Commissioners implement sewer rate increases; hear update on connectSCP program

Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades discussed plans to raise rates for two of the county’s sewer districts in 2024 and heard an update on local broadband expansion during their Tuesday, Dec. 5 meeting.

The meeting was held a day earlier than usual due to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio’s Winter Conference being held Dec. 6-7.

According to Daniels, the county’s recommendation was to raise rates for the Lakeside sewer district by $2, to $50 per month, to offset expenses, and to raise the Rocky Fork Lake district’s monthly fees by $3.50, to $43.50 per month, to “retire capital debt.” Rolling Acres will continue at the current $50 per month fee for 2024.

“The Lakeside sewer district, when we look at income versus expenditures, we are not keeping up with the expenses for that particular system,” Daniels said. “We are recommending a $2 a month increase. They currently pay $48, and we would move that to $50.”

As previously reported, commissioners voted in November 2022 to approve what Daniels described as “substantial” rate increases for the Rolling Acres and Lakeside sewer systems, including a 38-percent increase for Rolling Acres, to $50 per month, and a 20-percent increase for Lakeside, to $48 per month. In December 2022, commissioners raised the Rocky Fork Lake sewer rates by $2, from $38 to $40, effective March 2023.
 
Daniels said that customers in the Rocky Fork Lake system have already been notified of the county’s intention to raise rates by $3.50, as the first phase of wastewater treatment plant improvements is underway. At a meeting April, he had warned that rate increases were likely after plans for the multimillion-dollar repairs are finalized.

“We've undertaken a new capital project down there to install new clarifiers, and last year, we sent out a letter to all the residents down there informing them of the project and informing them that this year, starting with the first of January 2024, we would be raising the rates down there $3.50 a month to retire the capital debt that goes along with that project,” Daniels said. “Phase one of the project is going to cost     $2.597 million, and with that, we had $1.5 million worth of ARPA funds that went into that, which left a debt to be paid over the course of 20 years.”

Daniels added that as the “Rocky Fork Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvement Project” progresses, it is possible that additional fee increases will be imposed to offset the costs of the next round of improvements.

“For phase two, it is anticipated that we will begin that project, or begin working on getting bids and bidding that out, in mid-2024,” Daniels said. “We're looking now for grant funds to help with the capital costs on phase two of that project.

“When we informed the residents with this letter, we referenced that there would be probably increased capital retirement that went along with phase two of the project, but again, we're actively looking for that.”

As noted by Daniels, the county is also making improvements to Rolling Acres, but an additional debt retirement fee did not need to be implemented due to the county receiving enough grant funding to cover the costs of that project. In September, the state announced that Highland County will receive a $416,000 Critical Infrastructure grant “to replace the existing, failing six-inch sewer line with a new eight-inch line, as well as install 10 new manholes.”

It was also noted that, as previously reported, both Rolling Acres and Lakeside will be billed monthly starting in 2024, as Rocky Fork Lake is already on a monthly system. Commissioners made that announcement in November, with Britton citing the fact the systems “are always in arrears” as a reason for the change.

“Currently, the Rolling Acres and Lakeside were done as assessments on their property taxes,” Daniels said. “Now they will go to a monthly billing system.”

After hearing Daniels’ report, commissioners voted 3-0 to implement the recommended changes.

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Also during Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners met with three representatives from South Central Power Company — business development manager David Glass, network operations manager Lee Rutherford and community relations manager Todd Shelton — to discuss the company’s connectSCP program.

According to a handout to commissioners, South Central Power is currently working on “a project to bring fiber internet to parts of 14 counties in eastern and western Ohio,” using millions of dollars in grant funding from BroadbandOhio. The western Ohio project includes $29,998,000 in funding for 7,870 households in parts of Highland, Adams, Brown, Clermont, Fayette, Ross, Pike and Scioto counties, the handout said.

Construction is underway, and the goal is to “test [the] network with limited consumers in the spring of 2024,” the handout says. “The service will be commercially available starting in the summer of 2024.”

Britton asked the group about that availability, as he said he was told there would be a “pilot program” early next year. Rutherford said they “have the network lit” and will “start the rollout” to a limited area in February.

“We plan to have live customers in May, so we'll open things up,” Rutherford said. “There's three circuits in New Market that we'll be starting with.”

Britton asked about the progress that South Central Power has made locally thus far.

“We have about 185 miles total of fiber built already since we started in September, so we're moving right along,” Rutherford said. “We’ll start winding down here pretty soon for the end of the year, just because of the holidays, but we feel like we've made a lot of progress in a short period of time.

“As soon as the year rolls out, we'll have more and more crews coming in, so it's going to get really, really busy. We plan on doubling the amount of fiber that we build in the next year, compared to this year.”

Rutherford added that as construction is “completed, we're going to be following right behind it, getting things lit and getting customers online.

“You’ll see a lot of these huts that are substations,” he said. “We have the one at New Market now, but we'll start seeing those other huts in the Hillsboro area being set over the next year.”

Britton also asked about the time frame for the entire project. As South Central Power also received over $68 million for parts of Carroll, Harrison, Jefferson, Monroe and Noble counties, Rutherford said “it’s a three-year project, total,” as they work to build out both regions.

According to the handout, the project “will bring fiber to the home for some of Ohio’s most economically disadvantaged rural households, with minimum speeds of 100 mpbs (symmetrical) and expected speeds in some areas of gigabit service or faster.

“While the FCC’s data collection on underserved areas relies on broadband providers to simply state where they provide service, South Central’s own analysis of rural broadband availability relies on real-time data such as speed tests and other data points to show a truer picture of broadband access in our rural Ohio communities,” the handout says. “Based on our analysis, much of our service territory is either served by providers who have won RDOF [Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction] funding but not yet deployed services, or isn’t being served at all when it comes to broadband. South Central stands ready to serve the communities and is actively seeking new funding opportunities that will allow us to do so.”

Britton asked about the process for enrolling customers.

“Really, the process is showing interest, which is why we've been saying to go the website and show your interest, so that way we can get you on the list,” Rutherford said. “Eventually, when those areas are closer to being ready to be opened up, then we'll be ready to place orders, so then we can get the order process started. We'll construct a drop, which is basically from the pole to the house, and then we'll get the inside installation scheduled and completed.”
 
On a similar topic, Daniels asked what the “offering is going to look like” for customers. Rutherford said that it’s “not 100-percent set yet,” but that “broadband and phone” are expected to be among the options.

“The goal, just like our goal is in serving our power customers or power members, is reliability and affordability,” Glass added. “Our package is going to be very affordable.”

Rutherford said that the quality will also be high, as “the technology that we'll be delivering right away is going to be 10-gig symmetrical capable, so we'll be able to get 10 gigabits up and down to each house if we chose to.”

Daniels also asked about South Central touching into areas “already served” by other broadband companies, such as at Rocky Fork Lake, where there is already internet access.

“From the grant standpoint, we're serving the customers, the addresses, that we're obligated to serve,” Glass said. “As there's unobligated or unawarded, if you'll call them, customers along that line — say we're going from here to there — all of the customers who want access to that internet are going to be served. It's not only for folks who are awarded within the grant to have fiber.

“That doesn't stop, you know, other providers from moving into the area. What happened in some places, and this may be one case, is where investor-owned providers said ‘we can't afford to do it, we can't afford to do it,’ and then we were awarded to do it. Suddenly, there's a competition.”

Daniels referred to a rumor he had heard and mentioned in previous meetings that South Central Power would be “providing service to every meter that you have” and asked if that was “a correct thought.” Rutherford said that was not his understanding.

“I think what we've said is that our goal and our purpose for endeavoring in the broadband business is that eventually, every member of South Central has access to high-speed internet,” Glass said. “Now, there's parts of our territory where folks already have high-speed internet, and there's parts of our territory that they don't, but somebody else will be providing it very soon.

“I think we're agnostic. Of course, we want to serve as much, and grow our broadband service as much, as possible. But the principle of it is we're agnostic of who provides the internet.”

Commissioners thanked the South Central representatives for the update.

“We're glad that South Central, and other companies as well, are coming in and working on getting that access out there to our constituents,” Daniels said.

Although not discussed with the South Central staff, commissioners approved a resolution related to broadband services as well Tuesday. Commissioners voted 3-0 to “agree to support the safe and rapid deployment of essential broadband connectivity and investment in Highland County, and to strongly urge the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to quickly resolve the unprecedented pole permitting delays by Investor-Owned Utilities that are preventing high-speed broadband from reaching unserved and underserved county residents.”

In September, representatives from a different broadband company — Southern Ohio Communications Services — met with commissioners to discuss their broadband expansion, also using grant funding. During that meeting, commissioners were told that negotiations with power companies are taking “anywhere from 10 to 18, sometimes 20, months per pole,” and that they had just gotten approval for some requests they had put in “pre-COVID.”

“When a non-incumbent utility uses another company's poles, they have a rental agreement on those,” Daniels said Tuesday. “There's been delays that companies are facing that are slowing these projects down. This is just simply asking them to get going with it.”

In other discussion:

• Commissioners announced that the $259,581.37 Healthy Aging Grant received by the county will be administered by Highland County Community Action Organization and voted 3-0 to enter a contract with HCCAO for that purpose.

“We had a couple of meetings with the healthy aging group for our district, and they have all agreed to let Community Action take care of this, but they had a lot of input in this contract,” Britton said. “There are a lot of stipulations on this grant. Twenty percent of it is for food assistance; 20 percent of it has to go to housing; another 10 percent has to go to internet access; and there is some administrative dollars 10 percent can be used for. The balance, we have a little bit of discretion on that.”

• Commissioners voted 3-0 to issue a letter of support for the Arc of Appalachia, which is seeking funding through the Appalachian Community Grant program.

“It’s an Appalachian Forest Museum grant request, requesting $1,406,353,” Britton said. “There's a number of projects that they've got on here, and they're just wanting our blessing on this.”

Daniels added that the Arc of Appalachia is “partnering with Jackson County” for this grant application.

In other action, commissioners approved a lengthy list of resolutions, as Daniels said “most of these are simply end-of-year transfers.”

Those included:

• A budget modification within CDBG – FY 22 (2520) in the amount of $56.03.

• A budget modification within the August 2023 Special Election Fund (2305) in the amount of $145.53.

• A budget modification within Rocky Fork Lake Sewer District (5030) in the amount of $1,000.

• A budget modification within Rocky Fork Lake Sewer District (5030) in the amount of $2,000.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Mowrystown Sewer Fund in the amount of $3,217.35.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Clerk of Courts Computer fund in the amount of $10,000.

• A budget modification within August 2023 Special Election Fund (2305) in the amount of $1,338.62.

• An additional appropriation from unanticipated revenue within the August 2023 Special Election Fund in the amount of $3,468.34.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Board of DD fund in the amount of $31,000.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Board of DD fund in the amount of $22,000.

• A transfer of funds within Board of DD (2100) in the amount of $22,000.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Community Residential DD Fund in the amount of $22,000.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Help Me Grow – HVCC fund in the amount of $20,000.

• A transfer of funds from Public Assistance Fund, 2050 to Children Services Fund, 2115 in the amount of $14,700.48 for foster care cost utilizing Title XXT funding.

• A budget modification within TCAP FY 24/25 (2625) in the amount of $30,000.

• A resolution authorizing the Highland County Engineer to participate in the State of Ohio Cooperative Purchasing Program.

• Also approved was the execution of OPWC certifications for disbursement for Miller-Mason Paving Company, for work done for the Highland County Engineer’s Office.