Commissioners meet with county officials on economic development, finance, maintenance issues

Highland County commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton met with various department heads Wednesday, July 31, as their meeting included updates on economic development, finances and building maintenance.

First up on the agenda was Highland County economic development director Julie Bolender, who spoke about two related items on the agenda. After hearing from her, commissioners approved a Revolving Loan Fund administration agreement with the Ohio Department of Development’s State of Ohio Community Development Block Grant Program, as well as a motion to approve the execution of a revised county policy and procedure manual for the Revolving Loan Fund.

“This will supersede anything else that we have on the books and lists a new board of directors for the Revolving Loan Fund,” Bolender said of the updated manual. “We will be utilizing the Revolving Loan Fund in compliance with the Community Development Block Grant Program through the state of Ohio Department of Development.

“That money will be utilized for economic development programs within the county, whether it be construction or a piece of equipment, machinery and equipment, things of that sort. We utilize the revolving loan fund for gap financing for industries and businesses.”

In addition, Roades invited Bolender to speak about a promotional partnership taking place throughout the week with two visiting bloggers, who will be promoting Highland County on their respective pages.

“The Visitors Bureau has hired two different bloggers to come to the county,” Bolender said. “They’ll be here for about a little over 48 hours. They're visiting all the high spots, everything from hiking to the farm to table initiative.”

Roades said that Visitors Bureau director Jamie Wheeler had the bloggers engaged in activities “almost every hour, on the hour” during their visit.

According to Bolender, some of the places on the bloggers’ agenda included Maplecrest Farms and Maplecrest Meats, where they were going to be “guest chefs” Wednesday; local restaurants, including The Alley (where they played Singo), The Patriot Public House, The Porch and Sassafras Kitchen; Karnes Orchard; Rocky Fork Lake, where they were hiking and boating; and the Dancing on Tabletops art studio in Greenfield, where they were participating in an art project with Cathy Rivas and checking out the new C.R. Patterson mural in the village.

“They have quite a following on social media,” Bolender said. “They will be promoting Highland County fast and furiously over the next several weeks. It’s always good when they come because they shine a light on everything good in Highland County.”

Next, Highland County Auditor Alex Butler spoke to commissioners about state permissive sales tax projections for 2024 and 2025.

“The estimated revenue statewide collection next year is down,” Butler said. “Just for reference, in 2022, we received just under $1.6 million. In 2023, we received just over $1.6 million.

“The projection for this year — of course, we’ll know in December how that shakes out — is just over $1 million, at $1,032,000. The projection that we got for next year, even though the statewide projection is down, but the way the formula works, the projection that our county will receive from the state is $1,049,000.”

Butler clarified that the county “receives” the money each year from the state, “but then we keep a portion and then distribute the remainder to the other political subdivisions.

“Even though the statewide projection is down, our revenue will remain stable,” Butler said. “Of course, that's just a projection.

“We also consider how that will affect our local sales tax revenue, and I think it's safe to say that it will likely not increase, but at best, stay stable, maybe decrease.”

Butler previously reported July 24 that after seeing a 14.5-percent increase for July 2024 compared to July 23, the county is “4.8-percent ahead of where we were this time last year” in sales tax receipts.

The county has surpassed $5.6 million on the year, with $5,656,696.23 collected through July. For the entire 12-month period of 2023 — which was a record high for the county, for a fourth straight year — the county collected $9,394,398.30.

As has been the case all year, however, Butler cautioned that these record highs are not likely to continue.

“I think [the state projection] is an indicator that the high numbers that everyone enjoyed right after COVID or during the COVID years is going away, and we're going back to a more normal stable level,” Butler said.

Britton pointed out, “We knew they were going to have to start coming down sooner or later.”

“And we are there,” Butler said.

In another discussion with a county official, Highland County Sheriff Randy Sanders met with commissioners to discuss a potential solution to ongoing issues with the Highland County Justice Center kitchen.

In the summer of 2023, commissioners approved the purchase of two new commercial-grade dehumidifiers for the kitchen, at then-Sheriff Donnie Barrera’s request, but commissioners also suggested that the HCSO purchase fans to try to help circulate air.

According to Sanders, the Justice Center is still facing problems with the humidity in the jail kitchen.

“We’re running three dehumidifiers down in the kitchen,” Sanders said. “We’ve had moisture in the floor, in the ceilings, and I never saw it, but the people in the jail said that it was so bad in there, the papers that were laying in the kitchen were curling up.”

As a potential solution to the problem, Sanders said that Cierra Moore of the county maintenance department found out that they may be able to “put a dehumidifier” directly on the rooftop HVAC unit.

“Cierra brought to our attention that there's a real problem of mold developing in the ceiling where the dehumidifiers aren’t getting to, and we have jail inspection for this year tomorrow for the kitchen,” Sanders said. “Cierra contacted Trane, who has a roof unit, and they said they do have a unit that takes care of that, that attaches right to that rooftop unit.”

Sanders said the representative “couldn’t give her an exact price” but estimated the cost to be approximately $25,000. In response to questions from Daniels, the sheriff said they would only need a dehumidifier for the unit that serves the kitchen, not the other two, and that the units themselves are fine.

Both Daniels and Britton said this is “the first time I’ve heard” that an option was available for the unit itself.

“This has been an ongoing issue for at least three years,” Daniels said. “I don't think it hurts us to continue to explore the addition on this thing, so let's see if we can get a firm price so we know what we're talking about and find out what you can about timing and those things.”

Britton added that they should also consult with Weller’s, who performs maintenance on the HVAC units at the Justice Center, for their input.

In an unrelated matter, Sanders told commissioners he is working with the Fraternal Order of Police union and with Brett Geary of Clemans, Nelson & Associates on a temporary adjustment in work shifts at the Sheriff’s Office.

“We had another person hurt last week that's got a broken bone in their wrist,” Sanders said. “Because of vacation season and stuff, we’re having to switch from the 12-hour shifts.

“It looks like for 30 days, we're going switch to an eight-hour shift to cover manpower. That’s for road only.”

In other discussion:

• Commissioners continued budget talks with department heads Wednesday, with appointments scheduled with the Prosecutor’s Office/Victim Witness, Board of Elections, OSU Extension, Juvenile/Probate Court and Veteran Services.

• Treasurer Vickie Warnock reminded the community that property taxes are due Friday, Aug. 2 and must be postmarked by that date.

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

— A grant agreement with the Ohio Office of Budget and Management for previously announced state funding for a new truck barn for the Highland County Engineer’s Office. State Senator Shane Wilkin (R-Hillsboro) announced in June the investment of $1 million from the One-Time Strategic Community Investment Fund (OTSCIF) to support the project, which will accommodate over 20 trucks.

— A resolution to rescind Resolution 24-33 regarding the purchase of a Ford F-350 Truck from Mt. Orab Ford due to the order not being able to be fulfilled. The original resolution, approved in February, was for the purchase of a new truck for the engineer’s office.

—  An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds to 2280 Records Preservation in the amount of $6,000.

— A resolution to authorize the County Sheriff to declare a list of items, including lobby chairs from the Highland County Justice Center, to be surplus and no longer needed by the County and obsolete, pursuant to ORC 307-12 (A)(1).

—  Two requests for liquor permits through the Ohio Department of Commerce from the Highland County Agricultural Society, with one from Aug. 30-Sept. 3 and one from Sept. 3-7.

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