Commissioners issue DD Awareness Month proclamation; hear update on transit plan

Highland County commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels presented a proclamation in honor of Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month during their Wednesday, March 12 meeting.

Accepting the proclamation and meeting with commissioners were People First of Highland County self-advocates Bobby Bishop, John Little, Brittany Nesmith and Madeline Rogers;  Hillsboro High School students Kylan Brown and Kyle Shaffer; and Highland County Board of DD Transition Manager Cassie Penwell and Community First Director Molly Warnock.

DD Awareness Month is observed annually each March. According to the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, this year’s theme, We’re Here All Year, is “emphasizing that community, accessibility, and opportunities for people with developmental disabilities should be recognized and championed every day — not just in March.”

“We’ve celebrated March being DD Awareness Month,” Warnock told commissioners. “We just have people celebrate their disabilities and living and working in our community, but then also contributing to the future of our communities.”

Brown invited commissioners to attend the Highland County Wildcats’ basketball game Thursday, March 13 at 1 p.m. at Hillsboro High School. The Wildcats Special Olympics team, which includes Brown, was concluding their season by taking on HHS basketball players.

“It will be a packed house,” Britton said.

In addition, Warnock said the second annual This Is Me event was set for Friday, March 14 at Hillsboro Elementary. The gala is a formal dance for individuals with developmental disabilities, which includes a walk on the red carpet, plus other fun activities throughout the evening. Business, organizations and individuals in the community are teaming up again this year to provide free services such as food, hair, makeup, nails and even formalwear and jewelry for attendees.

After meeting with the group, Roades read the proclamation on commissioners’ behalf, after which the standing-room-only crowd gave everyone a round of applause.

In other discussion:

• Damon Lucas of FRS Transportation said that plans are underway for a new five-year transit development plan for the area (Highland, Adams and Brown counties), with surveys to be available in the near future.
 
“We've had one meeting so far,” Lucas said. “Meetings are attended by about 15 community members from the three counties we serve, and all of us are working together to try and develop, basically, the next evolution of FRS and transportation in the area.

“We’re developing a roadmap to provide to improve the public transit, looking at expansion opportunities, identifying unmet needs, and basically an outline for for what the next five years looks like for FRS.”

Lucas added that they are working with Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates with $100,000 in grant funding from the Ohio Department of Transportation on their updated plan to be submitted in July , as their current coordinated transit plan is for 2021-26.

In the past five years, Lucas said that FRS has “come a long way” — officially becoming a public transit service in March 2020 and seeing tremendous growth, roughly doubling their numbers.

“In ’21 we did roughly 75,000 trips a year and a little less than 2 million miles,” Lucas said. “ We have since grown to doing over 10,000 trips a month now.

“Last year’s statistics are we did 3 million miles and 152,000 trips in the county. It’s been huge growth that's happened in the last five years. It's an obvious need for this county. We take a lot of people to work daily. We take roughly 250 people to work weekly while working on different schedules, covering all different shifts.”

Lucas told commissioners that FRS is seeking input from their current clients and from the community at large as they develop their new plan. Existing clients can obtain a survey in FRS vehicles, Lucas said, while “a different type of survey for the general public” will be available at frstransportation.org.

“It's a pretty big honor that ODOT has entrusted us with $100,000 grant to have the study,” Lucas said. “We’re pretty excited about it. We're hoping that it adds service where it's needed and maybe helps improve some of the efficiencies that we're coming up against currently.”

• Britton announced that students from Whiteoak and McClain High Schools competed in the Paint Valley ADAMH Board’s Teen Mental Wellness Day Video Contest, with Whiteoak placing third in the region and McClain receiving honorable mention.  

“Congratulations to both those schools,” Britton said.

• A previously announced agreement to purchase property for a new truck barn for the Engineer's Office was formalized with a check presented to Pike Gas.

As previously reported, commissioners voted 3-0 Feb. 26 to enter into a purchase agreement for the Pike Gas property at 144 Bowers Avenue in Hillsboro at a cost of $390,000. The property includes two parcels, for a total of 0.3742 acre.

• Commissioners discussed an agreement with Koorsen for a Knox Box for the new OSU Extension office and records storage building.

“It's basically a box where they put the keys for the building, so if the fire department or any safety service people come in, they've got a key for that box, and they can get in the building,” Britton said.

• Commissioners held a work session with the Planning Commission in the morning and a work session with Ameresco in the afternoon.

Commissioners also made the following approvals, each by a 3-0 vote:
 
• An agreement with the Village of Greenfield for indigent defense service in County Court.

• A contract with Knoblauch Lawn Care for county mowing and landscaping services in 2025.

• A resolution awarding the PID 111321 HIG CR Var Pavement Markings FY25 bid to A & A Safety, Inc. in the amount of $170,799.77.

• A resolution awarding the PID 111319 HIG-Var-Guardrail FY25 bid to PDK Construction in the amount of $279,572.75.

• A request from Highland County JFS for a budget modification within the Family & Children First Fund, 2190 in the amount of $15,000.

• A request from Victim Witness for an additional appropriation from unanticipated revenue in the amount of $11,000.

For more from Wednesday’s meeting, go to https://highlandcountypress.com/news/developers-recap-highland-solar-co….

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