Highland County land bank making progress on Rocky Fork Truck Stop, East Monroe Mill remediation

The Highland County Land Reutilization Corporation (land bank) board heard the latest progress report on the county’s two ongoing brownfield remediation projects during their monthly meeting Monday, March 20.

First, environmental consultant Matt Wagner of Tetra Tech gave an update on the work completed at the site of the former Rocky Fork Truck Stop.

As previously reported, the state awarded the land bank $465,399 for the cleanup and remediation of the site. The project description from the Ohio Department of Development says, “Utilized as a truck stop and gas station since 1990, operations on this site ceased in 2016. The property is in poor condition and its location between two state parks make it a blight to the local community. Remediation on the site includes the removal of the oil tanks on the property. After cleanup, the county plans to construct a retail market and parking lot on the site.”

During a special meeting Jan. 30, land bank board members voted to accept a $78,000 bid from Thompson for the first round of the project cleanup. The items in the bid included mobilization and insurance; installing erosion control; demolishing two structures, footers, canopy and shed; recycling concrete; removing five dispensers, four underground storage tanks and one above-ground; excavating, hauling and disposing of non-hazardous soil; providing clean fill; excavating, transporting and compacting fill; purchasing back fill; and dewatering.

“The building has been completely demoed, and the tanks are out of the ground,” Wagner told the board Monday. “We are now working on the closure sampling for that, as well as likely some over excavation along the dispenser islands as well as the pipe runs. That activity will all occur this week, so there will still be quite a bit of activity out there.

“Once we get that information and that those results back, it'll help us determine what the appropriate next steps are in terms of the groundwater remediation, so stay tuned, but the project is very active.”

During the demolition process, Wagner said a “water well that went to 130 feet” was identified “smack dab in the middle of that building.” He said they took steps to “properly abandon” the well, which he explained in more detail.

“We actually have to physically core that out, and then there's a certain standard by which you abandon that,” Wagner said. “We send that log information into the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to document that.”

In response to a question from board chair Terry Britton, Wagner said that there was “flexibility” in the budget for the project and that he did not anticipate any additional costs from the well cleanup.

The board also took action Monday to move forward with their second Brownfield project, the former East Monroe Mill. The state awarded the HCLRC $90,935 for cleanup and remediation of the site.

“This site was once used as a grain mill and currently is partially collapsed and unusable,” the project description says. “Cleanup will include asbestos abatement, demolition and remediation. The improved site could be utilized for housing, retail or green space.”

For the East Monroe Mill, Wagner said “over eight contractors” attended the bid site walk, with four contractors submitting bids for the project. After reviewing the bids from Mound Waste and Recycling ($33,440.50), Thompson ($45,600), Evans Landscaping ($75,677) and Advanced Demolition Services ($77,076.58), the board voted unanimously to award the project to Mound Waste and Recycling as the low bidder.

As Tetra Tech’s engineering estimate was $55,000, Wagner said that the bids from Advanced Demolition and Evans “actually would put us over budget.” He also said that he worked with Mound on cleanup projects in Athens County, and “they did a good job.”

“My intention is to talk with them and just make sure that they've got the wherewithal to ensure that we do not impact the adjacent property owner, because that building literally is being held up by a fire escape,” Wagner said. “We need to get that down, like as soon as possible, based on being out there.”

In other updates:

• Land bank coordinator Mackenzie Edison reported that the residence demolitions funded under the state’s Building Demolition and Site Revitalization grant are “almost completed,” as they are waiting on one property in Hillsboro to be completed and a few invoices to be submitted.

Board member Lauren Walker asked when “final reports are due” to the state.

“They aren’t due until 2024,” Edison said. “I’m actually going to have the final report done when the first report is supposed to be submitted.”

• In property updates, Edison said that 6638 Wizard of Oz Way has been sold for $7,000, while 622 South East Street in Hillsboro is listed for sale for $10,600. Once the site work is done on the parcel, 453 East Main Street in Hillsboro will be up for sale next.

Edison reported that the buyer of 6774 Heather Moor Trail has cleaned up the property, showing several photos to the board. The HCLRC agreed to a deed in escrow deal with the buyer in February, contingent upon the property cleanup. Since the lot is cleared, the board voted to release the deed to the buyer, who purchased the lot for $7,200.

Edison also discussed the results of a title search for a a 0.056-acre lot in Buford, after its owners offered to donate it to the land bank. She said legal counsel Todd Book discovered “a lot of liens” on the parcel.

“I wouldn't recommend taking it until we get these cleaned up, obviously, and the number is a pretty big number,” Book said. “This was part of another property, and there was a foreclosure on that. This piece was not included in the foreclosure, so the foreclosure cleaned up everything else, but this property was kept out of it.”

Board member David Daniels asked what the liens “amount to.” Book said, “A lot,” then said there are federal liens totaling close to $100,000 plus state liens.

Book said they could reach out to see if they could get any of the liens to be released. He also recommended that Edison contact the individual who has expressed interest in purchasing the property to advise him “the price could go up a little bit because we want to cover our costs” on acquiring it. Edison said attempts to contact the potential buyer have been unsuccessful thus far.

Edison also reported that a parcel on Heather Moor Trail as well as all of the former Enchanted Hills Community Association properties are now in the foreclosure process through the Highland County Prosecutor’s Office.

• Edison told the board that she has applied for a $25,000 Innovative Approach Award through the National Land Bank Network, with a goal to use the funding, if awarded, toward a property management system.

She shared an overview of ePropertyPlus, with the summary saying the system “provides end-to-end parcel inventory management from pre-acquisition planning through final disposition and post-disposition compliance monitoring, including extensive inventory search functionality, broad mapping capabilities, online service management, flexible program configuration and real-time reporting.”

Edison received a quote estimating the cost at $12,500 for the annual subscription price, with varying percentage increases per year dependent upon the number of years in the contract.

“I think it’s well worth it,” Edison said. “It kind of does all the administration things that I'm doing in the office. If we get a GIS [Geographic Information System] map, it pulls that into the equation. Anything kind of Zillow does, I can do in the back side of it, and it takes it to our website, and it's easy to access that way for community members.”

Using the Trumbull County Land Bank’s site as an example, Edison showed how the public could do property searches on the site. On the back end, it would track all of the land bank’s properties in one system instead of in a spreadsheet as Edison is currently doing.

“It would relieve a lot of time for me to work on other things,” Edison said. “It’s something that will also take the land bank and grow with it.

“All of this information is one area. Instead of using an Excel spreadsheet, it’s all inputted into this system.”

Edison said that the grants are scheduled to be awarded in April.

“This grant could potentially cover two years of [the contract costs], and then we could talk about putting it into our budget,” she said.

Britton asked Edison to “put a price sheet together for what it would cost for the first five years” if they enter a contract.

“Software programs are nice, but it's an ongoing cost that you’ve got to be able to sustain,” Britton said.

Edison said she had wanted to seek grant funding to get the program established “with the hopes that in five years, we’ll have a lot more properties” in the land bank.

• In his legal updates, Book pointed out that the HCLRC is making progress by selling some of the properties on the list, while they hope to target additional blighted areas in the coming months.

“I think as the new auditor [Highland County Auditor Alex Butler] gets into his position, and we get able to maybe move on some of the other tax lien issues, we'll be going in some new areas as opposed to waiting on donations,” Book said. “We’ll be able to get a little bit more aggressive when it comes to properties.”

Book also briefly discussed proposed legislation that would impact Ohio land banks.

“[Ohio] Representative Tom Patton introduced House Bill 85, talking about ways to expand methods for land banks to acquire delinquent properties,” Book said. “He’s doing this on behalf of the state [land bank] association, and the state association is also working on introducing another bill like they had last session to expand some funding, to add a conveyance fee to help fund land banks.”

• Wagner said that he is hearing indications that the state legislature is considering including the brownfield program in the state biennial budget.

“There's a strong push to try to get an additional round of funding, which would really help Highland County,” Wagner said. “Mackenzie put together a letter to the Finance Committee.”

Edison said they had “three or four” other projects that they would like to target if the state provides additional funding opportunities.

• Edison reviewed the financial report, with the HCLRC’s account ending February with a balance of $387,947.31. They received three deposits from the Ohio Department of Development for grant reimbursements, as well as a payment from selling a property on Wizard of Oz Way.

The board approved the report as well as a list of payments to be made, including three invoices from Tetra Tech, Edison’s salary, rent to the Highland County Historical Society for Edison’s office, Book’s legal fees and invoices from contractors for asbestos abatement.

Book suggested that the board might want to consider unencumbered funds to another account to accrue more interest, “but that’s nickel and dime stuff.”

• The board also voted 5-0 to extend a 12-month, $4,800 lease agreement with the Highland County Historical Society for Edison’s office at the Scott House.