Highland County commissioners (l-r) David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton are pictured during their weekly Wednesday meeting.
Jacob Clary | The Times-Gazette
Highland County’s upcoming STEEL Conference was discussed at the weekly Wednesday morning meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners.
Jamie Wheeler, executive director of the Highland County Chamber of Commerce, said the event will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Patriot Center, after which there would be an after-event Happy Hour at The Porch. She said tickets to the event cost $100 and are open to everyone, with the purchase deadline by Oct. 15, 2024.
Wheeler said STEEL stands for Strengthening Together Experienced and Emerging Leaders,” as the event will be a half-day leadership conference. She said one of the things that the organization has been looking at is the number of employees in the county that will be “looking at retirement” in the next five to 10 years. She also said those employees are looking and seeing who will replace them as leaders at their workplace.
“So, the goal of this is really to cultivate our emerging leaders, those kind of newer into the workforce or maybe they’ve been there for a while, but you can tell they just need one little extra push and they could be really great so we can overall continue to grow and strengthen our community,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler then said the event will begin with a lunch at 11:30 a.m. and then move to a welcome kick-off at 12:30 p.m. She then said the keynote speaker would be introduced at 12:45 p.m., that person being Jordon Montgomery, who she said was a performance coach who would be giving a message on the art of encouragement. After that, Wheeler said there would be a panel of Highland County people to talk about their experiences.
She said her current hope for attendance is 300, but she also said it’s an inaugural event and it would take “a little bit of work” to get there.
In other news, John Leutz, legislative counsel for the County Commissioners Association of Ohio (CCAO), and Kirkland Mizerek, executive vice president of Palmer Energy, were in attendance at the meeting to discuss a possible collaboration with Highland County and CCAO.
Dave Daniels, chairman of the board of commissioners, said the board has been looking at the energy environment from the last five to six months. He said the board wanted to bring in CCAO because they have a program for pooling counties together which would help with rates.
Leutz said the program brings all of the counties that have signed up together for facilities and an aggregation program, after which they put stuff out for bid and bring contract offers back for review.
Terry Britton, a member of the board of commissioners, said one of the reasons the board asked the group to come to the meeting was because they know there are “huge” changes coming in terms of energy gap concerns.
The board of commissioners agreed to discuss possibly joining the CCAO on this energy group pooling system and possibly move further at next week’s meeting.
Daniels said the board of commissioners received a request from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. He said the office recognized the cost of utilities and other things have gone up and asked the board if it intends on making any adjustments to its lease. He also said that the board needs to look at the utility costs and assess what it needs to do, with the deadline to get back to them being Dec. 31, 2024.
The board of commissioners also approved one authorization to execute, that being Change Order No. 3 from Doll Layman, Ltd. for the Rocky Fork Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant project to give a 30-day extension due to a delay in receiving parts.
There were 12 resolutions approved by the board of commissioners, which are as follows:
*Res. No. 24-176 is a request from Victim Witness for a budget modification within the 2540 Victim Witness Assistance fund in the amount of $65.40.
*Res. No. 24-177 is a request from Victim Witness for a budget modification within the 2540 Victim Witness Assistance fund in the amount of $982.35.
*Res. No. 24-178 is a request from Human Resources for a budget modification within the 1000 County General fund in the amount of $1,000.
*Res. No. 24-179 is a request for a budget modification within the 1000 County General fund in the amount of $5,000.
*Res. No. 24-180 is a request for a budget modification within the 5030 Rocky Fork Sewer fund in the amount of $16,000.
*Res. No. 24-181 is an authorization for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds to County – Advances Out in the amount of $12,926.45. Also requested was an advance to Upgrade RFL in the amount of $12,926.45. Also requested was an additional appropriation to 4240 in the amount of $12,946.45.
*Res. No. 24-182 is an authorization for the County to sell surplus equipment at a public auction on October 12 at 10 a.m. at the Highland County Fairgrounds.
*Res. No. 24-183 is an agreement, at the request of the Highland County Sheriff’s Office, to donate the listed vehicle (2014 Dodge Charger) to the Adams County Commissioners/Adams County Sheriff’s Office for use at their schools.
*Res. No. 24-184 is an authorization for the County Sheriff to declare the following items which are no longer needed by the County and obsolete.
*Res. No. 24-185 is an authorization for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within Emergency Management (2780) fund in the amount of $43,469.20.
*Res. No. 24-186 is an agreement by the board of commissioners to direct a portion of the County’s Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (CLFRF) payment to the Highland County Justice Center Carpet Replacement Project in the amount of $21,000.
*Res. No. 24-187 is an agreement by the board of commissioners to direct a portion of the County’s CLFRF payment to the Highland County Sheriff’s Office and Job and Family Services in the amount of $16,000.
There were also four contracts approved by the board of commissioners, which are as follows:
*Contract 52 is between the board of commissioners, the Highland County Sheriff and Aramark Correctional Services for Amendment N. 25 to Operating Agreement for food service.
*Contract 53 is between the board of commissioners, the Highland County Sheriff and Spectra Contract Flooring for the Sheriff’s Office carpet replacement.
*Contract 54 is between the board of commissioners and Right Stuff Software for the Right Stuff Software Corporation Software Licensing Agreement.
*Contract 55 is between the board of commissioners and Right Stuff Software for the Right Stuff Software Corporation Application Hosting Agreement.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
