Infrastructure projects discussed at Hillsboro City Council meeting

Hillsboro City Council members received updates on several ongoing infrastructure upgrades during their Thursday, March 13 meeting.

In her report to council, safety and service director Brianne Abbott said that “cleanup and pavement markings on the Roberts Lane project” will be completed in the coming days. The multimillion-dollar road expansion has been under construction since the fall of 2023.

Council member Mary Stanforth asked “what has happened to the barrels out there by the new stoplights on 73.

“People are using that main lane where it's supposed to be a turn lane,” Stanforth said. “There was a gal in front of me today who went all the way to the barrels before she realized that she's supposed to be in the right lane. There's no indication. There's nothing on the road that has a turn sign.”

Public works superintendent Shawn Adkins said the temporary markings “have worn off.

“The permanent markings are coming tomorrow, the thermal, so it should be more visible after tomorrow,” Adkins said.

Stanforth asked when the new extension would be open, and Adkins said “maybe next week” or shortly after, once lights and signs are ready.

“We’ll be closing Pea Ridge simultaneously,” Adkins said.

In addition to a previously discussed new parking lot uptown, Abbott said the city “is planning to construct three parking lots in locations in or near” the uptown district.

A resolution authorizing the mayor to take the necessary steps to purchase the parcel at 212 North High Street for a municipal parking lot, at a cost of $110,000, was approved as an emergency measure in November.

Along with the North High Street location, Abbott said Thursday that new lots will be built on West Main and Railroad Streets.

Because of that update from the city, street and safety committee chair Adam Wilkin said in his report that the committee “has decided, for now, to table the possibility of three-hour parking” enforcement in the uptown area.

“We are interested to see how the new parking lots coming will affect the issues with parking uptown before moving forward,” Wilkin said. “If problems persist, then we will discuss further how to move ahead with parking restrictions.”

The long-discussed pedestrian safety project in the uptown district is set to begin construction this month, Abbott said, with a targeted start date of March 28 and estimated “completion by June 30.” Legislation for the project was approved last April, after three contentious meetings, although the city had already been awarded $336,000 through ODOT in May 2022 for the improvements. According to a press release from ODOT, “The crosswalks at the Main Street and High Street intersection will be replaced with new high-visibility crosswalks including new pavement markings, center median refuge islands and solar-powered pedestrian-activated beacons.”

Abbott said construction is also continuing on the Beech/Railroad Street improvement project, which includes water, sewer, storm and street (curbs, gutters and sidewalks) upgrades.

In other infrastructure news, Mayor Justin Harsha told council, in his report, to expect a more detailed update on the final plans for Crossroads Park upgrades at their April meeting.

Last May, the City of Hillsboro received $5,204,536 to supplement already earmarked grant funding for Crossroads Park (formerly known as the green space on West Main Street).

“We've been working real close with Choice One and Verdantas on the design of Crossroads Park,” Harsha said. “Choice One has been doing pretty much the site plan and the elevations and and all that part of the project, and Verdantas has been working on the amphitheater and the community center. We're hoping next month we will have a presentation to show you the final layout of everything that's going to happen.

“I think everybody's going to be real proud of what we're going to be able to accomplish down there.”

In other discussion:

• Abbott also provided an update on a presentation by Highland County Health Commissioner Jared Warner in February. Warner shared handouts with council members, administrators and the community with statistics on local health outcomes and photos of the National Fitness Campaign’s Fitness Courts as a potential addition to the city’s parks system.

Abbott said that the city plans to meet with representatives of the National Fitness Campaign March 27. The community enhancement committee has scheduled a meeting to review the proposal and issue a recommendation.

In local development news, Abbott announced that plans for the new Aldi on the lot of the former Star Cinemas property are now official.

“The last update we received from the developer is that they plan to open doors prior to Christmas of this year,” she said.

Abbott added that the city issued 10 commercial and 10 residential building permits in February; GloFiber will begin fiber-to-home construction this month; and the city is engaging in “monthly calls for the Marriott Hotel project with the developer.”

Abbott also announced that the Hillsboro Farmers’ Market will return uptown on Saturdays starting May 17.

• A resolution authorizing the Safety and Service Director to enter into a contract with LC United Painting Co. for painting of the Tower Drive water tower passed by a 6-0 vote following suspension of the three-reading rule.

Stanforth asked how much the contract would cost, and Adkins said he thought it was $96,000. Council member Jason Brown asked how the “life expectancy” was calculated for the painting of the water towers. Adkins said it was based on “an inspection.”

Stanforth also asked when the tower was last painted, and Adkins said he thought it was “right before the bicentennial” in 2003. The public works superintendent also said that the new paint will be “battleship gray or blue” and will incorporate the city’s new emblem.

• An ordinance modifying the zoning classification of certain parcels and repealing Ordinance 2024-47 was passed by a 6-0 vote, following unanimous suspension of the three-reading rule.

Ordinance 2024-47, legislation modifying the zoning classification of certain parcels, including “on Beech, Elm, Railroad, John [streets] and surrounding area,” according to Abbott, was approved on its third reading in October. The legislation was introduced at the Planning Commission’s recommendation. The listed parcels were rezoned from industrial “E” to either business and residential “D” or residential “B.”

The revised ordinance approved Thursday was to correct an error on the original ordinance, as Abbott said “the parcel numbers were not included.

“This new legislation will repeal the previous and pass a new ordinance with those parcel numbers included as an exhibit,” she said.

• Two ordinances making supplemental appropriations were approved and adopted.

The first was an ordinance to appropriate $3,450 in funding through the Drive to Succeed grant received by the city, in order to “spend the remaining grant dollars,” Abbott said.

The second ordinance was to “appropriate additional funds in order to spend funds from the” Ohio Water Development Authority. That includes $3,229,842.29 for the Collection System line item and $984,157.80 for the Distribution System line item.

“This ordinance will appropriate funds received from OWDA for the Beech and Railroad Street construction project, just to be able to pay our bills on that,” Abbott said.

• Council heard the second reading of an ordinance amending Section 39.20 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro pertaining to the city’s records request policy.

As previously reported, if approved, the policy would be amended to impose a fee of “$75 for each 15-minute segment of footage, not to exceed $750 per requested video,” for records requests involving body-worn camera footage at the police department. According to Hillsboro Police Chief Eric Daniels, the proposal is in response to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s recent signing of House Bill 315, which allows agencies to implement a fee for these records if they so choose.

In his report, Wilkin said that the street and safety committee report reviewed the legislation and is recommending its passage.

“The problem is outside source requests from companies that use the videos on social media for profit,” Wilkin said. “Chief Daniels informed the committee that this is happening, on average, three to four times a month, with each instance taking roughly a day of labor by one of our officers. One 15-minute video takes about an hour of labor to complete. This is time our officers could spend policing instead of video editing.

“The actual costs include costs incurred reviewing, blurring or obscuring, redacting, uploading or producing the video records; the storage medium on which the record is produced; staff time; and any other relevant overhead necessary to comply with the request. Open governments can require a requester to pay the estimated cost before preparing the video for inspection or production.”

• Council heard the second reading of an ordinance amending Section 51.076 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro to increase the rates charged for water service for the city of Hillsboro.

• Council also heard the second reading of a proposed ordinance to expand the existing Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, or DORA. During its reading, Brown asked Daniels if the city has had “any issues at all from DORA,” to which Daniels shook his head no.

• During the communications portion of the meeting, council members heard from Wayne Howard, Rocky Fork Detachment Leader of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 082-06-10. After his presentation, the city agreed to be an “information center” by allowing the group to place brochures in the front lobby of the city building.

Howard said the Auxiliary is currently recruiting additional members for their Rocky Fork Lake detachment, which is focused “strictly on recreational boating safety, and that does not entail any type of law enforcement whatsoever.” Some of their services include public education on recreational safety and vessel exams.

According to Howard, in addition to seeking more members, they are also looking for businesses or other areas in the community to serve as Recreational Boating Safety Visitation Program partners.

“It’s basically asking the owners of the business if we can display all of our pamphlets, as far as like life jackets, aids to navigation,” Howard said. “There's also coloring books, things like that, and that's what all the visitation center is for us to get involved with community that way.”

Howard asked if the city would be willing to place the group’s pamphlets in the main lobby, adding that if they did so, the Coast Guard detachment would give them a “certificate of appreciation.” Council president TomEichinger deferred to Harsha, who said they could “absolutely” oblige.

• With no objection from council or administrators, the April city council meeting was moved up a day, to April 16, at the request of council members who observe Maundy Thursday.

• At the start of the meeting, council voted 6-0 to excuse the absence of Greg Maurer, who was unable to attend due to work commitments.

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