Permissive sales tax receipts, foster care program, airport projects discussed at county commission meeting

Highland County commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels heard updates from several different county offices at their Wednesday, May 21 meeting, including favorable updates on permissive sales tax receipts and local foster care programs.

Highland County Auditor Alex Butler shared a positive permissive sales tax receipt report, as the county collected a record-high $765,118.79 for the month of May.

The total is 7.12-percent higher than the amount collected in the same month in 2024 ($714,208.17), and it puts the county 1.39-percent above the same year-to-date total from the current record-high year of 2024. For 2025 thus far, the county has officially surpassed the $4 million mark with $4,012,446.78 collected thus far.

Daniels also asked Butler for an update on Board of Revision activity, as the board hears local appeals on property tax values.

“We have maybe three or four more days scheduled over the next few weeks reviewing those property values,” Butler said. “I appreciate it when the public takes the interest and initiative to engage the office and avenues they have available to interact with us. In some cases, there's not much opportunity to come to a different property value, but other times —oftentimes — the property owners will come in with testimony and compelling evidence.

“I appreciate the help of commissioners in executing those responsibilities. All three commissioners are involved in the organization.”
 

In other discussion:

• As the weekly bill file approved by commissioners was nearly $1 million ($944,158.64), Highland County Job and Family Services Director Jeremy Ratcliff explained the reason was due to a $375,000 bill for foster care costs, plus $67,000 for a recruitment program for Children Services as they are seeking more local foster families.

However, Ratcliff had good news to share as well, as he said the number of kids in care is continuing to decline, while they are seeing slow progress in recruiting and qualifying additional foster parents.

“We're starting to see some progress in that area,” Ratcliff said. “We've really only been hitting the ground since about December of last year. We — really our licensing specialist, our placement supervisor — they've licensed three new additional homes in Highland County to serve Highland County kids.

“The unfortunate part is we did lose two homes, which happens. People adopt a child, say ‘our family's full now, no longer going to foster,’ so we've had a net gain of one, but we've got 18 prospects that are currently in the pipeline, that are somewhere in their training and license and certification process, that our staff continue to work with and make sure that they can get across the finish line. Hopefully, within a six-month period, they're accepting some of our Highland County kids into their homes.”

For those individuals already serving as foster parents, Ratcliff said the agency has set up a “peer-to-peer support group where some of the more senior foster parents can mentor some of the newer folks.

“They can make connections, help walk through that process together,” he said.

On a related note, Ratcliff said that May is Foster Parent Appreciation Month, as he thanked all of the Highland County foster families and said the JFS agency would be having an appreciation dinner May 30.

“Child welfare systems are really built on people stepping up to the plate and becoming foster parents,” Ratcliff said. “If there are no foster parents, it's very tough to provide child welfare.”

For a second week in a row, Ratcliff also spoke about how numbers of children in the agency’s care are trending downward, with 118 kids in care as of Wednesday morning — “one of the lowest I’ve seen since I’ve been there.”

As Ratcliff thanked commissioners for their continued “financial support,” Daniels in turn thanked Ratcliff for the agency’s efforts.

“About October last year, maybe September, you came to us with the idea of licensing and certifying some more homes in order to help reduce the cost of finding additional resources and additional places for our children that need to be in care,” Daniels said. “It sounds to me like you're moving down the road at a pretty good clip and getting that done.

“It’s paying off dividends right now from where we were. I want to congratulate you on your forward thinking, and I want to congratulate you on the work that your group's doing, and I hope you continue to get down that path and be successful in finding those places for the youth that we need to take into care, for a good environment for them to be in.”

• Highland County Airport Authority president Bob Prosek presented a number of Federal Aviation Administration documents for commission approval, although he told commissioners that a previously approved grant is on hold due to lack of bids.

A project “for reconstructing airport drainage, erosion control and for its design,” as well as extending and expanding the taxi lane, is moving forward as commissioners approved six different documents for the FAA.

Britton asked Prosek about the reasoning for the low bid being rejected on the project.

“They didn't have all the documents that were required by the FAA to bid on this,” Prosek said, adding that Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins reviewed the bids as well to “make sure everything was OK.

‘For the $75,575 estimated project to construct and expand the hangar, however, Prosek said they “absolutely had no bids.

“Talking to the FAA, we wanted to see about rebidding it real quick here, but they would not allow us to do it because of their scheduling,” Prosek said. “We're going to have to wait till maybe the end of October, which is the fiscal year of the FAA, and then we can rebid that. That one, we withdraw for now and put on hold.”

Along with seeking approval of the project documents, Prosek invited the community to attend the upcoming Young Eagles event at the Highland County Airport May 24 from 10 a.m.-noon, where free flights and tours (weather permitting) are offered to children ages 8-17.

• Commissioners took action on two change orders submitted by Alpha Construction, the contractor working to complete the county’s new records storage building.

The first change order for reinspection of the elevator was approved “in part,” as Roades and Daniels said the county’s ARPA funding coordinator Nicole Oberrecht argued “the charge down for the reinspection and saved us $1,000.

“What we're going to do is we're going to cut two separate checks,” Roades said. “One is to Alpha for their charges on all that, which is $1,163.21, and the second check will be cut to Schindler Elevator for the amount of $4,000. That’ll get us back on track for the elevator part.

“I do want to state that Alpha has also wanted, to from starting from [April 9], they wanted additional days, and we are not allowing any more days to any of these projects that go on.”

As previously reported, commissioners voted 3-0 in November to issue a notice of liquidated damages for project delays, “at a rate of $500 per calendar day” that construction is not complete, effective Nov. 8.

A second change order for elevator hub storage fees was denied in part and granted in part. Roades said that “Alpha requested to have the elevator built too early, and so there is a storage fee on it,” for which the county was billed $10,800.

According to Roades, the county has been told “that until we get this elevator situation taken care of, we will never be able to get into the building.” At Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins’ recommendation, commissioners voted to deny the change order from Alpha on the elevator fees and instead pay the elevator contractor directly.

“We are going to pay Schindler the $10,800 and pull that out of the retainage that we have at our final contract,” Roades said.

• Following public hearings and approval by Hillsboro City Council the previous week, commissioners agreed via resolution to partner with the City of Hillsboro for the program year 2025 Community Housing Impact & Preservation (CHIP) Program. They also approved a contract for a joint agreement with the city and with Highland County Community Action Organization, who facilitates the program.

“The CHIP program provides critical funding to assess income-eligible households with necessary home repairs,” Highland County Community Action housing director Jeanette Mottie said. “We are asking for the approval, and we also want to thank your continued commitment of the housing preservation in Highland County. It is greatly appreciated.”

• Commissioners voted to select WDC Group as engineers for renovations to the Highland County Courthouse.

Also approved were:

A transfer from Transfers Out to 3110 GIS Debt Retirement in the amount of $2,523.82;

A transfer from Transfers Out to 3160 Airport Debt Retirement in the amount of $673.63; and

A 63-month copier lease contract between Canon USA, Inc. and the Clerk of Courts office.

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