Commissioners pass resolution for new Highland County Children Services tax levy issue; announce RFL restroom upgrade

After weeks of discussion, Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades officially voted Dec. 13 to approve a proposed tax levy for Highland County Children Services to appear on the March primary ballot.

Commissioners passed the resolution to authorize the “proposed tax levy replacement for Children Services” by a 3-0 vote, after hearing from Highland County Job & Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff during their Wednesday, Dec 13 meeting. The filing deadline for the 2024 primary is Dec. 20, and the primary election will be held March 19.

“This is the ongoing issue we keep talking about,” Ratcliff said. “This is a proposed levy, a replacement levy, for the March ballot. It would be .9 millage, without the increase, so it would not change the rates of the current levy.

“It would just replace that levy and is proposed to generate approximately $795,883.”

As previously reported, on Nov. 29, commissioners voted 3-0 to “declare it necessary to levy a tax and request an estimate from the Highland County Auditor” for Highland County Children Services. At that meeting, Ratcliff said it would be “the first step in investigating a levy for the ballot in March.”

Daniels asked what the “total cost” would be, that the agency is seeking to offset with the $795,000 generated from the levy, if approved.

“Approximately $4 million,” Ratcliff said. “I’ll reiterate again, 100 percent of these dollars go to placement costs, and not a penny goes to salaries.

“Just for perspective, we currently have 12 children that are $105,000 a month between those 12. We have 170 children total in care, and $105,000 a month is just for 12 of them.”

A proposed five-year, one-mill replacement levy for the agency failed in the Nov. 7 general election, with 6,582 votes against the levy and 5,001 votes for the levy. Commissioners voted in August to approve the request from Ratcliff to seek the levy for Children Services on this year’s ballot, amid rising cases and associated costs for the agency over the past several years.

The current tax levy, which was first approved in November 2013 and renewed by voters in November 2018, is a five-year, .9-mill levy for Children Services placement costs and expires Dec. 31 of this year. Ratcliff said in May that the levy generates approximately $700,000 per year for the agency. The proposed levy replacement would have been an approximate increase of $12 per year per $100,000 valuation.

“We discussed the replacement with increases, potentially, you know, being an issue, and we heard the voters, but the need still remains,” Ratcliff said. “We’re asking for their support.”

In other discussion:

• Commissioners announced plans for an Ohio Department of Natural Resources restroom improvement project at Rocky Fork State Park’s North Shore boat ramp.

“ODNR has got a statewide restroom improvement project program that's going around, and we are actually receiving that improvement here at Rocky Fork State Park,” Britton said. “There's always been the water seeping out of that hillside where that restroom is, and it's starting to slide down the hill, is what I was told. That's going to be replaced.”

Daniels said there’s “a spring underneath” the restroom, and Britton added that water has been an issue since at least “the early ’70s.”

Britton said that Steve Canter and Environmental Engineering will be working with ODNR on water and sewer plans for the project.

“We’ve got some preliminary site utility plans that we’ll have to be working with the state on this through our engineering group,” Britton said. “[Environmental Engineering] will be taking a look at that and getting back with the state on basically what the cost is going to be to hook the restroom up.”

Daniels added that he “spoke with park leadership” on Monday and thanked them for the recent and upcoming upgrades to the area.

“They're making a lot of improvements on some of their facilities down there,” Daniels said. “This is one. They're doing some work on the lake restaurant, they've done some work on some of the marina areas. They're showing some investment in and around facilities they’ve got out at the lake, which is good for those people that access that for recreation.

“This is just one of those things that they're doing that's going to help improve the facilities down at the lake, and congratulations to them.”

• Commissioners approved an Economic Development/Revolving Loan Fund Program security agreement with Leo Capital Investments, LLC for the proposed new Marriott Hotel project in Hillsboro.

“This will be filed with the mortgage that we will record, and we have requested the drawdown from the state of the $500,000 that will be added to the county's revolving loan fund,” Highland County Economic Development Director Julie Bolender told commissioners. “Once that's received, then we will be able to make a $1 million loan to Leo Capital.”

Commissioners previously voted Oct. 24 to approve an open-end mortgage, Cognovit promissory note and loan agreement contract with Leo Capital Investment LLC in the amount of $1 million for the planned project.

• The authorization of a change order from Alpha Construction  for the county’s new records storage building was also executed, as Britton said the change will come with an additional cost.

“Basically, once they got all the geotech reports back, they found out that they were going to have to take some more dirt out,” Britton said. “There's going to be another charge on taking that dirt out and then putting new dirt back in and compacting that to the specifications.

“There’s always those question marks of soil compaction and all that, so it's just part of the beast of construction in Highland County.”

As previously reported, commissioners voted Aug. 30 to award the new county records storage building project to Alpha Construction Inc., who had submitted a $2,797,000 proposal for “all necessary labor, materials, tools, machinery, warranties and all other items required to construct a new masonry two-floor 13,020 square foot building.”

• Commissioners met in executive session with elected officials/department heads Wednesday to discuss employee compensation related to the 2024 budget. According to commission clerk Ashleigh Willey, one department head was unable to attend the session Wednesday, so commissioners will be “in recess overnight” and will reconvene Thursday if and when the department head is available.

Commissioners also approved the following resolutions, each by a 3-0 vote:

• A resolution approving the reappointment of Linda Klump to the Southwest Ohio Regional Prevention Council, beginning Jan. 1, 2024 and ending Dec. 31, 2025.

• A budget modification within Auditor’s Real Estate Assessment Fund (2055) in the amount of $1,511.11. Also requested is an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds in the amount of $30,000.

• A budget modification within Engineer’s Repair MVL Fund (2065) in the amount of $116,000.

• A resolution authorizing the County Engineer to purchase two John Deere 6120 M Cab Tractors from Deere & Company, not to exceed $202,431.

• A budget modification within the County General Fund (1000) in the amount of $300.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Healthy Aging Grant fund in the amount of $0.63.

• A budget modification within County General (1000) fund in the amount of $31,000.

• A resolution to determine a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica not needed by the county and to be used as a partial down payment of a new vehicle, and to agree to purchase a 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee L in the amount of $31,000 to be used by the Highland County Veterans Service Commission.

• A budget modification within County General Fund (1000) in the amount of $874.34.

• A budget modification within Rocky Fork Lake Sewer District Fund (5030) in the amount of $125.30.

• A budget modification within CHORE Services Fund (2510) in the amount of $141.66.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the County General Fund in the amount of $20,000.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Mowrystown Sewer Fund in the amount of $1,500.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the 911 Wireless fund (4030) in the amount of $80.35.

• A budget modification within County General Fund (1000) in the amount of $50.
    
• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the Upgrade RFL Debt Retirement (3250) in the amount of $54.

• A resolution to authorize the establishment of a new line item within the County T.B. Fund, Other Expense. Also requested is an appropriation of $4,481.07.

• Also approved were two customer service agreement contracts with Rumpke of Ohio, Inc. for trash pickup at the Highland County Courthouse and at the Rocky Fork Sewer Plant.