Pictured is Jeremy Ratcliff, director of Highland County Job and Family Services.
Jacob Clary | The Times-Gazette
The Highland County Board of Commissioners strongly encouraged the citizens of Highland County to vote for the Children Services levy at the 2024 General Election at its weekly Wednesday morning meeting.
The board of commissioners approved a resolution to “strongly encourage” the citizens of the county to support the Highland County Children Services Renewal Levy when they vote in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election.
“Just to remind everyone again, it is a renewal levy,” Jeremy Ratcliff, director of Highland County Job and Family Services, said. “It will not raise taxes. It is based on 2008 property valuations. The current levy has only ever been renewed, never been increased or replaced. And I appreciate this board’s leadership in publicly supporting this levy. I genuinely appreciate your willingness to be out in front of this and encourage our citizens to support this levy. 100 percent of the funds go to pay for children in foster care. At the current rate, the levy will buy us about 50 to 55 days of foster care services so I appreciate your service.”
In terms of other foster care news, Dave Daniels, chairman of the board of commissioners, said that the board would be sending a letter to the County Commissioners Association of Ohio (CCAO) about possibly adding foster care costs to its overall platform.
“I think that while we’re sitting here talking about children’s services and the need that arises out of there,” Daniels said. “This is not a problem that’s specific to Highland County. Almost every county in the state has been struggling with the cost of child protective services and foster care. And we’ve got a letter here that we would like to send out to CCAO to talk to them about making this part of their legislative platform going into the next few years to find ways for them to advocate for counties at state level to find some of the solutions to the problems that all the counties are facing.”
In other news, the board of commissioners approved a contract that would work to try and facilitate a way to more quickly eliminate delinquent taxes.
Vickie Warnock, Highland County treasurer, said this is something new the county is trying to do associated with delinquent taxes. She said the Highland County Prosecutor’s Office and the Land Bank will be working with a company called NAR Ohio, Inc. to look at county properties and “possibly” put tax liens on the property owners.
Warnock said if a tax lien is put on them, the county would work with NAR as a contract, with NAR to then pay the delinquent taxes back to the county, clearing the taxes up, and the property owners to then be responsible for paying NAR back for the contract.
The board of commissioners also awarded the Crop Land at the Leesburg Industrial Park to Hattan Farms with a bid of $240 per acre for an annual amount of $14,160.
The board of commissioners also moved to deny Change Order No. 9 from Alpha Construction at the recommendation of Vice-Chairman Brad Roades.
Roades said the situation is from “months and months ago” when a gas line was hit which wasn’t marked. He said the gas company then came and looked at the place and “came to the conclusion” that because the ticket was expired, the company was no longer liable for it.
He also said that in that process, the gas company charged $400 for the fixing of the gas line, after which Alpha Construction came back with a charge of $2,644.79 on its behalf for lost downtime. Roades said he called to get more information on the situation, saying that “basically,” when a ticket expires, it is at that point illegal to dig, and the ticket had expired.
Because of that, Roades recommended the denial of the change order.
The board of commissioners also welcomed David Taylor, Republican candidate for the second Congressional District, to speak.
In terms of areas that the board of commissioners said should be targeted, Daniels said one of the issues that never gets mentioned “is our irresponsible fiscal policy in the federal government.” whether or not we believe it or not, it affects our way of living and our economy. Terry Britton, a member of the board of commissioners, said a priority he thinks should be pushed would be the drug epidemic because it “drives a lot of things that goes on in Highland County and beyond.”
Daniels also reported about an open house for a new home built by Highland Housing at 137 W. Main St. in Leesburg on Tuesday, Oct. 15, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
The board of commissioners approved a bid of $375 from Marshall Septic Service to do work in and around the jail with its grease traps.
The board of commissioners also approved two authorizations to execute, those being a Contractor’s Application for Payment by Doll Layman, Ltd. for Pay App No. 14 for 67,885.60, and the other being the Notice of Award of the Rocky Fork Lake WWTP Improvements Phase II to Mechanical Construction Co., Inc.
The board of commissioners also approved a Letter of Support to CCAO for the CCAO Foster Care Discussion Letter.
There were eight resolutions approved by the board of commissioners, which are as follows:
*Res. No. 24-188 is an authorization for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within the County General (1000) fund in the amount of $3,500.
*Res. No. 24-189 is an endorsement and strong encouragement for the citizens of Highland County to support the Highland County Children Services Renewal Levy for approval in the Nov. 5, 2024, election.
*Res. No. 24-190 is an authorization for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within Repair MVL (2065) Fund in the amount of $71,180.96.
*Res. No. 24-191 is a request from Highland County Job and Family Services for a budget modification within the 2050 Public Assistance fund in the amount of $271,000.
*Res. No. 24-192 is an authorization for the Highland County Sheriff to declare the following list of items to be no longer needed by the county and obsolete.
*Res. No. 24-193 is an authorization for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within Repair MVL (2065) Fund in the amount of $48,493.99.
*Res. No. 24-194 is an authorization for a budget modification within the 1000 County General Fund in the amount of $15,000.
*Res. No. 24-195 is the awarding of the Rocky Fork Lake WWTP Improvements Project (Phase II) bid to Mechanical Construction Co., Inc., in the amount of $1,172,800.
There were also two contracts approved by the board of commissioners, which are as follows:
*Contract 56 is between the board of commissioners, CCAO Service Corporation, CCAOSC Energy Solutions and Palmer Energy Company for the First Amendment for Exhibit B. Electricity Purchasing Program.
*Contract 57 is between the board of commissioners, the Highland County Treasurer and NAR Ohio, Inc. for an Ohio Negotiated Sale Agreement.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
