Commissioners updated on annual STEEL Conference, county projects, church concerns

Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades heard updates on the return of the Highland County Chamber of Commerce’s STEEL Conference during their Wednesday, Aug. 11 meeting.
 
Highland County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jamie Wheeler and Member Engagement Specialist Amber Dunseith, along with event chair Austin Trueblood, invited commissioners and the community to attend the third annual STEEL (Strengthening Together Experienced and Emerging Leaders) Conference, which will be held Wednesday, Oct. 14 at Southern State Community College’s Patriot Center.

“We say we are connecting experienced and the emerging leaders together, anywhere from the age of 16, 17, high school kids up to retirement age,” Wheeler said. “We have all those people in one place at the Patriot Center here in Highland County, and it's not just Highland County. We reach out to the region. 

“Last year, we had people from all over Ohio come, so we're kind of taking more of a regional approach with it and hoping to get around 300, 350 people.”

Trueblood said that the initial idea for the conferences came from a Chamber board meeting where they discussed “the generational gap” and related challenges.

“The number-one thing that that people say after the conference is that they felt seen or valued, or they finally got to talk to somebody in the community that they hold to a higher value, so it's really cool to hear that,” Trueblood said. 

This year’s keynote speaker is Jess Ekstrom. According to a handout from Wheeler, Ekstrom “is a Forbes Top-Rated keynote speaker, two-time bestselling author and founder of Headbands of Hope and Mic Drop Workshop.”

“She started Headbands for Hope, and she started this business when she was young and is creating headbands for all pediatric cancer patients in the nation,” Trueblood said. “Even Highland District had received headbands that were donated by her, which is really cool. Her other claim to fame is she's big on empowerment and speaking and articulation.”

The event will be hosted by Master of Ceremonies Jeremy Ratcliff, who is the Highland County Job & Family Services director. Ratcliff said he was “happy to be a part” of this year’s event and “looking forward to a good day of development and connection.” In addition, Trueblood will moderate a panel with several area leaders, including Dr. Corey Cockerill, Denise Fauber, Blake Herdman, Jacobey Lucas and Galen Yoder.

Wheeler also shared a video with testimonials from area business representatives encouraging the community to attend this year’s conference. 

Tickets for the event are $100 (which increases to $150 on Sept. 1) and can be purchased by visiting the Chamber office at 129 North High Street in Hillsboro, calling (937) 393-1111 or visiting www.thehighlandchamber.com. Registration closes Oct. 1.

Commissioners thanked the Chamber representatives for the update and for their planning of this year’s event.

“You've been very successful with this,” Daniels said. “I applaud the work that's being done to help bring younger leaders into our community and help them realize their potential.”

Britton agreed, saying that he enjoyed attending the conference and reflecting on “all the young leaders that's going to come out of that situation that you're setting up for them, and I think it's a great thing.”

In other discussion:

• Commissioners agreed to proceed with applying for financing for a 10% match, which Daniels said would be approximately $90,000, for a hangar construction project at the Highland County Airport.

“On Monday [during work sessions], we were informed that the airport’s looking to add some additional hangar space out there,” Daniels said. “There's a federal grant that pays for a fairly large portion of it, but there is a local match that is involved with that. They've come in and asked us to work with them on financing the local match. 

“I would move we approve the Airport Authority to move forward on the construction of a steel frame four-bay hangar with two equipment storage units, and applying to the Ohio Department of Transportation State Infrastructure Bank for financing for the project, with the Board of County Commissioners as a co-sponsor on the loan.”

The motion passed by a 3-0 vote.

• Commissioners heard comments from Cynthia St. Clair and Bill Edenfield, who expressed concerns about infrastructure around Sonner Chapel in East Danville. St. Clair said that “tile and everything that was put in” under the church was installed in the 1930s and has “washed away.” According to Edenfield, “the intersection of pipes” for drainage for Sorg Road are located across the road from the church.

“There is a lid over there that collects water also,” Edenfield said. “It comes through our property at the church for no other reason but to drain the northeast side of Sorg. We get no benefit from it, but it's four feet from our foundation, and it's all undermined right now against the foundation. The blacktop’s going down, so we're going to have a major problem with that building within the year or two, so we're hoping we get some sort of help.”

St. Clair added that the driveway “has sunken five inches in a year.

“There's nothing holding up the blacktop for about between four to five feet, and it's not too far from the side porch, so it's becoming a risk,” St. Clair said.

Commissioners said they would see if Highland County Engineer Chris Fauber could investigate the situation to see if anything can be done to mitigate the problem. 

• Ratcliff and Highland County Board of DD Larry Gray submitted early intervention/service coordination reporting to commissioners for their approval. 

“When the Family and Children First Council dissolved last December, that left our local Board of DD needing an oversight body for their early intervention and service coordination program that they do,” Ratcliff said. “The board had asked me to be that person, so semi-annually, his staff will send their reports to me.

“We send it up here for your approval that they need to be able to pass along to our partners at the state.”

Gray added that it is “a fairly long report” and that they will try to present an annual report to commissioners in February for a more comprehensive public review.

“Our numbers here in Highland County, even with no FCFC, have remained fairly consistent,” Gray said. “We're down looks like about 11 from last year on the referral side, but the consistent referrals still usually come from families, physicians and other programs, so we're really consistent there as far as across the board. We have been able to maintain and retain staff really well, which has been a great thing. Working with DCY [the Ohio Department of Children and Youth], who we get the grants through, we’ve been able to get a little bit more funding from them, which has enabled us to keep that staffing, and also we do share that between the counties. 

“We received an additional grant this past year, so we do have a full-time OT, occupational therapist, PT, physical therapist, and speech in both counties. We share the OT and PT, and we have speech in both counties [Highland and Fayette], and have been able to maintain our management.”

• Commissioners again revisited quotes for a requested mini-split purchase at the Board of Elections office for their server room and again declined to take action after saying the quotes were “not an apples-to-apples comparison.” The topic has been brought up at several meetings and work sessions since Cierra Moore of the county’s maintenance department brought initial quotes July 8.

According to Board of Elections administrator Michelle Swallen, they obtained options for one or two 12,000 BTU units, plus electrical engineering and permits, from Weller’s, or for one 24,000 BTU unit, plus electrical engineering and permits, from Wilkin Heating and Air. 

“Give us the quotes,” Daniels said. “Let us go down through them. Let us break them down and put them on a spreadsheet, so we can actually see what we're talking about here.”

• According to work session minutes provided by commission clerk Ashleigh Willey, commissioners held budget meetings Monday with the EMA, sheriff’s office, coroner’s office, recorder’s office and engineer’s office; conduced a walkthrough of the administration building basement; and discussed the aforementioned airport hangar project.  

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

• A law enforcement contract for coverage at the 2026 Highland County Fair.

• A resolution to approve the revised qualified energy project application for certification for Dodson Creek Solar, LLC. According to correspondence provided by Willey, developers had submitted a revised application to include three additional parcels, which “do not increase [the] total area” of the project. 

• A resolution to reduce the 2026 county budget in the amount of $53,388.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the 2280 Records Preservation Fund in the amount of $5,000.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the 2000 Dog and Kennel fund in the amount of $7,000.