News on the New Market Solar Project was not given at the weekly Wednesday morning meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners but should be expected following the rehearing deadline passing on July 20.

Dave Daniels, the vice chairman of the board of commissioners, said they had not heard back from the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) or the New Market Solar Project about whether the project had filed for a rehearing or accepted the issues the OPSB sent to the project. He said the board of commissioners “probably” needs to reach out and find out whether or not they did or not, but they just haven’t done it yet.

“Part of this is you kind of hope that that agency that holds those regulatory responsibilities over those people would continue to make communicating with the units of local government that it affects a priority,” Daniels said.

The Times-Gazette reported on a board of commissioners meeting held on July 10, 2024, in which there was a Zoom meeting with the OPSB and the board.

An excerpt of that story read:

Michael Williams, the executive director of the Ohio Power Siting Board, 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, just 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 have 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 of a period of a couple of months.

In other news, Julie Bolender, the director of Highland County Economic Development, said the Highland County Visitors Bureau hired two different bloggers to come to Highland County. She said the bloggers would be in the county for “a little over” 48 hours visiting all of the spots. She said that included going somewhere to see the beef cattle production and being the guest chefs at Maple Crest for lunch.

“It’s always good when they come because they shine a light on everything good in Highland County.”

Randy Sanders, current Highland County Sheriff, was in attendance to discuss the Highland County Justice Center’s jail kitchen rooftop units. He said there are units on the top of the building, and that “evidently,” the office has been told in the past by Weller’s Plumbing that they couldn’t put dehumidifiers on it. He said, because of that, there are three dehumidifiers down in the kitchen.

He said the people in the jail said it is “bad” in there and that it was also brought to their attention because there’s a problem of mold developing in the ceiling where the dehumidifiers can’t get. Sanders said he’s been inContact to see about attaching something right onto the rooftop unit, asking about a preliminary price, which brought back $25,000, but he also said that wasn’t specific.

Daniels said this has been an ongoing issue for “at least” three years. He said, on the possibility of looking into the additional unit, that it wouldn’t hurt to explore it, saying that they should see if they could get a firm price and then look into the timing and matters like that.

Alex Butler, Highland County auditor, reported on the state’s projected sales tax revenue. He said the estimated revenue the state would receive from its three percent sales tax was down compared to prior years.

He said in 2022, Highland County received just under $1.6 million from that, in 2023 it received just over $1.6 million and the county is projected to receive just over $1 million this year. He did say that was just a projection, though.

“So our local sales taxes, I don’t anticipate the drop like that, but I think it is an indicator that there was high numbers that everyone enjoyed right after COVID, during the COVID years, it’s going away and we’re going back to a more normal level,” Butler said.

Concerning Contract #38, Bolender said there were two different documents the board of commissioners would be signing.

She said the first of those was a revision of the county’s Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Policy and Procedure Manual which, if approved, would supersede anything else, lists a new board of directors for the RLF and use the loan fund in compliance with the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program through the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD).

She said the second document was an agreement to act in accordance with the laws surrounding the CDBG. She also said that meant that the money would be used for economic development programs in Highland County, such as construction or a piece of equipment.

The board of commissioners also approved four authorizations to execute, those being two Liquor Permits to the Highland County Agricultural Society for the Highland County Fair from Aug. 30, 2024, to Sept. 3, 2024, and Sept. 3, 2024, to Sept. 7, 2024, to the Ohio Department of Commerce, a Revolving Loan Fund Policy and Procedure Manual and a Grant Agreement between the Office and Budget and Management and the board of commissioners for a Highland County Engineer Truck Barn.

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

*Res. No. 24-123 is an agreement to rescind Res. No. 24-33 regarding the purchase of a Ford F-350 Truck from Mt. Orab Ford due to the order not being fulfilled.

*Res. No. 24-124 is an authorization for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds to 2280 Records Preservation in an amount of $6,000.

*Res. No. 24-125 is an authorization for the County Sheriff to declare the attached list of items to be surplus and no longer needed by the County and obsolete.

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

*Contract 38 is between the board of commissioners and the Ohio Department of Development for a Revolving Loan Fund Administration Agreement for the State of Ohio Community Development Block Grant Program.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.