Building, technology, WWTP improvements among topics at commission meeting

Highland County commissioners Brad Roades and Terry Britton reviewed various proposals related to improvements to county buildings, technology and infrastructure during their Wednesday, Aug. 21 meeting.

Commission president David Daniels was absent.

One of the proposals discussed, and approved by a 2-0 vote, was a $23,000 design fee quote from McCarty Associates to update the Highland County Administration Building. That includes $8,000 for “the schematic design, and it includes the existing building documentation,” Roades said, as well as $15,000 for the “construction document phase.”

According to Roades, the building opened in 1975, and “everything’s looking kind of dated and old.

“We're just looking for a little bit of a remodel throughout the building, of lighting, the painting, the flooring, to get a few things changed,” Roades said. “Alex [Butler, county auditor] has suggested and wants a few things moved in his office, as far as walls and just to accommodate things. That's what they're coming in for.

“The total cost is $23,000 so that gives us a set of plans to look at, to pass around, and also gives us a set of working plans that we can go get our permits for and put out for bid.”

Next on the agenda for discussion were various quotes for a new carport at the Veteran Services office. Their current carport and a light post were damaged during a windstorm earlier this year, according to Roades.

Roades said that the VSO has looked into different options, including carports similar to the one damaged or more of a “three-sided building” option.  Quotees included: from Reliable Metal Buildings, a 28x21 carport for $11,268.48 or a 30x21 one for $13,816.70; or from O&M Metal Sales, a 20x30 carport for $8,187.85 or double the size for $16,375.70.

From S&S Contractors, light pole quotes included a six-inch aluminum round pole for $5,486, a four-inch square steel pole for $4,486 or a four-inch round steel pole for $4,786.  

Roades suggested that they should ask Veterans Services personnel to come in to advise commissioners on “which ones they prefer,” to which Britton agreed.

The third item discussed was a proposal to purchase the Right Stuff software program, for which Roades said commissioners and Highland County Sheriff’s Office personnel watched an approximately two-hour demonstration the previous week.

According to the county’s Human Resources manager Amy Bradley, the HCSO is looking into this program to update their current outdated software, but other agencies, such as Highland County Job & Family Services, may also benefit.

“We are currently using VIP software from Software Solutions to do our finance and our payroll for county government,” Bradley said. “The Right Stuff software partners with our current software in order to provide scheduling and timekeeping functions that can speak with our current VIP payroll system and finance system.”

Bradley said that “with Sheriff Randy Sanders coming on board,” his office is looking for a new software program because their current scheduling and timekeeping software is “DOS-based” and was “written in house.

“They need it for a lot of reasons, but the main thing is scheduling and bringing us into the 21st century,” Bradley said. “Right now, it's on really old tower computers, and there's really no way to access it outside of actually coming into the office and seeing it there. This new software will be able to bring it into the online sphere, where employees can access through their phone and through a web page design. The big thing the sheriff's office is looking for is the scheduling, but of course, it feeds into time sheets and then into VIP.”

Highland County JFS director Jeremy Ratcliff, who did not attend the software demonstration, was present for the discussion Wednesday. He said that at JFS, their current system involves separate spreadsheets for each employee.

“I think the thing that would be great for JFS would be the elimination of paper timesheets, and so employees will be able to clock in via the computer, or there's also an option of time clocks,” Bradley said.

Similarly, for the HCSO, Bradley said that they submit their payroll information “in paper form,” and her office has to “manually enter those totals into the payroll system.” The new software would help with that as well as “more accurate timekeeping,” she said.

“From our perspective, the accrual balances are a big issue for us,” Ratcliff said. “We’re manually entering that every two weeks in 61 separate spreadsheets. Our staff are not ever really sure how many hours they have, unless they go ask our payroll clerk.

“It’s just not a real good use of time for one of our staff members to spend four to six hours a week double entering this, and then again, it's kind of a retention issue for our staff to know how much leave balance they have available to them.”

Ratcliff added that he “can’t say” whether the new software “meets our needs,” but Bradley’s description sounds like “what we’re looking for.”

Bradley told commissioners she obtained quotes for just the Sheriff’s Office, which would be $11,000 plus monthly licensing and support fees; one for the Sheriff’s Office and JFS, if they so choose, for $16,000 plus licensing/support; or one for “the rest of the county minus DD and the road department,” which would be about “275 employees,” at a cost of $24,600 plus licensing/support. There are also additional optional features, each with their own cost, such as time clocks or a one-call system, Bradley said.

Britton pointed out that the software updates are helping the county to come into compliance.

“We've been written up many times through our audit process,” Britton said. “That was one of the reasons why we went to the VIP, because everything was done by hand, back just a few months ago. The other reason is with the accruals, we were doing that all by hand, and it was passing through six different hands. Our accruals may or may not be right. That's stuff that we're working on pretty much daily to try to get back in line.”

Roades said it could be a situation where “if you’re going to start it” with one department, “you might as well” do the others as well. Britton said that they would “take it in consideration” during their ongoing budget talks and other discussions with department heads.

Roades also asked Highland County Auditor Alex Butler and Highland County Treasurer Vickie Warnock for their input.

“With anything new, you always have a period of adaptation,” Butler said. “I think a move like this would receive mixed reviews.”

“I definitely agree,” Warnock said.

In an unrelated matter later in the meeting, Bradley asked commissioners if she and county records manager Julie Wallingford could collaborate on a new HR site for the county.

“Julie has a wealth of knowledge related to websites and website design,” Bradley said. “I budgeted some prices and stuff to try to get a website going, maybe around $250 over three years, for an HR website to start hosting information and stuff like that on. I would like to try to do this in house and just get the domain and the hosting and everything set up.”

“I think probably I could spend two or three days and teach her everything she needs to know,” Wallingford added.

Bradley said once the site is set up, she would keep it updated with information for county employees, such as internal job postings or detailed explanations of their insurance policies.

Britton told them to submit a formal proposal with quotes from whatever domain and hosting sites they want to use.

During that discussion, Wallingford also asked commissioners if she could look into hiring a “potential longterm” replacement for her part-time intern in the records department. Bradley said she could assist in determining “fair compensation,” and Britton said they would see “what we’ve got money-wise” for the position.   

Later, at 10 a.m., commissioners conducted a bid opening for the second phase of the Rocky Fork Lake wastewater treatment plant upgrades, during which they received three bids. The total base bids submitted were: Mechanical Construction, $1,046,000;  Sunesis Construction, $1,135,590; and Doll Layman, $1,214,000.

“We'll review these,” ARPA funding coordinator Nicole Oberrecht said. “We had a lot of alternates listed, so we'll go through what the prices came in for those and hopefully make an award in the next week or two.”

As previously reported, the first phase of the project was awarded in April 2023 to Doll Layman in the amount of $2,597,700, and work has been ongoing since last year.
In other discussion:

• Butler reviewed the permissive sales tax numbers for August, with the county collecting $824,147.37. Despite only being a .8-percent increase over last August ($817,893.47) and a decrease from July 2024 ($879,745.16), the county has collected over $6.4 million thus far. The $6,480,843.60 collected for the first eight months of 2024 is a 4.3-percent increase over the same time period in 2023, a record year for the county.

“We’re holding steady,” Butler said.

• Outreach Coordinator Kim Baker and Director of Land Acquisition & Visitor Services Andrea Jaeger of the Arc of Appalachia met with commissioners to seek their “nonopposition” to a Clean Ohio grant application, which was tabled pending township trustees’ review.

According to Baker, the conservancy group is “looking at a couple small pieces of land,” close to 30 acres combined. Jaeger said they have already applied for “water quality restoration” funding for Pickett Run Wetlands and Hickory Hollows.

“They'll fund invasive species removal, cleaning up trash, demoing buildings, anything that's going to improve the water quality on a property, but they don't pay for visitor services,” Jaeger said. “We’re kind of in a unique spot here, because those two properties are actually already owned by another nonprofit called Wilderness. They bought them in the past, and so they're already essentially exempted from the tax base, or will be, once they apply. If we go through with the WRSP [Water Resource Restoration Sponsor Program] funding, then we'll be able to purchase them.

“The really interesting situation that we're in here is, typically, when we come to you with a Clean Ohio project, we're asking for your nonopposition to us applying for this funding to remove the land from the tax base so we can do these visitor services. But in this case, essentially, the decision that you're making is: do you want to see the land accessible to people if we're able to put in a public hiking trail?”

If commissioners and township trustees do not object, Jaeger said their proposal would be “a 2.3-mile hiking trail” in the area of Sad Song Creek, “which is one of the most beautiful areas of the sanctuary.  

“It's also our most forested area and has really beautiful rock formations,” Jaeger said. “It's got incredible spring wildflowers. It'd be one of our longest trails, too, so that'd be really exciting for folks.

“The decision now isn't taking the land out of the tax base. It’s really, do you want to see the visitor services, or do you want to see it just set aside for nature? And either decision is good by us.”

Jaeger added that there is “a sizable wetlands” in the area of Ferneau Road that they also hope to restore if they are able to obtain these properties.

Jaeger said that if they are going to apply this year, they have to have resolutions by commissioners and township trustees and all of their application completed by the end of September. If not, they can apply next year, she said.

“I think we would prefer that [township trustees] would look at this before we would,” Britton said. Roades said he agreed because the property is “in their backyard,” although he added he was “excited about” the idea of a new trail.

Jaeger and Baker said they would return in a couple weeks after meeting with township trustees.

• A Rocky Fork Lake resident addressed commissioners regarding a property in the lake area, which the resident alleged is not hooked up to the county’s sewer system. The resident said he has also spoken to the Highland County Health Department and asked them to look into it.

“Everything that should be going to the grinder is being bagged or put out behind the property, out of sight,” the resident said. “Unfortunately, we had some much-needed rain this weekend, which presents a leaching and runoff problem. Something needs to be done.

“I think this property has been on several people's lists for quite a while as a nuisance property, but sanitation is a different story.”

Roades said health commissioner Jared Warner advised he was unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting, but Warner sent an email saying “we have sent people to the property to begin our nuisance investigation process.

“As you are all aware, this process is not a fast one, but it's one that we have available to us under the Ohio Revised Code,” Warner wrote. “We will move this case forward as quickly as our schedule allows.”

In response, the resident said that “something needs to be done immediately.” Roades said he would make sure the health department follows up with the commissioners and with the resident.

Commissioners also made the following approvals, each by a 2-0 vote:

• A request from County Court for an additional appropriation from unanticipated revenue in the amount of $157.76 within the 1000 fund.

• An additional appropriation from unanticipated revenue in the amount of $473,214.64 within the 4050 fund.

• A budget modification within the 1000 General Fund in the amount of $500.

• A request from the Auditor for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds in the amount of $125,000 in the 2055 fund.

• A budget modification within the 5030 Rocky Fork Lake Fund in the amount of $25,900.

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