Grant requests for Board of DD, Arc of Appalachia, county airport approved by commissioners

Highland County commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton considered grant funding opportunities for the Board of DD, Arc of Appalachia and the Highland County Airport as part of their discussions Wednesday, Sept. 4.

Highland County Board of DD superintendent Larry Gray and business director Lori Moore asked to be placed on the weekly agenda, as the Board of DD made several funding-related requests.

The first ask from the Board of DD was permission to apply for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s Safety Intervention Grant and School Safety and Security Grant. According to the Ohio BWC, “With the Safety Intervention Grant, recipients are eligible for a 3-to-1 matching grant, up to a maximum grant award of $40,000 for each three-year eligibility cycle. This means BWC gives $3 for every $1 the employer contributes.”

Gray said that the application would be made using the county’s BWC number and that any county agency is eligible to apply.

“We’d like to be able to purchase some equipment,” Gray said. “We've identified a lift for our van, a power lift for moving furniture, like a dolly, a ramp, and then a PortaLift, which would replace using ladders in a lot of cases.

“We’d like to have access to about $18,000 of that grant, and that would be open up to the rest of the county, for anybody else who would like to utilize that.”

According to the Ohio BWC, the School Safety and Security Grant “assists Ohio employers with ensuring the safety of their staff who instruct children throughout the state. The program is available to eligible Ohio employers who wish to purchase equipment to substantially improve the safety and security of facilities, and to reduce or eliminate injuries or illnesses associated with providing educational services to children.”

There is also $40,000 available through this grant as a 3-to-1 match, but as Gray pointed out, the Board of DD is “the only school that's operating under your BWC number,” so they want to take advantage of as much of the funding as possible.

“That's really more for like replacing some of our older cameras, ballistic film on the outside of the building, and then also some security locks,” Gray said. “We have replaced some locks, we do have some new access, but that stuff's pretty expensive, so we'd like to utilize this grant.”

Gray said that the Board would be providing the matching funds and that they were simply seeking commissioners’ approval before moving forward.

Gray added that the county could look into using the remaining $22,000 for the Safety Intervention Grant.

“There's some really good equipment you can get,” he said. “If another department wants to do it, you can work with them as well, for that SIG grant.”

Britton asked if the board needed “something in writing” from commissioners for their grant application, and Gray said they “probably should.” Commissioners said they could provide that and voted 3-0 to authorize the request.

“It would appear that would be money well spent,” Daniels said.

The Board of DD’s other requests were related to their budget and appropriations. Moore referenced the commissioners’ Aug. 7 agenda, where they passed five different resolutions making additional appropriations and/or transfers for the Board of DD.

“Currently, the way it's set up is our Community Residential fund is the funds that we use to help support our individuals, and it is not in the general fund,” Moore said. “To put money into the Community Residential, because it's a non-revenue-generating fund, we have to move money from our general fund to the Residential Services Fund, and then the transfers out, the transfers in, and then appropriating them.

“We would like to take the 2125 fund and move those line items into the general fund of our 2100, and then that would cut down on the transfers and the appropriations, so it would be appropriated with our budget. It's appropriated now, but it's just if we have to put more money in there because our expenses are a little higher, then we'd have to do all that moving around.”

Britton asked Moore if she had spoken to Highland County Auditor Alex Butler. She said he advised “that is fine” to do.

Daniels also asked if the funds “are restricted,” and Moore said that “there's a manual for the county boards of DD, and it lists in there certain funds and how we have to provide those funds and work with them.”

“By commingling those in your general fund revenue, are you going to be able to track that?” Daniels asked.

“Yes,” Moore said. “We'll keep them in their line items.”

“Right now, the funds all go into the general fund,” Gray added. “We have to transfer them out if we want to do anything, so it's just a lot of transferring back and forth that really doesn't necessarily need to happen.”

Gray said that for that request, they are looking “to do this at the first of the year, once the new budget's done.” No action was taken, but Britton said he’s “good if the auditor’s good” with the idea.

On a similar topic, Moore said that the Board of DD is a “passthrough for capital housing dollars” that go to Highland County Community Action Agency and asked for commissioners’ feedback on handling that moving forward.

“We never know how much we're going to get each year,” Moore said. “Right now we received $124,675 that we need to pass through to Community Action, but in our fund, I only have $63,260.52 appropriated, so I need to move an additional $61,000.

“We have the revenue. We received it, but we don't pay it out until once we have the revenue. I was just wondering how you would like to see that in the future, or if we can just transfer when it comes in, because I don't appropriate it until it comes in.”

Moore added that if commissioners prefer, Board of DD administrators can start “coming to the meetings every time we have an appropriation or a modification” to answer potential questions.

“I think in some cases, it's helpful. When you're moving large sums of money, I think that it's beneficial for you to be here to explain why you're moving those,” Daniels said. “Even though your funds are contained within your agency and are used for your agency, those are still big requests that come in, and when we're moving hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, that raises at least some interest.”

Roades added that it would also be nice to have the Board of DD administration attend more commission meetings to give updates on “what’s going on” with their agency.

“We’ve got some really good projects going on here with housing in the county, and then we have other things going on as well, too,” Gray said. “For the fair, we have a universal changing table up there, and actually, that's something we're going to work on as well.

“That really opens the opportunity for anybody to go to the fair, especially adults or kids., having a universal changing table, and we have a booth there for it. We borrowed it from the Montgomery County Board of DD, and we would like to try to get one — even if we share between the two counties going forward — so we can have it at all our events, either the county fair or if the city has something.”

Commissioners thanked Gray and Moore for the updates and said they would “be in touch” on their requests.

In other discussion:

• Outreach Coordinator Kim Baker and Director of Land Acquisition & Visitor Services Andrea Jaeger of the Arc of Appalachia were on the agenda Wednesday to follow up on a previous request for commissioners’ “nonopposition” to a Clean Ohio grant application, which was tabled Aug. 21 pending township trustees’ review. As noted during that meeting, Jaeger said their plans include constructing “a 2.3-mile hiking trail” in the area of Sad Song Creek.

Commissioners ultimately agreed Wednesday to approve a sample resolution provided by Baker and Jaeger, after some discussion.

Baker said that township trustees passed a resolution approving the Arc’s request, which involves purchasing and cleaning up two parcels on Ferneau Road, one that is 18.88 acres and one that is 10.4 acres.

“This particular grant through Clean Ohio is more specifically to allow us to be able to clean up the property,” Baker said. “There is an old trailer on the property that we would like to be able to remove and to put a trail on, that would be open to the public to enjoy.”

Daniels asked how much money the organization is seeking through the grant application, which is due at the end of September.

“Actually, I don't know that final total yet,” Jaeger said. “We're applying for two different grants for one of the parcels, and that should take care of a lot of the stream restoration work that we're going to do, and also part of the acquisition costs. This one would help with part of the acquisition, but then all the site improvements, so we’re going to figure all that out before we submit it.”

Britton asked if she could give “an approximate” total,” and Jaeger said she thought they were looking for something in the “$200,000 range” for the 18.88-acre parcel and around $75,000 for the 10.4-acre tract.

“We're not looking at the full cost of the acquisition for those,” she said. “We’re just looking for part of that, and then also for the site improvements.

“I think demolishing the house on the property will be about $20,000 — we have an estimate coming in for that — and then installing the trailhead parking lot would probably be another $10,000 to $15,000.”

According to Jaeger, they have already applied for a separate grant for “the site invasive species removal” and should receive word on the outcome of that application in December.

Daniels pointed out that the Arc’s resolution was not on commissioners’ agenda for Sept. 4 and said they could take action on it Sept. 11.

“We might not be able to apply, then, if that is the case,” Jaeger said.

“Let me make sure I understand,” Daniels said. “You have to do this right now, and you don't know how much money you're actually applying for, but we have to do this today? Is that what you’re saying?”

Jaeger said that she could email over “some figures” if that’s what the county needed.

“You have no financial responsibility for the project, or any kind of legal or regulatory responsibility, or any obligations like that,” she said. “This is just saying that you do not oppose this going forward.”

Daniels asked the other two commissioners for their feedback. Britton said they could “put it on the agenda for next week,” but Roades said it sounded like “that might be too late.”

“[The deadline is] September 30, so in other words, we are not outside the application deadline if we put this one our agenda for September 11,” Daniels said.

Jaeger responded that they had     “a tight deadline” to get “title work done and an appraisal done” before Sept. 30.

“Guys, if you want to entertain this today, we can,” Daniels told the other commissioners. “It wasn't on our agenda. It wasn't announced to the public. It's up to you.”

Britton suggested revisiting the topic at their 11 a.m. session, but they ultimately took action at the end of their regular 9 a.m. meeting, passing the resolution by a 3-0 vote.

• Commissioners made three separate approvals involving the Highland County Airport, including two contracts with the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration and a local agreement for repair work.

The two FAA contracts are for “design projects,” Daniels said, including one to reconstruct airport drainage/erosion design with a local match of $2,365 and “a T-hangar planning grant application” with a local match of $7,558.

These are 90-10 grants, Daniels said, as the drainage design is $47,300 and “$75,575 is the total breakdown on the T-hangar” project.

“If we do approve these planning grants, then we're basically tied into the construction project,” Britton said. “We have had some conversations with the Airport Authority concerning this.”

The other item approved was accepting the lowest quote, received from Roberts Asphalt Maintenance LLC at $14,200, to crack-fill the main runway and turnaround at the airport.

“They have to do this before they do the painting of the lines,” Britton said.

• Highland County Sheriff Randy Sanders addressed concerns about marijuana flyover eradication efforts, as comments have been made criticizing using taxpayer dollars for that.

“That's a federal program that’s been going on ever since I can remember being a cop,” Sanders said. “Everything is paid for federally. What we’ve done locally was just people already working. There was no overtime spent.

“For two days, our salaries, for people that were actually working that went out on it, our fuel, is going to be right around $2,000 for two days.”

Sanders added that although recreational marijuana is legal in Ohio now, there are still limits on growing marijuana at home (“a maximum of 6 plants per individual, 12 per household if there are two or more adults 21 and over,” with other stipulations, according to the Division of Cannabis Control).

“We’ve already had one case that we've had to do where somebody wasn't paying attention and grew a bunch more marijuana plants than they were supposed to,” Sanders said. “We got a complaint on it. We get a complaint, we’ve got to follow up, and that cost us way more than $2,000 to handle that case.

“This is going to save us over the next few years, hopefully, by everybody being aware that this is the law. We have to do something if somebody complains, and we will.”

Daniels pointed out that “people need to know what those regulations are” for legal marijuana use. “There's still laws that can be broken under these new regulations,” he said.

A list of frequently asked questions can be found at https://com.ohio.gov/divisions-and-programs/cannabis-control/licensee-r….

“You're allowed six plants for anybody over 21 in the household, maximum of 12,” Sanders said. “If you’ve got marijuana plants, they cannot be easily accessible to anyone under the age of 21, and they can't be seen, basically, by neighbors, and stuff like that.

“There’s rules, just like everything else.”

In other updates, Sanders said that a county auction Oct. 12 will include several properties, vehicles, guns and other items.

• Via resolution, commissioners agreed to appoint the Health Commissioner of Highland County Health Department (Jared Warner) to establish the Suicide Fatality Review Committee and select four members to serve on the committee.

As previously reported, Warner told commissioners that “fairly recently, Ohio passed a law that allows counties to establish a formal Suicide Fatality Review Committee” and said that Highland County’s Suicide Prevention Coalition has been discussing how the county could implement this idea.

“This Suicide Fatality Review Committee would work very similarly to our existing Child Fatality Review Board that meets annually to review child deaths and identify common trends and potential preventative steps that we could take collectively to reduce child deaths,” Warner wrote in an email to commissioners in July.

Warner said in August that this new committee would “follow that same approach” to “look at the individual suicide deaths that have occurred in Highland County residents and figure out if there are any common factors, common causes that we can address, either individually as agencies or collectively as a community, to try to prevent those deaths.”

• At 10 a.m., commissioners attended an alley viewing in New Market Township. At 11 a.m., they agreed via resolution to vacate the 483.15-foot alley.

In other action, commissioners made the following approvals, each by a 3-0 vote:

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within Probation
ATP Fund (2660) in the amount of $12,952.65.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within Probation, Specialized Docket Subs fund (2665) in the amount of $75,000.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within County Land Bank (2505) in the amount of $500.

• A transfer from Public Assistance (2050) to Children Services Fund (2115) in the amount of $54,410.60.

• An independent contractor agreement with O&M Metal Sales for a previously approved $16,375 quote for a new carport/pole barn for the Department of Veteran Services.

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