Commissioners, Greenfield city manager debate funding for railroad improvement project

Pictured, from left, are Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades. (HCP Photos/Caitlin Forsha)
After two appointments in the same day with Greenfield City Manager Todd Wilkin, Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades agreed to honor their commitment to contribute $125,000 in grant match dollars toward Greenfield’s $3.4 million rail line project.
The grant was awarded to“repair and rehabilitate 29.5 miles of track from the Indiana & Ohio Railway connection in Midland to Greenfield in order to ensure the line’s continued existence,” the announcement in March 2020 said.
As reported by Angela Shepherd in 2020, “Greenfield has been awarded a grant totaling more than $3.4 million for improvements on its 29-mile rail spur. The award came with the help of partnerships with the Highland County Board of Commissioners, APEG (Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth), ODRC (Ohio Rail Development Commission), ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation), the Governor’s Office of Appalachia and the Federal ARC (Appalachian Regional Commission).
“Through the partnerships, the match money of more than $1.7 million was raised for the 50/50 grant. That money was matched through the federal Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program.”
On Wednesday, Wilkin first met with commissioners during their 9 a.m. meeting to discuss that match money and the project in general, as he said the village has “not seen the first tie replaced” since the grant was awarded but that work is apparently, finally “ready to start.”
“I think it's been four years since I came for the board to talk about our railroad, and I think it was three and a half years ago, we learned that we were awarded a federal CRISI grant to make improvements to our railroad,” Wilkin said. “Currently, the railroad is considered a Class I railroad, which is not good. It's actually a 10 mile per hour rail.
“The goal is to be a Class II, which is a 25 mile per hour rail, and that's what the CRISI grant was applied for, to be able to help us.”
Wilkin added that three local businesses, Huhtamaki, Candle-lite and Adient, all depend on the railroad for their operations.
“We’ve been fighting through this for about three and a half years, to the point where the beginning of this year, we went ahead and reached out to [State] Senator [Shane] Wilkin.” he said. “We also reached out to [U.S.] Senator [J.D.] Vance's office as well to help on this, since it is a federal grant.
“When we talked to Senator Wilkin, he said, ‘I thought this project was already done,’ and I think that the majority of people would have forgotten that we even were awarded a CRISI grant for the railroad. So here we are, three and a half years later, everybody celebrated it, but we've not actually seen the first tie replaced.”
Wilkin said that after contacting the senators, he has met with Indiana & Ohio Railway representatives.
“We did have a meeting with our rail operator last week, which is Indiana & Ohio, and it was not a very positive meeting, I'll just say that,” he said. “But long story short, we were informed last week that the CRISI grant is ready to start.”
Wilkin told commissioners that Matt Dietrich, executive director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission, advised him to be prepared to talk about local match dollars at a meeting a scheduled for March 30. That includes $125,000 previously earmarked by the county commissioners, he said.
“His question of us was, ‘how do we pull down your local money?’ Wilkin said. “We got a little over $1.7 million from the federal CRISI grant, and then we were able to raise $1.7 million locally.
“I need to be able to report this to Mr. Dietrich tomorrow. How do I pull down those funds so that we can get our project going?”
Britton asked “how much more damage” the railroad has suffered in the past four years since Wilkin first discussed the grant and whether “it’s something that’s going to have to be redone.”
“I think the correct answer to that is, there's always going to have to be something done to that railroad,” Wilkin said. “When they were awarded the grant back in 2016, they started it, and unfortunately, when they started that project, they had a derailment, which was about a $290,000 cost. Some of the money they got from the last grant went toward fixing that derailment and the bridge. Therefore, they ran out of money, just on the other side of Leesburg, headed toward Midland.
“This time around, what we’re doing is we’re going to start in Midland, and we're going to work back toward Greenfield. The goal is, again —and what Indiana & Ohio and the engineers are telling us we still can hold financially — the commitment to get us to a Class II, 25 mile per hour rail, still yet with this project.
“To answer the question, maybe it's two years from now, Greenfield might be going after another smaller grant, a maintenance grant, through the Ohio Rail Development Commission, but right now, I believe that the $3.4 million that we have kind of raised, I think it'd be a big difference,” Wilkin continued.
He added that his “ultimate goal” is to make the $3.4 million in repairs and then “lease out the railroad to Indiana & Ohio for $1.”
“At that point, they can control the revenues, they can control the costs,” he said. “The reason I say a lease is because I never want them to be able to have it so they can decommission it, because we have three businesses in Highland County are relying upon that rail.”
Britton also asked if the other match dollars — which includes commitments from “ARC, state and federal and OVRDC” — are “still valid.”
“They are,” Wilkin said. “Every January 1, we've had to sign new agreements or have new phone calls with those entities. We have money that's coming in from ODSA [Ohio Development Services Agency]. We have money that's coming in from ODOD [Ohio Department of Development]. We have some 629 funds that are in this project. As you said, we have ARC monies. Those are all still valid dollars.
“I’m on a fact-finding mission right now just to say OK, how do we pull down those dollars?”
Britton responded that the county should “take a look at what we’ve got in our revolving loan fund, just to make sure that this is going to work out.”
“I’d like to review the original grant application,” Daniels added.
Britton said he didn’t “think anything will change, but I think it's something that we need to take a look at.” He told Wilkin, “I’m sure we can get back with you next week.”
“I mean, I've got a call with the Ohio Rail Development Commission tomorrow, and so I'm sure that that's going to be pending on the construction start,” Wilkin said. “If we don't have the $125,000, I’ll have to raise it with another entity.”
Daniels said, “We’ll review it and let you know.”
Five and a half hours later, Wilkin returned to the commissioners’ office, where at 3 p.m. the commission returned to open session to again consider Wilkin’s request.
“We've committed some money to other places want to make sure that we have the funds to take care of this,” Britton told Wilkin at their second meeting of the day. “We found that we do.”
Britton asked if the commission needed to “go off the letter” from Wilkin originally “requesting funds” or if there needed to be a contract or memorandum of understanding.
“If we need to have an MOU in place between the county and the village, then I say let's so move forward,” Wilkin said.
Both Wilkin and the county representatives indicated that there had been some confusion with “a document that went around” that required an electronic signature from former commissioners at the time of the initial request.
Wilkin added that he also has a copy of a letter signed by Britton — not former commissioner Jeff Duncan, who was the president at the time — from 2019, supporting the application and saying the county “pledges to provide $125,000 in matching funds” if the federal grant was awarded.
“There was a letter generated from this office that was in support of the application, and then the commission made a motion to provide a letter of support of the $125,000, and then in turn, signed said letter of support,” Highland County ARPA funding coordinator Nicole Oberrecht, who oversees these grants, said.
Another “confusing” element, Wilkin said, was that he had tried to facilitate conversations between the county and project development manager Tom Burns of the Ohio Rail Development Commission “directly.”
“There was actually some communication that I wasn’t a part of it,” he said. “I removed myself, just to take the middleman out of the equation, just so that we could get this done.”
Britton said the county and village needed to “figure out what we need to do to get this completed,” but that the commission is “in agreement that our funding source is good.
“This is kind of typical with a lot of things that come through here,” Britton said. “We get a letter, and we'll just basically pay off the letter versus having a contract or an MOU or whatever.”
“It’s always nice when that works two ways,” Daniels added.
Wilkin again asked about how to handle the “drawdown” of money from the county.
“I suspect that they're going to probably send us an invoice for said work,” Wilkin said. “I suspect that that bill is probably going to come my direction. I just think that's the way they're going to do it. Then, am I sending that invoice on to Nicole, or to your office?”
Daniels asked if the county and village needed to “do any more than just affirming the funds are available and then figure out what the mechanics of it are at some point” Wednesday. Wilkin responded that he needs to know that “for the meeting tomorrow” with the ORDC.
“What, the mechanics?” Daniels asked.
“Yes, absolutely,” Wilkin said.
Britton said the county has “paid direct” before. Wilkin said that he was “completely fine” with the village not being a “middle guy” between the county and the ORDC.
“If I say to them, ‘hey, it would probably work best if you directly bill, the commissioners for that portion of that money,’ then that's probably what we'll do,” Wilkin said.
Oberrecht said she would be “fine with the Rail Commission just sending an invoice directly to me.”
“Thank you,” Wilkin said.
In other discussion:
• Highland County Auditor Alex Butler shared the permissive sales tax receipts for March, which included the highest one-month totals since March 2022.
For March 2023, the receipts totaled $879,309.81. That is not only an increase over the January and February 2023, both of which were record-high totals for those respective months, but it is just $865.48 less than the March 2022 receipts ($880,175.29).
“We exceeded what we collected last month, and we’re almost identical to what we collected this time last year,” Butler said.
Year to date, the county has already topped $2.4 million in permissive sales tax receipts, Butler said, at $2,432,151.25.
• Britton said that the commission was notified that the state has allocated $259,581 in Healthy Aging Grant funding for Highland County, through the Department of Aging.
“In [Governor] Mike DeWine’s budget that was put out, there was money set aside for this, and basically what it states is that each county would get a certain amount of money,” Britton said.
• Commissioners authorized two agricultural easement resolutions, after hearing from Andy Dickerson of the Cardinal Land Conservancy.
Approved were a request from Kim R. Hiatt for support of an application to the State of Ohio for purchase of an agricultural easement on her property on New Vienna Road in New Vienna; and a request from Donald L. and Cheryl A. Geer for support of their application to the State of Ohio for purchase of an agricultural easement on their property on state Route 73, also in New Vienna.
“Each year, we get a little pot of funds from ODA (Ohio Department of Agriculture) to purchase agricultural easements,” Dickerson told commissioners. “This year, two farms have ranked out the highest for us, and they're right here in Highland County.”
Daniels asked if Dickerson could give them an idea of how many acres were involved in the easements.
“For Don, he ranks the highest, and it's 220 acres,” Dickerson said. “Kim is in second place, so she's not going to get funded, but their farm is 102.”
Roades asked for an explanation of how the easement program works.
“The program was started by the state to help family farms stay family farms,” Dickerson said. “It gives the folks a little bit of money to prevent subdivision and splitting it up, and most people will take that money and buy other farms.”
Daniels added that it is also used for various operating expenses to “keep them going.”
Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve both resolutions.
• Commissioners read a copy of their proclamation in honor of Vietnam War Veterans Day during their 9 a.m. meeting. The proclamation was also read by Butler, on the commission’s behalf, at the local Vietnam War Veterans Day observance.
Representatives from area veterans organizations stopped by to meet with commissioners later on Wednesday morning. According to commission clerk Ashleigh Willey, the group is estimating that the Highlanders SAR Chapter’s proposed new Revolutionary War Memorial at the Highland County Courthouse would cost approximately $80,000. Donations made payable to Highlanders SAR Chapter Memorial Fund can be sent to Highlanders Treasurer Jack Bredenfoerder, 8751 Haverhill Lane, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236.
• At 10 a.m., Doug Karnes of McCarty Associates submitted revised drawings for the county’s planned records storage building, following recommended changes discussed during a work session March 22.
For a timeline for the building, Karnes said the plan was to have drawings completed by April 21; put the project out for bid by May 5; hold a bid opening the week of June 6; finalize the contract around mid-June; and begin construction in early July, with an estimated 300-day construction time.
In other project updates, Karnes said the survey of the Highland County Justice Center property is completed, and they have determined they have room to construct a building for the county if they so desire. The county has discussed the need for an additional storage building for county maintenance equipment.
Karnes also told commissioners he “needs some direction” on the second phase of the Buford school project. Britton and Oberrecht said that they were still waiting on guidance from township trustees.
• Commissioners welcomed new county human resources director Amy Bradley, who started in her role Monday and attended Wednesday morning’s meeting.
• Commissioners held a work session with Julia Wise of Highland County Community Action Wednesday afternoon to discuss finances for the Rocky Fork Lake sewer funding.
In other approvals:
• Commissioners approved a user license agreement with the Highland County Sheriff’s Office and Permitium LLC for online weapons permit applications.
During the March 15 commission meeting, Highland County Sheriff Donnie Barrera requested permission to add a link to a new online concealed carry permit page to the county’s website. According to Barrera, the Sheriff’s Office is looking to enter an agreement with Permitium, described on its website as offering “simple, innovative software solutions that streamline complex, time-consuming processes.” Commissioners did not take action, as they said they wanted to speak with their IT provider first.
“There seems to be absolutely no problem,” Britton said Wednesday.
• The board approved a memorandum of understanding with the Southern Ohio Educational Service Center for implementation of Transeo for the Highland County ACCESS program.
As previously reported, Highland County ACCESS Director Tim Dettwiller shared a PowerPoint presentation explaining the program, along with making a request for $20,000 to put toward the Transeo software program that he said can help plans for the county’s new “business, school and community partnership” become a reality, at the Oct. 19 commission meeting.
On Nov. 9, Daniels announced the commission’s intention to make “a $30,000 contribution” to the Highland County ACCESS’s program in their request for funding for new software.
“I think there was a little bit of confusion on that,” Britton said Wednesday. “We had sent them the money that we had pledged for this, and they applied it to a different account.
“This is just an MOU basically for what we had pledged to them prior, so we're just kind of cleaning up the issue, but we have already paid our pledge.”
• The commission accepted a $9,024.76 quote from Buckeye State Pipe and Supply, submitted by Steve Canter of Environmental Engineering, for “general hookup and maintenance” supplies for county sewer plants.
• The commission voted to proceed with accepting a request from the Ohio Division of Liquor Control for a new liquor license for the 1st Stop in Belfast. Britton said the county did not receive any comments on the proposal.
On a related topic, Daniels and Britton said that the Ohio Department of Commerce notified the county about liquor permit expirations.
“This was a notice that we got from the Department of Commerce for Class C and D permits for alcohol beverages,” Britton said. “Basically, all these permits will expire on June 1, 2023, and in order to maintain their permit privileges, every permit holder must file a renewal application with the division.
“I’m sure that they've all got this, but this is just a notice that came to us from the Department of Commerce for that.”
Daniels added that the community can “make any objections known to the state” regarding any of the licenses in question.
• Commissioners also received a request from 911 coordinatorScott Miller regarding ADS maintenance and support agreement costs for the Highland County Justice Center. The commission voted 3-0 to approve the agreement, at a cost of $6,615.71.
“This will come out of the 911 fund,” Britton said.
• Commissioners authorized an additional appropriation to Right to Know 2785 Other Expense in the amount of $2,198.23.
Scrap metal
Want to see if I can get permission to clean scrap metal up that was left by workers who took old out to replace for railroad project in Greenfield Ohio,on South Washington st.