The possibility of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) coming to multiple county buildings was discussed at the weekly Wednesday morning meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners.

Dave Bushelman, director of Highland County Emergency Management Agency (HCEMA), said the board of commissioners had asked him to do a survey of what AEDs were in county buildings and everywhere. After doing that, he said he figured out that 16 would be needed to “outfit” all the county buildings.

Bushelman said some of those AEDs would be housed in cabinets with alarms, with the full purchase of the AEDs and cabinets to be $39,597.01, which would include a three-year service agreement from Cintas for each of them. He also said he could do the training for the AEDs because all of the county buildings will be under Paint Creek Fire/EMS.

Natasha Mallery, a sales representative from Cintas, brought in the Zoll 3 AED, the newest model. She said it had a screen that would walk people through how to use it.

“The AED is literally foolproof,” she said. “We handed this to five and six-year-olds with zero training and they were able to walk through everything with the AED … You can hand it to a 70-year-old with hard hearing and they’re gonna hear it because it is one of the loudest AEDs or the loudest A E DS.”

Mallery said there is also a lease program for the AEDs, which is a 36-month term for $120 per month.

Concerning possibly putting stop-the-bleed kits or Narcan inside the cabinets, Bushelman said that would be possible.

Dave Daniels, chairman of the board of commissioners, said an AED should also be considered at the Record Storage Building, the Dog Pound and the sewer plant alongside the other 16 locations.

The board of commissioners didn’t approve the purchase or lease of anything at its meeting and said they would discuss it further.

In other news, a discussion through Zoom was had regarding the New Market Solar Project.

Michael Williams, the executive director of the Ohio Power Siting Board, said the board determined on June 20, 2024, that the New Market Solar Project was built inconsistent with its prior certification, then ordered specific remedies to fix those inconsistencies. He said that there is a “multitude of streets impacted” and 38 different areas that were determined to be intrusive of setbacks.

Williams said the board “frankly” took a pragmatic approach in its determination because not every setback/encroachment was treated the same way.

Williams said that the pragmatic approach can be seen in some of the environmental and economic cost for some of the setback modifications that were seen as counterintuitive or counterproductive. He said that included a road around the project that was less traveled, which might be seen as environmentally/economically not warranted in terms of the remedies. He said “perhaps” the board’s approach in this was to incentivize the project and try to say let’s get the project moving.

He said, as a part of the process, New Market Solar asked for a call later on Wednesday to discuss questions of interpretation on what the board did and didn’t order.

Williams said that if New Market Solar feels they lost aspects they think they should have won, and want to relitigate those or think some of the board’s decisions are too impactful, they can file for a rehearing. He said they don’t have a way to predict how long the rehearing would take because they don’t know how many issues would need to be reheard. He said the 30-day window for a rehearing started on June 20, when the decision was first announced.

Williams said he would let the board of commissioners know if he hears about a possible rehearing application in the next 10 days or if the deadline has passed and there would be no rehearing.

“I think it’s safe to assume we’d be looking at somewhere in the range of three to six months for the board to determine whatever issues are raised and come back with you on an issue of rehearing to give further direction … I mean, ultimately, the project would have the ability to appeal this matter to the Supreme Court, in which case, you know, we’re gonna measure that in many months or potentially years, before the court would give some direction there,” Williams said.

Williams said, to think about the situation where the project doesn’t file for a rehearing, presumably they’ve been doing engineering behind the scenes, and that “at best” that would be in a heavy draft form. He said if he was optimistic, the project could get to full production sometime hopefully in the first quarter of next year.

He said that in the improvements, he wouldn’t be surprised if they had to unplug for a period of time. He said “the sense” he gets if the project has purposefully compartmentalized its construction where the expectation would be an unplug over a period of a couple of months.

Julie Graham-Price, community liaison for the Ohio Power Siting Board, also said that the Dodson Creek project appears to be on schedule.

Carl Rayburn, the new Family Recovery Services (FRS) mobility manager, reported that the organization currently has one driver dedicated to staying strictly within the Hillsboro city limits. He said the organization might look at expanding that to two drivers in the city limits.

Rayburn then also said he spoke to Damon Lucas who said that when the 2024 General Election cycle starts following the Highland County Fair, FRS would look to open up rides to places where people can vote.

Concerning Res. No. 24-117, Daniels said the City of Hillsboro contacted the board of commissioners to look to reallocate the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds it had previously wanted to use for the Roberts Lane redevelopment. He said the city now has a need for its Beech Street storm sewer project, which that money would qualify for. The board of commissioners approved that reallocation.

Daniels said that the OSU Extension Office has also moved out of the Administration Building and moved into its new facility at the Highland County Fairgrounds.

The board of commissioners also approved three authorizations to execute, those being a Subdivision Participation and Release Firm for the new National Opioids Settlement from Kroger, a Release of Funds from the Federal Aviation Administration to a different airport and the No. 11 Contractor’s Application for Payment to Doll Layman, Ltd.

There were three resolutions approved by the board of commissioners, which are as follows:

*Res. No. 24-115 is an authorization for a budget modification within the 2000 Dog and Kennel fund in the amount of $2,000.

*Res. No. 24-116 is an awarding of the HIG-CR 5 New Market Road Reconstruction and Resurfacing bid to Miller-Mason Paving Co. in the amount of $983,516.

*Res. No. 24-117 is an authorization for a reallocation of the City of Hillsboro Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds as established under the American Rescue Plan Act.

There was also one contract approved by the board of commissioners, which is as follows:

*Contract 32 is between the board of commissioners, the Pike County Board of Commissioners and the Pike County Sheriff’s Office for the housing of prisoners at the Highland County Jail for $65 per day.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.