Commissioners issue 4-H Week proclamation

Highland County commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels recognized March 2-8 as 4-H Week during their Wednesday, March 5 meeting.

Accepting the proclamation were Ohio State University Extension Educator of 4-H Youth Development Danielle Combs and local 4-H members and Junior Leaders Austin Burnem and Hailey Cornett.

Burnem and Cornett explained the week’s activities and discussed the many opportunities youths can enjoy by joining 4-H.

“Today, we're going to visit the third graders at Bright Local, Lynchburg and Fairfield, and we're going to kind of get them involved in 4-H and do some camp things with them, and tell them all what kind of projects we have,” Cornett said. “We have over 200 projects, and you can even make your own if you don’t find something that you like.”

According to the Highland County 4-H Facebook page, they also celebrated the week with a window display contest at local businesses, which were decorated by area 4-H clubs, as well as a photo contest on Facebook with daily themes.

Daniels asked Burnem and Cornett about their 4-H projects for this year.

“I have a lot of different projects, from special interest with Junior Leaders to sheep, poultry, cattle, goats,” Cornett said. “I also represent on the Family and Consumer Sciences board, and I'm on Junior Fair Board as well.”

Burnem said his projects this year will include “robots and chickens.”

“How is that correlated?” Roades asked.

Burnem joked that he was making “robo-chicken hybrids.

“I like birds, and I like computers,” Burnem said. “4-H has all kinds of stuff, and whatever you like the best, you can find. There's really a lot in there. You can find many things.”

After speaking with the 4-H representatives, Roades read the proclamation, recognizing 4-H’s impact in the Highland County community for 102 years and encouraging all citizens to join in the observance of 4-H Week.

The deadline to join 4-H is April 1. To learn more or get involved with 4-H in Highland County, visit highland.osu.edu/program-areas/4-h-youth-development or facebook.com/HighlandCounty4H.

In other discussion:

• Three different bid openings were held throughout the meeting.

First, commissioners conducted a bid opening for various mowing and landscaping services at several county properties, including the Highland County Administration Building, the Highland County Courthouse, the Hi-TEC building, both the old and new dog pounds and the county parking lot. They received two bids, one from Knoblauch Lawn Care and one from Simmons Property Maintenance.

“What we’ll do is look at these and add up what this all comes up to, because they're all put out as individual numbers,” Roades said. “We just have to run through and grant this next week.”

Commissioners also conducted two bid openings for the Highland County Engineer’s Office.

The first was various pavement markings on county roads, for which Fauber said the engineer’s office has received $150,000 in grant funding. The county received three bids: A&A Safety Inc., $170,799.77; First Star Safety LLC, $177,717.31; and The Aero-Mark Company, $185,567.99.

The final opening was held for various guardrails for fiscal year 2025, for which Fauber said they have $300,000 in grant funds. According to Deputy Engineer Christian Dunlap, it involves “about 6,100 feet” of guardrail “and some bridge rail.”

There were also three bids submitted for this project, including PDK Construction Inc., $279,572.75; Lake Erie Construction Company, $281,420; and M.P. Dory Company, $284,673.38.

• Commissioners recognized Highland County Job & Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff for testifying about the Children Services funding crisis during a recent Ohio House committee hearing in Columbus. (Check back to highlandcountypress.com for more information.)

• Commissioners also thanked the Highland County Engineer’s Office for their assistance in the construction of a new parking garage for the Veteran Services Commission.

“I wanted to very much thank you for digging out, graveling in and donating your time and equipment for that,” Roades said.

• Following their regular meeting, commissioners held two separate, unrelated executive sessions: one to discuss confidential business information related to economic development, and one related to employment. No action was taken after either session, according to commission clerk Ashleigh Willey.

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

• A contract with Lighthouse Web Design & Marketing for website design and development for the Highland County Sheriff’s Office, at a cost of $4,995.

“We’re just getting started,” Highland County Sheriff Randy Sanders told commissioners. “We've been for months looking for somebody to do it. We couldn’t find anybody local, and it's mainly because the hoops we have to jump through to get connected to certain things.

“We finally found somebody that’s got the time to do it in the next year, but they’re out of Oklahoma. It's the best price we’ve seen.”

• A request from Veterans Service Commission for an additional appropriation from unanticipated revenue within the 1000 County General Fund in the amount of $235.

• A request from the Board of Elections for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the 2080
Greenfield Special Election fund in the amount of $5,826.45.

• A request from the Board of Elections to rename 2022 Primary Grant (2300) Fund to 2025 Primary Grant Election. Also requested is to create line items within the 2300 fund.

• A request from Highland County EMA for a budget modification within the Right to Know 2785 fund in the amount of $4,000.

• A contract for solar farm final resurfacing bid documents for Highland Solar and New Market I & II, among commissioners, Miller-Mason Paving Co. and the Highland County Engineer.

• A motion authorizing the commission president to execute a previously discussed extension for the Community Housing Impact and Preservation (CHIP) Program with an amended scope and budget.

• A letter of support for an ARC Inspire Grant application for Highland County Community Action.

For more from Wednesday's meeting, go to https://highlandcountypress.com/news/county-collects-first-solar-pilot-….

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