Commissioners hear updates on OneOhio funding, MARCS radios, 911 plan

Highland County commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton met with representatives of several different county offices — including the Probation, Emergency Management and Sheriff’s departments — during their Wednesday, March 13 meeting. 

Highland County Probation Director of Programming & Clinical Services Tonya Sturgill, who serves on the OneOhio Recovery Foundation board, discussed the recently announced request for proposal period for the first round of OneOhio funding.

As announced by OneOhio March 4, “The OneOhio Recovery Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization charged with distributing a portion of Ohio’s opioid settlement funds to advance substance use prevention, treatment and recovery efforts, [March 4] launched its first grantmaking process with the release of its 2024 Regional Grant Cycle Request for Proposals (RFP). As part of its core mission, the Foundation will allocate as much as $51 million in the 2024 Regional Grant Cycle, with funding opportunities for a diverse range of Ohio-based organizations, including nonprofits, for-profits and government entities who are on the frontlines of Ohio’s opioid battle.”

“I am happy to finally have some information to share,” Sturgill told commissioners. “It's been a long time coming. 

“The OneOhio Foundation has finally opened their RFP, and that opened on March 4. They're asking anyone who plans on applying for this money to register as soon as possible. Once they get the registrations, then applications will actually open on April 2 to apply for the money. Those will close on May 3.”

From there, Sturgill said there is a “four-step process” to review applications, including consideration by the state board, an “expert panel,” the local board and a grant review committee.

There are 19 OneOhio “regions,” and Highland County is in Region 9, along with Adams, Brown, Fayette, Pickaway, Pike, Ross and Scioto counties. 

“Our region has actually decided to leave it wide-open on possibilities [for applications],” Sturgill said. “We didn't put any parameters on anything that's going to be ruled out. We're going to just take all submissions and just see what's out there. We didn't want to say this money is going to go completely toward prevention, or it's going to go completely toward even treatment-related costs. Anything that has been affected or impacted by the opiate epidemic can apply for this money.” 

Sturgill said that they would also like to encourage “collaboration” between counties in the region.

“Anyone that would have a program that would reach more than one county could be something that we’d give a little bit of preference to, just because the money would go further and impact more counties that way,” Sturgill said.

Sturgill said $2,751,049 is Region 9’s current allotment, but “there will be more coming” over the next 18 years of the settlement.

“That’s just what's in the pot now,” she said. “Every year, this money gets increased as far as the percentage that we get.”

Information, including the RFP, is available online at OneOhioFoundation.com/Grants. Sturgill told commissioners she wanted to send the information to their office for them to send out to department heads as well.

In other updates: 

• Highland County EMA Director David Bushelman met with commissioners, who asked Bushelman for feedback on using a carryover in his department to put toward MARCS (Multi-Agency Radio Communication System) radio upgrades.

As discussed in October, Bushelmann said that all MARCS radios will be required to have Link Layer Authentication (LLA) upgrades by July 1, 2025.

“You indicated last year that you had somewhat of a carryover, and we were looking at whether or not the money that we normally put in might be beneficial to use for the upgrades of the MARCS radios,” Daniels said. “I think the $30,000 comes pretty close to upgrading the ones that are upgradable. Is that correct?”

Bushelman said whether that $30,000 covers the radio costs “depends on which list you’re looking at,” while he said the carryover total itself was “somewhat misleading.”

“For instance, just to upgrade to sheriff's office is over $24,000,” Bushelman said. “That's just the upgrades. That’s not the replacing of radios that cannot be upgraded.”

Daniels asked if “that was an appropriate use of that money” or if Bushelman “needs that for general operations.”

“The carryover that shows is somewhat misleading, because some of that money is solar funds that have not been appropriated yet, per the auditor's office,” Bushelman said. “I appropriate those as I need them, so that's in that lump sum. Then there's a per capita that the fire chiefs pay in, which is a line item within my budget at $6,000.”

Bushelman added that if they want to use any of his budget toward MARCS radios, that also needs to be “a discussion that would have to be held with my board, since my board controls my finances.”

The EMA Board’s next meeting is March 19, Bushelman said, and he told commissioners he could bring it up then.

“With this mandatory upgrade, we're coming in and we're just trying to figure out how we're going to be able to make all this work,” Daniels said. “We’re just trying to try and figure out how we get all the balls rolling.”

As discussed last year, Bushelman said he has received estimates from “$550 to $1,050 per radio.” It is currently unclear how much grant money, if any, the state will be providing for counties to make these required upgrades.

“To upgrade all the MARCS radios that are capable of being upgraded in the county, and to replace the ones that are not upgradeable, we’re looking at $700,000,” Bushelman said in October.

• Commissioners reviewed a copy of the county’s 911 plan, as presented by Highland County 911 Coordinator Scott Miller Wednesday. The Ohio Revised Code states, “If the public safety answering point is operated by the board of county commissioners, then the board of county commissioners shall serve as the 9-1-1 program review committee.”

According to Miller, “The new plan is based off of a law that passed and went into effect in October,” using a template provided by the state. 

“This will be required to be mailed to all the entities in the county, and anytime we do an update, we have to update it with the state,” Miller said. “We also have to update it with all the entities, to give them an updated copy.”

Daniels asked Miller to outline what the plan entails.

“They want us to list the names of the phone companies that provide wireless and landline phone service; the geographic territories, which is the townships, the cities, the villages; and all the fire and EMS and law enforcement agencies,” Miller said. “I also included that we would get 911 calls for [Divisions of] Parks and Recreation and Wildlife, because we do get those calls. 

“We talked in the plan about how we will connect to the next-gen 911 system when that time comes, which is going to be over the internet or fiberoptic lines. It talks about how we will immediately transfer or relay messages or directly dispatch all 911 calls to the proper agencies.”

The plan also includes the estimated “annual costs of running a dispatch center for the next five years,” Miller said.

After hearing from Miller, commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the plan.

• Highland County Treasurer Vickie Warnock and Auditor Alex Butler reported that the real estate tax payment submissions, which were due March 1, were winding down.

“Compared to the first half last year, we brought in about $1 million more,” Warnock said.

• Commissioners voted via resolution to officially endorse the Highland County Children Services levy renewal issue on the March 19 primary election ballot. See the story at; https://highlandcountypress.com/news/commissioners-endorse-highland-cou….

• Commissioners issued a proclamation recognizing March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in Highland County during their Wednesday, March 13 meeting. See more at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/highland-county-commissioners-reco….

• Commissioners also made the following approvals, each by a 3-0 vote:

— A resolution to authorize the County Engineer to declare items no longer needed by the County and obsolete, pursuant to ORC 307-12 (A)(1).

— A resolution to appoint the 2024 Board Members to the Highland County Local Corrections Planning Board & Reentry Coalition and to approve and accept the Community Plan as submitted.

— A resolution to approve an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds within Auditor’s REA fund 2055 in the amount of $30,000. According to Butler, this was due to receiving invoices from 2023 “that were being sent to my predecessor’s email and never made it to be paid” last year.

— A copier lease contract with Canon Solutions America in the amount of $172.48.

— Two separate quotes ($950 and $818) from Ultra Pro Painting for a third coat of paint at the BMV and for the title office.

— An application for payment from Doll Layman, Ltd. in the amount of $45,080, for upgrades at the Rocky Fork Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant. 

“Both clarifiers are poured,” Daniels said of the WWTP work. “It seems that equipment and the mechanicals that needs to be installed are coming in, and there don't appear to be any great delays in that, so I think they're moving along pretty good. Hopefully that will be on time and on target.”

— A $350 bid by Environmental Control for one-time “deep cleaning” at the Highland County Administration Building.

Commissioners also voted to reject a water line size change order request from Alpha Construction — their contractor for the county’s records storage building project — at the recommendation of project engineers at McCarty Associates LLC. 

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