Transfers Out. Also requested is an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the (3200) Various Purpose Fund, Transfers Out in the amount of $1,858.14.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the (4220) Airport Capital Improvement Fund in the amount of $12,297.90.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the (2100) DD General Fund in the amount of $6,500.

• A budget modification within the (2470) DD Help Me Grow Fund in the amount of $7,962.

• A budget modification within the General Fund, County Miscellaneous in the amount of $25,000.

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