Highland County land bank moves forward on purchasing tax lien certificates

Following months of discussion, members of the Highland County Land Reutilization Corporation (land bank) board voted to approve the purchase of tax lien certificates for several properties during their Thursday, March 20 meeting.

The land bank’s legal counsel Todd Book presented the motion, which was ultimately approved, to authorize the purchasing of tax lien certificates for seven different parcels in the county.

According to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, “A tax lien certificate is sold at the discretion of the county treasurer to the public, county land reutilization corporations and others as a method to collect delinquent property taxes. The proceeds from the sale of tax lien certificates are primarily used to make distributions to political subdivisions entitled to delinquent taxes. The cost of a tax lien certificate includes an amount equal to delinquent taxes charged against the parcel, any interest accrued on the certificate purchase price, any fee charged by the county treasurer to the purchaser of the certificate, and any fee charged by any county office for the recording of tax lien certificates.

“When a tax lien certificate is sold the property owner no longer owes the county for the delinquent taxes as the delinquent taxes,
interest, and other charges are now owed to the purchaser of the tax lien certificate. If the delinquent property owner does not pay the tax lien holder for the delinquent taxes, interest and other charges within one year, the tax lien
certificate holder may foreclose on the property.”

Book said that “the land bank has the ability to negotiate with the treasurer to enter into a promissory note as it relates to the purchase of these tax liens, and that's the plan that we'll be utilizing as it relates to these properties.” As previously reported, Highland County commissioners agreed in October to enter a negotiated sale agreement contract with the county treasurer’s office and NAR Ohio, Inc. as a similar method of combating delinquent property taxes in the county.

“We’ve been working with the treasurer and NAR to make sure that we have the necessary rules in place for the treasurer to act in this regard, and we’d just like to get some approval from the board to move forward,” Book said.

Three of the parcels were properties on Taylor Street in Madison Township (tax delinquencies of $1,248.61, $2,176.31 and $8,432.55, respectively), which have been discussed at numerous meetings over the past several years.  A Greenfield resident has reported on number  the parcels are a “dump,” with debris and abandoned tires. However, subsequent attempts to gain access to the property, including through the health department, have been unsuccessful, as the property owner died without a will and had multiple surviving relatives.

Three parcels on U.S. 62 in Samantha were also listed, as they have $168.97, $1,379.45 and $4,562.72 in tax delinquency. Also included was one property on Highland Hills Drive, for which $7,978.80 in taxes are owed.

“I think it's time to move on this,” HCLRC board member David Daniels said. “We've gone through a [property tax revaluation], and we've had a lot of people come in and and fulfill their obligation to pay their taxes. We've got people out there that are skipping around this issue for years.

“We owe the taxpayers to do everything we can to bring these delinquent accounts up, and I think that this is a good step that the land bank can take on some of those properties.”

On a similar topic, land bank coordinator Jason Johansen reported that an expedited foreclosure is almost completed on 11470 Spruance Road in Marshall Township, which was submitted to the Highland County Prosecutor’s Office last spring.

“We should have the deed to the property by the end of April,” Johansen said. “This property is a potential brownfield and will likely need a phase one environmental assessment, at the very least, to make the determination whether remediation efforts will be needed.

“Marshall Township Trustees have invited the land bank to a township trustee meeting to discuss potential opportunities for the property. It's an eight-acre property. The very corner was possibly a former gas station. The rest of it, we'll have to see if that's brownfield territory. There was, years ago, possibly a singlewide trailer that was full of tires. I don't know if that would be considered a brownfield, but it's definitely hazardous material that will need removed from the site.”

Since that property is almost done, Johansen said the HCLRC needs to decide on “our next expedited foreclosure to send to the prosecutor's office” during their April meeting.

“Last year in the spring of 2024, we did approve three properties to be sent consecutively,” Johansen said. “The first of those three have now been complete, but things do change in a year. Now we have the ability to purchase tax lien certificates, and I think we should just talk more in depth, if those properties are in our best interest to move forward with, to send to the prosecutor's office.”

Daniels asked when NAR will “have their initial list of liens that they're interested in” pursuant to the aforementioned contract with the treasurer’s office.

“We had sent them a delinquent tax list last year, but because of the time, we weren’t able to get started on it,” HCLRC board member and county treasurer Vickie Warnock said. “We are going to try next month to start sending out some letters once we get [first-half property tax] settlement done, so we can send another list.

“They have a few that we're going to start on here after first-half settlement, but after second-half settlement’s when we'll be doing the biggest portion of it.”

“If any of the properties that you're looking at or are considering end up on that list, it might be more advantageous to go with this group, because we get reimbursed at 100 percent of the tax liability, and with what we're doing, we might end up taking a smaller percentage of some of those,” Daniels said. “I think we should go ahead and proceed, but also make sure that we're taking a look at what they're suggesting as we get that information.”

In other discussion:

• For an update on the Building Demolition & Site Revitalization Grant Program, Johansen said “about a dozen” properties have been cleaned up thus far.

“Not quite on schedule where we'd want to be, but I do expect it to pick up with nicer weather in April,” he said.
 
The board also took action on several motions related to ongoing work on the 38 properties covered by grant funding.
 
First, the board authorized a time extension from May 1 to June 20 for the completion of all work and the submittal of documentation to the land bank for all outstanding demolition projects.

“I was made aware by ODOD (the Ohio Department of Development) last week that the May 1 deadline that was stated on our program guidelines is inaccurate, and the grant agreement states all work and documentation must be submitted to the land bank by June 30,” Johansen said. “I would like to extend the date for completion for our demolition contractors to June 20. That's a Friday, and that would give me about a 10-day grace period for them, and then I would have till July 15 to submit everything to the state.”

The board then approved a motion selecting a contractor for asbestos abatement of 644 North West Street in Hillsboro and awarded two other bid packages involving parcels originally marked as “hot demos” with asbestos.

“On our hot demo structures that we had last spring, they never were technically sampled,” Johansen said. “The asbestos surveyor came out, and he deemed them too dangerous to go into the structure to collect the samples. When the demolition contractor was working with the EPA on his 10-day notifications, they wanted the structures to be sampled, or they wanted a local fire and safety inspector to deem the structure unsafe to collect the samples or to abate prior to demolition.”

Johansen said they have since had the contractor sample the structures, and “due to the time constraints with the program, I did go ahead and accept proposals for the abatement of 644 North West Street in Hillsboro” so they could move forward prior to demolition.

At Johansen’s recommendation, the board agreed to award the abatement contract for North West Street to the lowest bidder, Rainbow Environmental Services, in the amount of $1,954.

“They would have till April 11 to get that done, which is a pretty quick turnaround, but that's so that the demolition contractor can get in there and get the demolition done,” Johansen said.

For the remaining parcels, Johansen said the contractor determined that “three of the six” parcels did not have asbestos. Johansen listed those structures (6950 Pence Rd. and 4506 Sharpsville Rd., Hillsboro, and 13535 U.S. 50, Bainbridge) in a new bid package (package A) along with 644 North West St., which will be done after asbestos abatement. One other property, 937 North High Street, is “still a hot demo” and was listed separate in a second bid package (package B).

For those parcels, Johansen conducted a bid opening during the meeting, after which the board voted to award the projects to the lowest bidders. The HCLRC received bids for one or both packages from seven contractors, with Banks Construction submitting the lowest bid for package A ($30,000) and Evans Landscaping having the lowest bid for package B ($19,250).

Daniels made the motion to award the bids “with the caveat that if [Johansen finds] something that would disqualify those that are the lowest bidder, then we will revisit that.”

• For the Brownfield Remediation Program, Johansen gave brief updates on each project’s progress:

—As anticipated, at least one underground storage tank was located on the East Monroe property in Leesburg.

“We have received the geophysical survey report from TetraTech,” Johansen said. “There is an underground storage tank on the eastern part of the property and possibly a second underground storage tank on the northeastern part of the property.”

— An underground storage tank was also located at the former machine shop in Greenfield.

“Drilling for soil samples is scheduled for next week, with groundwater samples to follow a few weeks after that,” Johansen said. “There was an underground storage tank found under the sidewalk that borders up against the road and the structure. TetraTech has said that BUSTR [the Bureau of Underground Storage Tank Regulations] allows for the underground storage tank to be pumped of the contents inside, filled in and closed in place without pulling the underground storage tank.

“Removing the underground storage tank would escalate the project, as a portion of the road would be destroyed, it would have to be repaired, as well as it could alter the structural foundation of the building.”

— “Contamination running south of the property” was identified at the former gas station in Hillsboro.

“Drilling for soil samples was completed the first week of March, and groundwater samples is to follow,” Johansen said. “TetraTech found that the property sits on a bedrock that is only four to eight feet below the soil. They were not able to put in as many drilling wells for the sampling as they would have liked, but it was confirmed that there is contamination running south of the property, so there will be efforts to remediate the soil and the underground water.”

There were no updates to report for the former Rocky Fork Truck Stop, as “work has not yet been resumed,” or the former Bell’s Foundry, for which the HCLRC has applied but not yet been awarded an additional grant.

• Johansen opened two bids for 6747/6749 Heather Moor Trail at Rocky Fork Lake, two adjoining parcels (considered one property to sell) that the HCLRC obtained via tax foreclosure and cleaned up. The board had asked for a minimum bid of $28,000 and received one non-qualifying bid of $10,000 and one bid of $28,050.

The board voted to approve the sale of the parcels to the high bidder, Keith Combs, for $28,050.

• Johansen asked the board how they wanted to handle lawn care services this year at HCLRC-owned properties.

“We will need to make a determination on whether we would like to renew our contract with our current lawn care provider or put out bids to find a new contractor,” Johansen said. “We stated in the RFP that upon mutual agreement, the land bank can seek to renew the contract on an annual basis with the contractor. His price for mowing each vacant lot that we have is $50 per time, so we just would need to decide if we want to put that out for bid again.”

HCLRC board president Terry Britton asked if their current contractor “did a good job” last year.

“He did a good job,” Johansen said. “He was very communicative. I had no issues, no complaints. He even picked a lot of trash up.”

In response to questions from Daniels, Johansen said that the properties were mowed “every other week” and that other contractors have expressed interest in bidding on the mowing.

“Go ahead and bid it, then,” Daniels said.

• The board accepted the financial report as presented. Johansen reported a beginning balance of $404,612.94 and ending balance of $391,241.19 for the month of February, with expenses including homeowners association dues, tax assessments, recording fees and delinquent sewer fees on various properties now owned by the land bank, as well as rent for the land bank office and membership dues for the Ohio Land Bank Association.

In a separate motion, the board authorized Johansen to pay the list of outstanding bills, which totaled $58,196.61. Over $50,000 of that was for outstanding payments to TetraTech. Other invoices included payments for legal and accounting fees, rent and Johansen’s salary.

For more from Thursday’s meeting, see the story at https://highlandcountypress.com/news/highland-county-land-bank-city-hil….

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