State of Emergency declared

The Highland County Board of Commissioners declared a State of Emergency due to drought at their weekly Wednesday morning meeting.

Dave Daniels, chairman of the board of commissioners, said that Highland County is currently listed as “severe” in the state’s drought monitor.

Dave Bushelman, the director of Highland County Emergency Management Agency (HCEMA), said the county is currently a D-4 on a five-point scale, with four being the highest. He said when even the “slightest bit” of a county gets this designation, the entire county gets that designation.

“So, we’ve got that going on and we’re getting a little bit of rain but it’s nowhere near what we need,” Daniels said.

Daniels said one of the reasons the county does this kind of designation is because, if state funds become available, they require the county to declare an emergency. He said that the designation also impacts the contiguous counties to Highland County, saying that they now have the opportunity to apply for possible relief.

Daniels also said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared Highland County a disaster area, saying that aspect always “get the most publicity.” He said there are funds available for crop farmers, livestock farmers and people with tree and vine programs, among others.

Bushelman said HCEMA has been working with fire chiefs for scenarios such as if Hillsboro got a city fire. He said they don’t want to deplete all of the city’s water, so they have plans for that possible situation.

Shawn Adkins, public works superintendent, said that the city is down to about 70 days of water left. He said that on Monday, the valve to Highland County Water was opened, helping the situation. Adkins also said that they broke even on Tuesday, not losing or gaining any water.

In terms of the drought situation that he is seeing, Bushelman said crop yields are “way down.” He said he isn’t sure exactly by how much, but also said he finished cutting his beans they were probably about half of what they normally would get. He even said that he was “thankful” because he’s been hearing a lot worse from others. He said he’s heard of domestic and livestock wells that have even dried up due to the drought.

In other news, Highland County Health Commissioner Jared Warner was in attendance at the meeting to discuss multiple upcoming events coming to the county.

Warner said the first of those was the Brake for Breakfast event coming on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. at the Highland County Health Department parking lot at 1487 N. High St. He said the main crux of the event is about increasing awareness of breast cancer and screenings.

“What we see year over year is really frustrating is that our overall rates of cancer in Highland County tend to be pretty consistent with the rest of the state,” Warner said. “But the number of people who die from cancer in Highland County is much higher. And the reason for that is because we’re finding our cancers late in the game. We’re not taking advantage of some of the screening opportunities that exist right here in Highland County to find problems early and fix them early.”

Warner said the event consists of people driving into the parking lot, doing a loop around the building and then getting a free breakfast and information materials on breast cancer screening.

The next thing Warner wanted organizations to take notice of is that the health department received a grant from the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) for water bottle filling stations.

He said “essentially” anyone in the county that has a water fountain can apply to receive a free upgrade, which would fit the fountain with a water bottle filling station. He said, if their application was approved, the only cost would be the commercial plumbing fee for the installation.

Warner said the reviewing of any application would begin on Oct. 31, 2024, which was also the announced deadline. He also said he thought the health department was budgeted to do 50 of them in the county.

The third event Warner highlighted was the Highland County Health Department (HCHD) Dumpster Days. He said there are two more of them left in the year, both at Highland County Health Department at 1487 N. High St. He said the first Dumpster Day event would be on Oct. 8, 2024, and Oct. 9, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for both days.

He said the second event was added due to community feedback. Warner said some people have talked about finding it difficult to get to the Dumpster Days event during work hours. HCHD has now added an evening-only event on Oct. 29, 2024, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the HCHD.

The final event Warner discussed was the tire and electronics collections event happening this Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, from 8 a.m. to noon at the North High Business Center at 1487 N. High St.

Highland County Auditor Alex Butler reported that his office is currently working through pending reappraisal cases which were started “the last couple of weeks.” On those, he said they need to be finalized because the final abstract for the reappraisals was due to the state in October.

For people still interested in discussing their appraisals, Butler said he would do his best to accommodate them if they reach out in the next day or so, but also said an “additional opportunity” would be available for them next year by going to the Board of Revision.

The board of commissioners announced bids for the Leesburg Crop Land would be opened on Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 9:15 a.m.

The board of commissioners also approved one authorization to execute, that being Change Order No. 1 from Kiley Construction for the Clay Township Park Improvements project with a negative change order of $89,283.

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

*Res. No. 24-172 is an authorization for a request to appropriate $450 to Advances Out 2525. Also requested was a repayment of an earlier advance from 2525 Block Grant PY22 to Advances In in the amount of $450 (Res. No. 24-22).

*Res. No. 24-173 is an approval for the following department as an authorized user to the Highland County Credit Card Policy (Res. No. 24-56) adopted on March 27, 2024; Highland County RISE Program in the amount of $1,000.

*Res. No. 24-174 is a declaration of a State of Emergency due to Drought.

*Res. No. 24-175 is an authorization for Christopher M. Fauber, the Highland County engineer, to prepare and submit an application to participate in the Ohio Public Works Commission State Capital Improvement and/or Local Transportation Improvement Programs and to execute contracts as required.

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

*Contract 51 is between the board of commissioners and Kiley Construction for Clay Township Park Improvements.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.