Courthouse flooding, HCSO boiler issues reviewed at commissioners meeting

Highland County commissioners Terry Britton, David Daniels and Brad Roades met with Highland County Clerk of Courts Dwight “Ike” Hodson during their Wednesday, Jan. 21 meeting to discuss flooding in the clerk’s office that occurred this week.

Over the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend, “a hot water heater upstairs started leaking” and caused flooding in the clerk of courts office on the main floor of the Highland County Courthouse, Britton said. 

According to Hodson, no records were damaged, but the ceiling tiles and flooring were ruined; the front counter is warped; their glass partitions and door are damaged; and the public computer and keyboard on the front counter was destroyed. He said from what he could tell, the water ran for three straight days before the issue was discovered Tuesday morning.

“I looked at the security footage, and the earliest that we had enough motion to make the camera go off was at eight o'clock on Saturday morning,” Hodson said. “By that time, the water that was running down at the door and running down over at the computer on the counter was splashing, and I think that's what kicked the camera, made it come on. By 10 o'clock, the ceiling tile was falling out of the ceiling.”

To the public, Hodson emphasized that his office is still “open for business,” with half of his staff using his personal office and the other half occupying a conference room on the main floor of the courthouse. He thanked Greystone Systems for their work in getting the temporary office space operating with computers, printers, scanners and phone systems. 
 
“We’re set up, we’re recording, we’re filing everything,” Hodson said. “We’re trying to stay out of the big office as much as possible, only because it’s bad, just the smell and the water damage.

“We didn't miss a beat [Tuesday]. We had people in, and we waited on them and we filed stuff, so the clerk's office is open for business. We're taking phone calls.”

In his discussion with commissioners, Hodson said he wanted the commissioners office to be the “spokesperson” for whatever repairs they decide to make for his office, as commissioners are already planning to make renovations to the courthouse this summer. He did suggest that they should address another upstairs sink that “has the same model and the same date” as the one that had the heater leak “sooner than later,” as he said “otherwise [Judge Kevin Greer] is going to have a bunch of water” in his office.

“That’s part of the bigger conversation,” Daniels said. “Last year, we went through and we talked about what we wanted to do to the courthouse. With that being said, we kind of thought that OK, maybe we need to take another passthrough. Probably some bathrooms need to be done.”

“I assumed that would be a part of it,” Hodson said.

“It’s not now,” Daniels said. “That’s kind of part of what’s floating around.”

Otherwise, Hodson said he “is not pushing for anything” and would defer to commissioners on how they wanted to proceed with repairing the office.

“My recommendation would be to try cleaning it up and try to see what you can get done,” Daniels said. “If the smell is too bad, then we can revisit.”

“Right now, it’s pretty putrid,” Hodson said.

In response to a question from Daniels, Hodson said an “on-demand” water heater was installed to replace the broken heater. Daniels asked if they should “call and tell” the plumbing contractors to do the same to the other sinks.

“Oh, yeah,” Britton said. “This is the second one we’ve had go bad over there.”

Hodson agreed, saying, “Why take a chance?” He added that the crew from Cornele Plumbing was also “great” with their immediate assistance Tuesday.

For an unrelated building issue, Britton said that the commissioners office is in the process of obtaining quotes to replace a boiler at the Highland County Justice Center, as the Sheriff’s Office is having issues with gas leaks.

“There's a boiler that’s giving us all kinds of problems,” Britton said. “We’ve got one quote, and we’re reaching out to get another because it's a pretty good expense.

“It’s the original boiler that was in there, so we've had to call the fire department and had them come out for some gas leaks and different things. We’ve got to get this thing taken care of our stuff.”

Britton told Chief Deputy Jennifer Schinkal of the Sheriff’s Office that they hoped to approve a replacement boiler within the next week, although he wasn’t sure “what kind of lead times” they’d be facing.

“It’s very serious,” Schinkal said. “We have to do something about it.”

In other discussion:

• After Highland County Auditor Alex Butler reported a sixth straight year of record-breaking permissive sales tax receipts for 2025 earlier this month, 2026 is off to a positive start, according to a report shared by commissioners Wednesday.

Britton said the numbers provided by Butler reflected a 4.4-percent increase for January 2026 compared to January 2025, with $812,819.75 collected this month versus $778,322.74 last year. That is also over $25,000 higher than the amount collected the previous month, not counting the extra distribution to compensate for lost sales tax holiday revenue.

As previously reported, the county topped $9.8 million in receipts for the 2025 calendar year.

• Via resolution, commissioners declared a property at 9477 Pigeon Roost Road, Hillsboro to be surplus property and no longer needed by the county, as declared by the sheriff.

According to Schinkal, the property will be sold by Rick Williams Auction Company in March. Schinkal also asked commissioners to ensure the property is covered under their insurance policy “before we turn the power on” and start the cleanup process.

As previously reported, the property was forfeited to the county through a high-profile drug case last year. The property is appraised at $259,400 and includes a residence as well as almost 12 acres of land. 

• Britton announced that the Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission (OVRDC)’s Highland County First Round Caucus will be held Feb. 11 at 9:30 a.m. in the commission chambers.

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

• A quote from Superior Alarm for equipment, installation and service on a security system at the new records storage building, at a total cost of $51,372.

• A resolution to grant authorization for listed “then and now” purchase orders and authorizing the county auditor to issue warrants for their payment.

• A budget modification within the 1000 County General fund in the amount of $480.

• A resolution to establish an oversight committee of the Early Intervention Services Program in Highland County. 

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