Broadband, solar projects discussed at Highland County commissioners meeting

Highland County commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton met with Gary Cooper and Steve Williams of Southern Ohio Communications Services (SOCS) Wednesday, Aug. 28, to continue previous discussions on the county contributing federal relief funds toward the company’s broadband buildout.

As previously reported, in March 2022, Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor Jon Husted announced new broadband expansion projects through the Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program (ORBEG) that will make affordable, high-speed internet available to nearly 100,000 households in Ohio that currently don't have access to reliable internet connectivity. The grants awarded included $22,423,850.88 awarded to SOCS for 3,291 households in Adams, Highland, Pike and Scioto counties.

Cooper met with commissioners in March 2022 and said that for Highland County specifically, that award covered 1,007 households in a 109-mile area, “approximately 31 percent of the granted area.”

Since their last meeting with commissioners almost a year ago (in September 2023), Cooper said Wednesday that construction in Highland County is underway, with “about 10 miles built on this current project.

“We're going to build 32 miles here in Highland County that will pass 461 homes,” Cooper said. “We’re starting down [state Route] 247, just north of the county line, and right now, I think we're out on Fair Ridge Road.

“That 32 miles, we expect to have that probably lit up by the end of October, right on that section. The next piece of that is another 77 miles that we'll start on probably the first of the year, and hopefully we can have that lit up by July of ’25.”

Roades asked for clarification on how the homes are selected because, as he pointed out, there are “a lot of Amish” households in the area currently under construction.

“With the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, we have to serve every house,” Williams said. “They do it by census block, so basically, there's just a census tract, and every house that's in that, whether they're going to take your service or not, you’ve got to be able to provide service to them.

“In most cases, we're running past them, so it doesn't cost anything extra to us to run past the house anyway.”

Cooper added, “As it stands right now, we may build to one house and across the road we won't build because we've got funding under ORBEG versus no funding under RDOF [Rural Digital Opportunity Fund].”

As discussed in previous meetings, Cooper said there are 1,343 passings — or homes or businesses — overall in the area, meaning 336 are not covered by the ORBEG monies. Those passings were won by SOCS in the RDOF reverse auction, Cooper said.

Cooper and Williams said Wednesday that there is an opportunity to apply for additional funding, but it is “challenging” because it requires the provider to “upfront the money” and get reimbursed later, “plus you have to have a full line of credit.

“Essentially, the grant money that you're getting is just paying the interest on those lines of credit, or the interest that you’re having to borrow money to upfront the cost of the thing,” Williams said. “It’s kind of a wash at the moment, especially for a small company as ourselves.”

At their last meeting in September, Williams said the cost per passing was $7,800, and Cooper said that amount was “at least as high or higher” now.

“For the ORBEG passings, the 1,007 passings we have, we received 75 percent of what it would cost to build those out,” Williams said. “When that was done, which was three years ago now, with the cost of everything, then we received about 50 percent of what it would cost, and then we provided the other 50 percent.

“The other 1,300, those are through RDOF. Basically everything in Ohio went completely to the bottom, and you get basically one percent of what it would cost to build those passings out, so essentially, about $10,000 for $10 million worth.”

Last September, Cooper told commissioners that South Central Power Communications received a similar grant award through the ORBEG program, and both SOCS and South Central Power were awarded grant dollars for some of the exact same passings. Daniels asked about the status of that issue Wednesday.

“Rather recently, BroadbandOhio awarded those addresses to us,” Williams said. “Now we’re down to 336 homes that we would like to serve, that we're still trying to come up with funding for.”

In response to a question from Daniels, the SOCS representatives confirmed that any money from the county would be put toward those 336 residences, which are in a “completely unserved” area of Highland County. Britton said that would cost approximately $2.6 million, based on the SOCS estimates, and Cooper said they have “funding for none of that” currently.  

Daniels told Cooper and Williams that they have “still got some uncommitted ARPA money that we are quickly approaching the deadline” to use and have already committed $500,000 to a different broadbands project.

“I’m assuming that you would agreeable to any amount that might come your way,” Daniels said.

“Thrilled,” Cooper said. “Right now, we have a construction company on site. They're running two crews right now.  

“We're in a position to build. I mean, we're building now.”

Daniels asked the county’s ARPA funding coordinator Nicole Oberrecht to review the county’s remaining funds and make a recommendation for commissioners. Cooper and Williams thanked commissioners for their consideration.

“Let us crunch some numbers,” Daniels said.

In other discussion:

• Innergex community and government relations representative Janet Grothe gave an update on the company’s solar projects and other matters.

Innergex is the developer for both the Hillcrest Solar farm in Brown County as well as the planned 200 MW Palomino Solar project in Highland County (in Dodson and Union Townships).

As previously reported, in March, commissioners received a letter from then-Lynchburg-Clay superintendent Jack Fisher regarding his concerns about “a negative impact on the district’s funding,” which he perceives as being due to solar projects within the school district.

In a letter to commissioners dated April 23, Innergex community and government relations representative Janet Grothe responded to Lynchburg-Clay’s concerns, saying that “Innergex has made no large land purchases in Highland County that would affect the District’s funding formulas.”

Grothe said that she would be meeting with newly appointed LC superintendent Ron Sexton and district treasurer Richard Hawk — both of whom were also in attendance at the commissioners’ meeting Wednesday — to further discuss their concerns.

Regarding the Palomino Solar project, Grothe recapped a letter from Matthias Weigel, Innergex Senior Director - Development, which was recently sent to commissioners.

According to Grothe and Weigel, among the work completed on the project thus far is its Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need issued by the Ohio Power Siting Board; its Road Use and Maintenance Agreement (RUMA); a local emergency response plan; a purchase order for the panels and storage; and ordering high-voltage breakers and main power transformers.

Innergex is still working with PJM, the regional transmission organization, on the Large Generator Interconnection Agreement (LGIA) for the project. Also in the process are design, landscape and vegetation management plans; commercial discussions; finalizing inverter and racking needs; and agreements for a crossing matrix, according to Grothe and the letter from Weigel.

“As it stands right now, we're mobilizing for limited site cleaning and prep work in third quarter of next year,” Grothe said. “We know that farmers need to order their seed and fertilizer, so we've told them to go ahead, that they can plant this year, for 2025. Once we execute that LGIA, we'll have more detailed dates available.

“It’s frustrating that the interconnection is taking so long. The landowners want to get moving forward with the project. We've invested millions, and we want to begin construction as soon as we're able to do that.”

Commissioners thanked Grothe for the update.

• After briefly meeting with Highland County Veteran Service Office Director Tim Hazelwood on options for a new carport at the VSO facility, commissioners voted 3-0 to accept an option for a three-sided pole barn-type structure at a cost of $16,375.70.

Various quotes for a new carport were reviewed at commissioners’ Aug. 21 meeting. The VSO’s current carport and a light post were damaged during a windstorm earlier this year, according to Roades.

According to Daniels, there is $9,894.03 from their insurance adjustment that can be applied toward the cost, but Roades pointed out that $5,000 of that will have to go toward replacing the light pole.

Daniels said he thought that the pole barn option would be “a little more substantial” than the previous carport, and Hazelwood said, “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

Britton said they “need to decide if” the Veteran Services office has “any money to put into this,” and Hazelwood said they would “fund” the project. Commissioners voted 3-0 to accept the quote from O&M Metal Sales.

• As part of ongoing talks with various energy companies, commissioners joined a conference call with DJ Aultman of Integrity Energy, a commercial energy broker, as a followup to a previous discussion June 26.

Since June, Aultman pointed out, “a lot has changed.” As discussed Aug. 7 in a discussion with a competing energy company, Cameron Leu of IGS Energy told commissioners that “over the last week, rates for May of 2025, through June of 2026, increased 600 percent,” due to increased demand. The change was also discussed with the county’s current company, Muirfield Energy, on Aug. 14.

“When we had original conversations, I wanted to start looking at layering in some purchases of energy for June of 2026, but this has changed a lot of things in terms of strategy and what we're recommending for both potential customers and current customers,” Aultman said. “The next auction for the 2026-2027 planning year, which is going to be the first year of the next contract that you guys do, is going to happen in December. Those new values will be released in December, and that's when, in my opinion, it's going to start making sense to look at renewable pricing.”

Aultman asked if the county “had any preferences or strategies in mind” yet.

“We really haven’t,” Daniels said. “We've had a number of different people call us and talk to us about it.

“Right now, I think that we've been gathering our usage and still considering what the best course of action is, whether to do a combined or whether to do an energy-only bid.”

Daniels added that “probably our best opportunity to look at what those capacity rates are going to be might be after the auction” in December.

Aultman said that the capacity costs aree going to go from a “minor charge” on the bill to “almost a tenfold increase for the 2025-26 planning year.

“That small portion becomes a little bit bigger now,” Aultman told commissioners. “You guys are going to see an increase on the current contract that you have with Freepoint for June, starting in June of next year, roughly, looking at about $30,000 to $40,000 in an annual increase just from the capacity announcement. It has nothing to do with the price of energy.”

Daniels thanked Aultman for the information and said they would “reach back out when we get to a point where we're ready to start thinking about making decisions.” Aultman said he would continue to “stay in touch with” commission clerk Mary Remsing with future updates.

“We know how much capacity costs, literally, until your contract ends,” Aultman said. “The following month after the current contract ends, that's still up in the air, so I say hold off on capacity. When you guys are ready to start looking at energy, allow us to put the numbers in front of you.”

• Highland County Auditor Alex Butler shared statistics and information on the county’s 2024 property tax appraisals. For more information, see: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/pretty-significant-increases-highl….

• Commissioners held two separate executive sessions — one to consider employment compensation, and one to discuss pending or imminent litigation — on Wednesday. No action was taken, according to commission clerk Ashleigh Willey.
 
• Two other items on the agenda listed for discussion were tabled, pending additional information. Those included a crack seal project on the county airport runway, for which commissioners were awaiting additional quotes from the airport; and two quotes (totaling $650 and $1,000) for tree removal at the Rocky Fork Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant, for which Willey said they were awaiting word from contractors.

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

• The execution of a notice of tax-exempt bond financing for a capital improvement local jail project.

“This deals with the intercom and control system upgrades out at the jail,” Daniels said. “We have $178,875 worth of expenses. This is what we need to do to seek reimbursement for those funds.”

• A change order totaling $12,926.45 from Doll Layman for additional work at the Rocky Fork Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant.

• An agreement for architectural services with McCarty Associates for work at the Administration Building.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the 2280 Records Storage fund in the amount of $3,700.

• A request from the Engineer for a budget modification within the 2065 Repair MVL Fund in the amount of
$90,000.

• A request from the Sheriff for a budget modification within 2230 Conceal Carry in the amount of $4,228.20.
 
• A request from Highland County Job and Family Services for a budget modification within 2050 Public  
Assistance Fund in the amount of $116,361.36.

• A budget modification within the 4220 Airport Capital Improvement Fund in the amount of $410.

• A request from Soil and Water for a budget modification within the 2070 Soil & Water Fund in the amount of $5,000.

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