Commissioners, Ohio DAS reps debate new MARCS tower placement; county gives update on solar meeting

Highland County commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton and EMA director David Bushelman met with Ohio Department of Administrative Services representatives Wednesday, May 29 to continue a roughly two-year discussion of constructing a new MARCS tower in the county.

Present for the hourlong appointment Wednesday were Angela Canepa, the Ohio Department of Administrative Services’ Deputy Director of First Responder Communications Initiatives, along with Infrastructure Specialists Robert Bill, James Cusick and Devan Phillis.

As previously reported, then-State Rep. Shane Wilkin announced in June 2022 that “the state’s new construction budget includes $750,000 to improve radio communication for law enforcement and first responders in Highland County” with the construction of the new MARCS tower.

Commissioners held a work session Jan. 9, 2023 with Marshall Township trustees to discuss a proposal to place the tower on township-owned property. According to Britton, the commission asked the township trustees “to donate the property” for the project, and the county gave the trustees a month to make a decision. In February 2023, commissioners said Marshall Township rejected that offer.

As noted by Britton in January 2023, they are looking to construct the tower somewhere on the “southeast side of the county,” where radio coverage is lacking. According to Bushelman, the tower will be 300 feet tall, and the county needs a 100 foot by 100 foot space.

Britton reported during in April 2023 that they had identified a landowner in Marshall Township who might be willing to enter a lease agreement, but “the best option we have right now with township-owned ground is in Concord Township” instead. (According to discussions Wednesday, adding a tower in Concord Township would not help solve existing coverage issues.)

Canepa then met with commissioners in October, where they discussed their problems with finding a site, while Canepa advised that the county could go ahead and start the Controlling Board funding process.

Since Canepa’s last meeting with commissioners, the county has requested, and received, the drawdown of funds for the $1.2 million total project (for which the county is providing a $530,000 match). However, the “question of where we put the tower,” as Canepa said, has not been solved.

On Wednesday, she brought the other three staff members, all of whom had laptops in tow with access to various maps, to help brainstorm potential sites and how those locations would impact coverage.

“It's been a chore, trying to get our location, somewhere around the Marshall area,” Britton said. “The community is just dead against it, the township trustees. I went to a meeting there a month or so ago, and it just wasn’t good.”

“That confuses me,” Canepa said. “They’re going to benefit.”

“It confuses us as well,” Daniels said, and emphasized, “This will enhance public safety. Locating this tower will enhance public safety.”

On the other hand, Britton and Bushelman said that Concord Township trustees “were willing to give us some property there, from day one.

“You can put a tower where the folks are cooperating, but it's going to fill in some holes, but not like your worst areas,” Bill said. “We kind of want to shift to more to the east and southeast because when we pull up their original coverage of what you have now, we see the holes. I always say we want to get the most bang for your buck.

“There's a limited supply of frequencies that we can find, so when we're going to all this trouble to build a tower and find frequencies, we want them to do the best that we can possibly do.”

Britton thanked the group for helping them look for potential sites.

“Maybe we can talk through this and try to figure something out, as far as positioning that thing,” Britton said.

Bill pointed out that the county’s lone MARCS tower is north of Hillsboro, so “a lot of the coverage you have is from surrounding towers.

“When we build a tower here and another tower in your county, it's going to definitely help you guys, and it's going to help others,” he said.

Acknowledging that Marshall “is the ideal spot,” Daniels asked the group, “What happens when we start moving east?

“For us to look at landowners and land that we might want to contact to work with, how far east can we go, how far south can we go to, maximize our coverage area?” Daniels asked.

The state group shared a map of the current MARCS coverage, as well as views of the gaps filled by adding a tower at Marshall. They also showed what adding a Concord Township tower would do, as they said it would have “amazing coverage,” but coverage that primarily overlaps with areas already served by surrounding counties.

Also over the next hour, commissioners named several areas as suggestions for the state agency to look into, starting with an area proposed by Daniels near Fort Hill, between Routes 753 and 506, where he said he has seen a cell phone tower put up within the last year.

“That is the highest point in Highland County,” he said. “While not in Marshall, you’ve got probably another 200 feet in elevation from where you are in Marshall. As we continue to look for sites, if that gives us as good of coverage, maybe we can start looking in that area as well.”

Phillis said that he and Bill “have absolutely scoured that area” looking for a place with access.

“We have found that elevation changes are the biggest problem,” Phillis said. “We go from, let's say, 700 feet at the road level, and then the next thing you know we're 250 feet higher, and we've only moved laterally 150 feet, so that is its own issue.”

Along with having land access, the group said they need access to power, too.

Bill later said that he found the tower Daniels referenced on a map and that it’s from a company that “normally” leases space, “but a lot of those leases are very pricey.”

“That’s not an option to rent space off of those towers?” Daniels asked.

“Normally, no,” Bill said. “We've got approaching 400 towers in the state of Ohio, and we’re having problems now with ones we've done in the past where, you know, they're like, ‘We want more money.’”

“Well, now I’m going to be a little bit of a jerk, but the state has wanted every law enforcement agency to hook into their system,” Daniels said. “The state does have some responsibility in, you know, providing that tower space.

“I realize that part of that is the funding that we got, but nevertheless, you know, we've been pushing everybody on the MARCS.”

All three commissioners asked if there are any sites in Adams County, such as Louden, or Pike County that “could provide coverage” where it is missing in Highland County.

“I can't say wouldn't help,” Phillis said. “We don't know until we until we do that research and do the coverage study.”

Daniels said there was also a cell tower in the area of Chestnut Road in Marshall Township and wondered if it was a possible area, while Britton suggested the area of Harriet Road. The state experts also threw out some possibilities, such as Washburn Hill and Long Lick Hill, both in Brushcreek Township near Carmel.

“We will drive around and look at these different sites and pick a property that we think we can access, at least, whether or not you get cooperation by the landowner,” Canepa said. “Then we can run additional coverage maps for those locations, just to be another factor that you consider, because it comes down to what's ideal, but where can you get cooperation, and somewhere in between that, you get where you're going to go.”

In doing so, Daniels asked if the state could help identify “choice one, choice two and choice three” of potential sites for the county to pursue.

“Maybe that way we can start exploring some of those possibilities,” he said.

Britton also asked if “there is an issue with carrying over” the funds from the previous capital budget cycle.

“No,” Canepa said. “You can carry over capital budget money.

“I think some counties invest it — have it in a savings where it's getting interest so you have even more money when you go to build.”

Commissioners thanked the group for their insights.

“We're going to continue to think that this is a work in progress,” Daniels said. “Hopefully we can find a resolution before the end of the next century.

“It’s obviously been difficult for us. I mean, we've tried to find locations. Maybe now that we've got some more options, maybe we might hit the jackpot.”

“This is by far the hardest part,” Canepa said. “Once you get this part done, it’s pretty smooth sailing from there.”

In other discussion:

• Commissioners provided an update on a May 23 meeting in Columbus with representatives from several state agencies, where commissioners voiced their concerns regarding various aspects of the solar permitting process.

“We attended a meeting in Columbus with the Ohio Department of Taxation, Ohio Department of Education, Power Siting Board and Ohio Department of Development to talk over a number of different issues that deal with solar development where we have experienced some problems,” Daniels said. “I think that we made some cases of some things that need to be changed, either in law or administrative procedure, that they were more than willing to consider.

“Some of those things had to do with when a PILOT [Payment in Lieu of Taxes] becomes active. Some of those things had to do with with school funding issues, had to do with property coming out of CAUV and going into either public utilities tax or the PILOT.”

As previously reported, commissioners voted to issue a PILOT invoice for the New Market Solar project March 22, 2023. The first half-year payment of $450,000 was due April 20, 2023, according to the invoice. The county was later informed that they would not be able to collect payment until “a certificate of verification” was issued by the state for the project.

In March, commissioners received a letter from Lynchburg-Clay superintendent Jack Fisher regarding his concerns about “a negative impact on the district’s funding,” which he perceives as being due to solar projects within the school district. In a letter to commissioners dated April 23, Innergex community and government relations representative Janet Grothe responded to Lynchburg-Clay’s concerns, saying that “Innergex has made no large land purchases in Highland County that would affect the District’s funding formulas.”

“I felt that it was productive,” Daniels said. “I think, as with anything, time will see where some of these changes come out from each of the different agencies. One thing that I think's important to remember is some of the projects that we've got here in Highland County have already started, and implementation of some of these things will be difficult on those.

“We also have projects that are just now starting that hopefully, we're going to be able to make some changes along those lines, or hopefully, the changes that we discussed, if they can get them implemented in time, will have an effect on some of those things.”

Commissioners also apparently reached out to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio April 4 for an update on local solar projects, with Ohio Power Siting Board community liaison Juliana Graham-Price responding in a May 3 email.

Graham-Price also sent an email to commissioners May 23, as listed on the May 29 agenda, with a “PILOT Project Status Update” for 13 projects across the state that “have begun commercial operation or were close to being operational.”

The May 23 email lists New Market Solar’s two projects as having begun commercial operations. Hecate 2 Solar “does not meet QEP [Qualified Energy Project] requirements” for the PILOT, with a certificate of verification pending. Hecate 4 Solar is “under review,” with a construction completion report submitted in May, Graham-Price wrote.e

Highland Solar and Willowbrook Solar are both “currently in the commissioning phase and expected to begin COD [Commercial Operation Dates] soon,” within the next six months, Graham-Price said.

As mentioned in her earlier email, other area projects include the Dodson Creek project in Hamer and Dodson townships and the Palomino project in Union and Dodson townships, which have not yet been constructed.

Britton agreed that the meeting was “very productive” and said he was grateful that the agencies were not only willing to meet with them, but “they came prepared, too, with the information” that they asked for.

“They were more than willing to take a look at maybe a different approach,” he said.

Britton added that they also discussed “timelines” that are “taking way too long” with some of these projects.

“The other thing that we discussed was the school funding, and so they're taking a look at that also,” Britton said, and Daniels added that state officials are “going to try to set up opportunities to talk to some local superintendents” and other individuals, such as the county auditor.

Daniels and Britton thanked State Senator Shane Wilkin (R-Hillsboro) for organizing the meeting.

“I think it was informative to everybody there, all groups,” Roades said.

“I think that they recognize that we were facing some of what I always call mechanical problems — how things actually end up working when you go to put those put those processes in place — that were problematic for the county that they felt that they could do some things to help make our responsibilities, or the responsibilities that fall back on the auditor's office or fall back on our map office, easier for them to deal with,” Daniels added.

• Commissioners voted 3-0 to appoint Randy Sanders as acting sheriff effective June 1. See more at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/commissioners-appoint-randy-sander….

• Commissioners announced the addition of a new position for the county — a full-time sewer billing clerk — and voted 3-0 to hire Kristie Alexander to fill the position.

“Since we've switched to monthly billing for sewer services, that has become more of a full-time job,” Daniels said. “We were originally partnering with the auditor's office and splitting the cost of an employee. Due to monthly billing and some of the changes that we've undertaken to help reduce the delinquency rate, we’ve decided that that's a full-time job and that we will hire a new person.”

• At 10:30 a.m., a post-audit conference was held in executive session.

“I expect the ’22 audit to be released, I would hope, within the next two to three weeks for public view,” Highland County Auditor Alex Butler said. “That's in the pipeline.”

In other updates from the auditor, Butler said that the second-half tax bills are being reviewed by his office and that of Treasurer Vickie Warnock.

“Those will go out late June, early July time frame, and those will be due Friday, August 2,” he said.

Butler told commissioners he is also meeting with two vendors who reached out recently: SpyGlass, a “technology cost audit firm;” and the county’s current budget software company, VIP Software Solutions, regarding “a possible add-on” to their existing services.

“If anything comes of that, I will keep you guys in the loop,” Butler said.

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

• A request from Probate Court to create a new line item within the 1000 General Fund, Contracts and Services, and appropriate $4,000 from unappropriated funds.

• A request from Juvenile Court to create a line item within the 1000 General Fund, Contracts and Services, and appropriate $4,000 from unappropriated funds.

• A request from the Clerk of Courts to create a new line item within the 2145 Clerk of Courts Judicial Fund, Contracts & Services.

• A budget modification within the Clerk of Courts Judicial (2145) in the amount of $10,000.

• A resolution agreeing to partner with the City of Hillsboro for the Program Year 2024 Community Housing Impact & Preservation (CHIP) Program.

• Commissioners received no public comment on communications from the Ohio Department of Liquor Control on liquor license renewals for the Allensburg and Rainsboro 1st Stops. They agreed 3-0 to send the requests on without comment.

• Commissioners voted 3-0 to authorize the commission president to execute a funding application renewal for Juvenile Court for an Ohio Department of Youth Services RECLAIM Ohio subsidy grant.

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