Highland County land bank board conducts bid opening; hears 'favorable' update on Rocky Fork Truck Stop

Members of the Highland County Land Reutilization Corporation met Thursday, Feb. 19, as the meeting included conducting a bid opening for projects in one state grant program and reviewing updates on other properties.

The bid opening was held for work on the 19 projects included in the land bank’s applications for the state Building Demolition and Site Revitalization grant program. That includes 13 replacement projects with leftover funding from the most recent grant cycle, which could roll over into 2026 if there isn’t enough funding, plus six properties for the 2026 application. Land bank administrator Jason Johansen said they intend to seek additional funding this spring, as they will be applying for any other eligible properties.

It was also noted that there were originally 20 properties put out for bid, but 11593 Highland Hills Drive was deemed ineligible and removed.

For this first set of properties, Johansen noted that the state has not yet given “official approval, but we have received the grant agreements.

“I submitted all the required documentation, so I don't see any reason why these projects wouldn't be approved,” Johansen said. “For the 13 replacement projects, we have until June 30. For the new demo program, we originally thought we had until June 30, as stated on the guidelines, but after receiving the grant agreement, we actually have until December 31 of this year.”

Sixteen contractors bid on at least one property, as Johansen said he listed the parcels separately instead of in packages as in previous bids.

Bids included:

– 11923 Elmhurst Trail, Hillsboro: 15 bids received, ranging from $3,000 to $29,500; apparent low bidder is Aster Oilfield Services.

— 6833 Chimney Rock Corner, Hillsboro: 14 bids received, ranging from $3,000 to $29,200; apparent low bidder is Aster Oilfield Services.

— 6835 Heather Moor Trail, Hillsboro: 12 bids received, ranging from $7,900 to $42,000; apparent low bidder is Funderburg Land Management.

— 11428 Holiday Way, Hillsboro: 13 bids received, ranging from $3,000 to $31,200; apparent low bidder is Aster Oilfield Services.

—11410 Cathy's Court, Hillsboro: 14 bids received, ranging from $3,000 to $44,800; apparent low bidder is Aster Oilfield Services.

— 10635 North Shore Road, Hillsboro: 12 bids received, ranging from $3,000 to $35,800; apparent low bidder is Aster Oilfield Services.

— 6539 Spring Hill Drive, Hillsboro: 12 bids received, ranging from $3,850 to $46,400; apparent low bidder is Funderburg Land Management.

— 219 E. Main Street, Hillsboro: nine bids received, ranging from $11,700 to $61,650; apparent low bidder is Brothers & Friends Contracting & Demolition.

— 226 S. High Street, Hillsboro: 10 bids received, ranging from $9,000 to $65,150; apparent low bidder is Funderburg Land Management.

— 237 E. Lilley Avenue, Hillsboro: 12 bids received, ranging from $4,200 to $46,650; apparent low bidder is Evans Landscaping. 

— 246 E. South Street, Hillsboro: nine bids received, ranging from $11,250 to $71,025; apparent low bidder is Funderburg Land Management.

— 411 Trenton Street, Hillsboro: 13 bids received, ranging from $5,350 to $38,150; apparent low bidder is Evans Landscaping.

— 413 W. South Street, Hillsboro: 13 bids received, ranging from $8,500 to $63,350; apparent low bidder is B&B Recycling.

— 6400 Roundhead Road, New Vienna: 14 bids received, ranging from $8,000 to $52,700; apparent low bidder is Aster Oilfield Services.

— 21 S. Fairfield Street, Leesburg: 11 bids received, ranging from $4,000 to $91,925; apparent low bidder is Howland Asphalt Sealcoating.

— 111 Arch Street, Leesburg: 13 bids received, ranging from $3,700 to $28,700; apparent low bidder is Howland Asphalt Sealcoating.

— 137 1/2 High Street, Leesburg: 14 bids received, ranging from $3,900 to $33,200; apparent low bidder is Howland Asphalt Sealcoating.

— 27 Maple Street, Mowrystown: 12 bids received, ranging from $4,200 to $26,200; apparent low bidder is Paul Williams Wrecking.

— 3497 Edwards Road, Sardinia: 10 bids received, ranging from $3,500 to $41,500; apparent low bidder is Evans Landscaping. 

According to Johansen, projects will be awarded at the land bank’s March 12 meeting.

In other potential updates for that grant program, Johansen announced that the land bank has received documentation on a $186,000 mortgage lien release from the bank that held the mortgage on 7931 Main Street in Highland.

“That's been recorded,” Johansen said. “The deed has been recorded. The delinquent taxes have been cleared, and the special assessments have been cleared by the village of Highland, so we're officially the proud owners of that property. 

“We have included it in our next demolition program. I didn't release that bid yet. We were still waiting on ownership to transfer before we did that, so now we are the owners, so I plan to release the next batch of those bids around our May meeting.”

In addition, legal counsel Todd Book reported that a property on North Fourth Street in Greenfield, which was in tax foreclosure, failed to “sell at the required two sales, so it will now be forfeited to the state of Ohio.” Johansen said there is a home and “a dilapidated garage” on the property.

“We can work with Alex [Butler], the [county] auditor, like we have in the past, to ask that property become ours,” Book said. “We can put it through our demolition process and hopefully try to get that done, if we can, before the May time frame.”

For the other state grant program, environmental consultant Matt Wagner of TetraTech gave an update on well test sampling at the Rocky Fork Truck Stop, the lone ongoing Brownfield Remediation Grant project. This property was included in the past two brownfield grant cycles and has a current deadline of June 30 following extensions from the state. 

“Results were very favorable,” Wagner said. “Actually, we had a lot of reductions based on the actual injections that we did. We are going to do a second round of injections to hit still the remaining hot spots that we need to do. We plan to do those here in March. 

“We’ve got to wait for the snow to melt so we can see what we're doing, but ultimately, we have a good handle on that, and we're getting that scheduled, so we'll have that done. We're in good shape to complete the project by June.”

Regarding the land bank’s applications for the next round of funding, Wagner said it’s an “any day moment for when” the state will announce their decision. The projects submitted for 2026 brownfield funding thus far include former gas station sites in Hillsboro, Marshall, Greenfield and Belfast. 

As noted by Wagner, the board voted in January to withdraw the former Bell’s Foundry from contention after the City of Hillsboro received EPA funding for the project. He pointed out that it will “open up about $300,000 to $400,000 toward other projects in the county.

“I definitely encourage the board to talk to the various townships, etc, to identify any potential sites that may have asbestos-containing materials in their commercial structures, dump sites, or certainly sites that are heavily delinquent on their taxes that may have environmental concerns,” Wagner said.

Johansen said in addition to part of the former Elliott Hotel in Greenfield, which was discussed in January, he has identified several contenders in the village of Mowrystown, including a former store/gas station and some grain silos.

In other discussion:

• The board again revisited options for selling a property they own at 222 McClain Avenue in Greenfield. The parcel was first listed at $20,000 then lowered to $10,000 in January. The Village of Greenfield had a similar vacant parcel that failed to receive any bids with a minimum listing price of $12,750, nor with a $8,925 minimum, Johansen said last month. 

Johansen told the board that Hannah Bivens advised that the village of Greenfield is “holding off on doing their third bid” in case the land bank decided to do a joint bid for the adjoining properties, as Johansen has previously proposed.

“Does combining all that into a single bid make the whole package more attractive before we drop our price?” board member David Daniels asked. “We have not seen what might be possible with a combination bid for all those properties. I would think we would want to try that first and ask them about they feel about it. Maybe, by combining all those properties together, it makes it more valuable.”

Johansen explained that Greenfield is “court-ordered to do the auction route,” so they will be attempting that option again regardless.

“It would really just be up to us,” Johansen said.
“I think it would make it more valuable, more attractive to possibly a builder, more room to get in there.”

After a discussion among board members with concerns about minimum pricing for the lot, Book said he “wanted to investigate a little bit more” to work out the logistics of how the auction would be arranged.  

“I’d like to have the ability to refuse the offer,” Daniels said. “Let's say that it goes up for auction and somebody bids 800 bucks.”

Daniels added that the land bank board could hold a special meeting if they need take action between now and their March meeting.

• Book told the board that a Hillsboro property sold by the land bank in 2024 has been found to have a tax lien that was unknown to the land bank at the time.

“We worked with the auditor and the attorney general, to release all of the liens on that property, but there was a title search done and exposed that there was one more Department of Taxation lien that needed to be addressed,” Book said. “We're working with the Attorney General's office to get that resolved, and we'll know more next month about what the status of those are.”

• In January, the land bank board agreed to be “included in a coalition” with the Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission and Atlas Technical Consultants to apply for a to-be-determined project. Johansen said Thursday those groups decided to “move forward with a community-wide assessment grant instead of a coalition grant. 

“He said it was very similar, it’s just they're applying for less money,” Johansen said. “Instead of $1.5 million, it's $500,000 but it was a little bit easier to have that application funded. The target areas for that is Highland, Lawrence and Ross counties. That application was submitted by the deadline on January 28, and it is in the review process.”

• After tabling the matter at their organizational meeting in January, the board voted to appoint Daniels as the vice president of the board. 

• The board approved the financial report for January as presented by Johansen. According to his report, the land bank had a beginning balance of $301,314.61 and closing balance of $300,525. Credits included a $43,724.03 reimbursement from the state for the East Monroe tank project and a $585.70 payment for the sale of a property on Bigelow Street. Debits included payment for various fees, salary and expenses, rent, legal services, office supplies, credit card expenses and payments to contractors.

In a separate motion, the board also authorized the payment of outstanding invoices, including for advertising costs; legal fees; salary and expenses; rent; tax-related matters; and payments to contractors. 

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