Highland County commissioners proclaim Red Ribbon Week; mull recording fee increase

Highland County commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton issued a proclamation recognizing Oct. 21-25 as Red Ribbon Week in Highland County during their Wednesday, Oct. 16 meeting.

Accepting the proclamation for the standing-room-only meeting were counselor Alison Bach of Bright Local Schools; social worker Amanda Perkins and counselor Stacie Rhonemus of Fairfield Local Schools; counselor Toni Lewis of Greenfield Exempted Village Schools; social worker Taylor Krift of Lynchburg-Clay Local Schools; superintendent Tim Davis, counselor Raegan Malblanc and students Kaylin Branscom, Reagan Leininger, Scarlett McElwee, Kylee-Ann Scruggs, Kyle Shaffer and Emmalee Young of Hillsboro City Schools; Kim Davis of the Highland County Probation Department; Latrell Haithcock of Scioto Paint Valley Mental Health; Jeff Meyer of Hope for Highland County and the Highland County Drug Abuse Prevention Coalition; and Bill Showman of Paint Valley ADAMH.

Congress established Red Ribbon Week in 1988. The week raises awareness of drug use and the problems related to drugs and encourages parents, educators, business owners and other community organizations to promote drug-free lifestyles. Red Ribbon Week encourages the entire community to adopt healthy, drug-free lifestyles.

The theme of this year’s national Red Ribbon Week campaign is “Life is A Movie, Film Drug Free.” According to redribbon.org, this theme “was selected because it inspires individuals to play their part in fostering safe, healthy and drug-free communities. From healthcare professionals to educators, parents and beyond, the theme underscores the collective impact achievable through dedication and commitment.”

The annual observance will be celebrated locally in area high schools and middle schools, with dress-up days and various activities planned. In keeping with the movie theme, Paint Valley ADAMH has the following dress-up themes suggested: Monday, dress like your favorite movie star or character; Tuesday, wear Christmas attire; Wednesday, wear red from head to toe; Thursday, wear cheetah, animal print or camp; and Friday, wear your school colors.

Students will also have an opportunity to compete in the annual Write In Red contest, which is sponsored by ADAMH for high school and middle school students within the ADAMH district (Highland, Fayette, Pickaway, Pike and Ross counties). Scholarships and prizes are awarded to school and county winners selected for their essays.

After meeting with the group, Daniels read the proclamation recognizing Oct. 21-25 as Red Ribbon Week in Highland County.
 
In other discussion:

• Highland County Recorder Chad McConnaughey attended the meeting and asked commissioners to consider approving a $5 increase per document for recording fees starting in 2025.

“My goal is January 1 of ’25, my base price for recording will go from $34 to $39,” McConnaughey said. “That extra $5 would go into [a] new line item, if you guys so approve of that.

“We've got some time. Nothing we've got to decide today.”

According to McConnaughey, Senate Bill 94 — which was signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine in July and takes effect this month — included a stipulation for “all county recorders to have our records online back to 1980,” which Highland County has already completed.

As previously reported, commissioners voted in August 2020 to approve McConnaughey’s proposal in the amount of $154,895.81 for a vendor to scan, digitize and index county records back to 1980 and have them available online and to fund the project through the federal CARES Act monies.

“We’re ahead of the game here,” McConnaughey said. “What happened, though, is by doing this, it cut into all of our county recorders’ copy revenue, because now people don't have to come in to get copies, so through Senate Bill 94, they created a preservation surcharge.

“What they're doing is allowing us to increase our base fee for recording from $34 to $39. It's a $5 per document, basically, surcharge. What I would like you guys to do is allow me to set up a new revenue line item within the general fund that that money would go into. The language does specify it has to go into the general fund, so what a lot of counties are doing is creating another revenue line item.”

McConnaughey said that the changes in recording since the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus shifting to online services, have been “killing the revenue” in some counties that depend on copy fees. In response to a question from Daniels, McConnaughey said Highland County has seen a “huge decline” in copy revenue as well, although he said that he doesn’t “operate my budget off of our copy revenue.”

As discussed by McConnaughey Wednesday and at previous meetings, half of the recording fees go to the state through the Ohio Housing Trust Fund. He told commissioners that all $5 of this new surcharge, however, will go to the general fund. McConnaughey said that he hopes to use some of the money to go toward projects his equipment fund doesn’t cover, such as repairing old books.

“We had a fee that was raised in ’19 due to House Bill 166, and it went from $28 to $34,” the recorder said. “Before that, the last increase was when the Housing Trust Fund was established. It went from $14 to $28. That $14 goes straight to the state. We don't get any of that money.

“The $6 in ’19, we got $3 of it, and the state got $3. This, we keep all $5. It stays right here.”

He added later, “It is really the biggest increase the recorder's office has seen in a long time that's actually going to be kept here, used in Highland County, as opposed to headed to the state.”

Daniels asked if McConnaughey would be willing to “share the wealth” out of this fund for related projects, such as the new records storage center.

“Absolutely,” McConnaughey said. “One of the things I was automatically thinking about is we talked about a scanner or an image reader. Honestly, these funds, I wouldn't have a full need for, so I could see maybe we partner, or maybe I can even buy that out of my own funds and it's housed over there [at the records building].

“One of the things you know, we had talked about in our talks is buying a scanner that also is a reader of film, but could also handle huge scan projects as opposed to sending them out of house, that we could do here with Julie [Wallingford, records manager]. Outside of fixing some books and repairing some things, that money could be used quite a bit for that.”

McConnaughey added that he initially “had no intention” of raising the fee, but after speaking with recorders in surrounding counties, he found that virtually every area county is implementing this increase.

“I really felt like it made more sense for us to also do the surcharge, so when people are working in our general area, the fee is the same,” McConnaughey said. “It doesn't make sense to two years down the road decide, ‘oh, let's do it now.’ If we're going to do it, we might as well do it now, while this is fresh, and it's what people are implementing to recover those funds.”

Commissioners said they would take the request into consideration during their 2025 budget plans.
 
• Commissioners approved a contract with a homeowner for placement of a law enforcement K-9 kennel. According to Highland County Sheriff Randy Sanders, the homeowner is “all in” for the arrangement for the new K-9 officer, who will be living with an HCSO deputy  who is a tenant of the homeowner.

“We had money donated for a second K-9, so we purchased the K-9,” Sanders said. “We just need to put a kennel on the property, and the contract is just an agreement that if something would happen there and their relationship doesn't end well, for some reason, that we’ve got the authorization to get our kennel back. I don't think it'll be needed. It's just a precaution.”

Roades asked what the new K-9’s name is.

“His name was QR Code,” Sanders said. “I believe the consensus is they cut it down to ‘Code.’ They get named in another country.”

• Highland County mobility manager Carl Rayburn reviewed some of the transportation statistics discussed at the quarterly Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting held Oct. 15.

"The number of phone calls have jumped from an average daily amount of 800 up to 1,200 a day,” Rayburn said. “We have gotten more people starting to use the mobile app to help try to manage that. We got 177 accounts created, and then got 158 trips booked through it in September, so that number's gone up quite a bit.

“We also had 19,745 trips last quarter, and out of those, we were averaging 500 work trips a day, taking people to and from work, so really helping out those folks.”

In the Work Ride Solutions program — through which FRS is offering free rides to and from work, now through Nov. 1, thanks to a national grant — the number of participants doubled in the past week, with 75 participants as of Wednesday, Rayburn said.

• Commissioners announced that their next meeting will be moved up a day, to Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 9 a.m., due to staff attending a conference.

• Following their regular meeting, commissioners conducted work sessions with Highland County Economic Development Director Julie Bolender, Engineer Chris Fauber and Records Manager Julie Wallingford. They also held an executive session to consider the purchase or sale of property for public purposes. No action was taken after any of those meetings, according to commission clerk Ashleigh Willey.

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

• A contract with Canon for laserfiche cloud remote implementation services for the records and health departments.

• An agreement with Greystone Systems, Inc. for phone line work at the administration building and courthouse as part of planned remodeling.

• An additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the County General (1000) fund in the amount of $13,244.63.

• A budget modification within the County General (1000) fund in the amount of $1,000.

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