Hillsboro City Council OKs legislation for proposed holiday lights display

Hillsboro City Council members passed legislation to take the first steps toward a proposed new holiday lights show this winter, allowing for bids up to $150,000 for the purchase of equipment, during their Thursday, April 16 meeting.

A resolution authorizing and directing the safety service director to send out a request for proposal for holiday light show vendors, as recommended by the finance committee, was approved as an emergency following suspension of the three-reading rule.

As previously reported, in February community enhancement committee chair Cody Mathews reported on a 90-minute meeting conducted Jan. 16 to discuss several topics, including the idea of adding the city to the Ohio Holiday Lights Trail. 

To set up light displays for the next holiday season, Mathews said that they were looking into the Highland County Fairgrounds and Crossroads Park (when construction is done) as possible locations. According to the State of Ohio, there were 79 stops on the Ohio Holiday Lights Trail in 2025, including Chillicothe, Owensville, Portsmouth, Beaver and Milford. 

At that time, Mathews said the finance committee would have to eventually review and approve an amount for the purchase of commercial-grade LED lights for the display.

In March, Mathews said that safety and service director Shawn Adkins and public works superintendent Seth McCoy were working to coordinate tentative plans with the Highland County Fair Board. 

Both Mathews and finance committee chair Gary Lewis discussed the legislation prior to the vote.

“The reason for the suspension of the three-reading rule is we want to pass it as an emergency due to the limited time of putting it out to bid and giving the vendor the appropriate time to be ready,” Lewis said. “Mr. Adkins had spoken to the vendor, and he indicated that he would probably need that extra time to get some extra lights and other equipment as well, so that’s the reason for the emergency.”

According to Mathews, the community enhancement committee met April 10 to finalize their discussions, including talking about the bidding process and estimated costs.

“We also discussed the idea of inviting local food truck vendors to be at the exit of the light display, obviously giving people the opportunity to purchase some food and giving the vendor an opportunity to make some money,” Mathews said. 

Lewis reported that the finance committee met April 14 “to discuss the financial feasibility” of the proposal.

“The city would be responsible for paying the electricity for the light show and paying for the vendor,” Lewis said. “Comp time would be offered to any employee who volunteered to work at the show. An admission fee was mentioned but not established at this time. 

“The motion was to put out for bid the prospective vendors for the light show not to exceed $150,000 to be paid from the recreation fund, utilizing revenue from the cannabis sales. The essence of time was considered due to additional equipment that may be required by the vendor.”

Council member Logan Kelly asked where any proceeds from the show would be directed, given that profits from local cannabis sales are allocated toward the city’s parks department.

“Will that money go back to the parks, then?” Kelly asked.

“As I understand, the cannabis money is allocated for parks and recreation,” Mathews said. “We believe this to be recreation. We think it's a good opportunity, if there is some revenue made, that can feed right back into the parks program.”

The legislation passed Thursday is “authorizing and directing” the SSD “to advertise and prepare a request for proposal for a drive-through holiday light event for the city, with the stipulation that said bids cannot exceed the amount of $150,000.”

In other legislation:

• A resolution authorizing participation in the Ohio Department of Transportation road salt contracts awarded in 2026 was approved as an emergency, in order for the city to participate in ODOT’s annual bid and contract for next winter’s road salt.

“ODOT just got the legislation out to us first of the month, and I have to have it, because it has to be in by the end of the month for the deadline,” Adkins said of the emergency measure. “This is always going to be this way every year for the salt. We have to wait on ODOT to give us the legislation.”

• An ordinance making supplemental appropriations to correct a budgeting mistake, making the 507.510 department match the 501.510 department, was passed by a 6-0 vote.

“This legislation is referring to the budget that I made for the year of 2026,” city auditor Dawson Barreras said. “It’s correcting the sewer office budget to match the water office budget, which in essence is the same office. 

“They need to have matching budgets, because we split everything 50/50 out of those, and I will admit I accidentally made that budget the same as the year of 2025 for the sewer office and need to correct that to match it to the 2026 budget request.”

• An ordinance making supplemental appropriations to reallocate the source of funding for the SIB Loan payments by transferring said payments to a different line item was also passed by a 6-0 vote.

“This legislation is to change the way that we are going to pay for a loan that we received from the Roberts Lane development project last year,” Barreras said. “Initially, I thought this loan was to be paid out of the TIF [Tax Increment Financing] funds. Unfortunately, going back and reading the legislation, this loan should be paid through the income tax funds, so I would ask that we make two new line items in the street fund for principal and interest so we can track this loan and the payments of the loan.”

The legislation included the appropriation of $48,164.87 to the principal line item and $33,608.64 to the interest line item.

• Council heard the first reading of an ordinance authorizing the mayor to accept the transfer of real property located at 147 West Main Street and 149 West Main Street from the Hillsboro Community Improvement Corporation. Although the matter was originally listed as an emergency, Adkins said it did not need to be passed Thursday.

“This is the two pieces of property we bought that adjoin the Parker House so we can create [up to] 54 more parking stalls uptown,” Adkins said.

As previously reported, Adkins and Hillsboro Mayor Justin Harsha discussed the proposal in February. The plan for additional parking for the uptown district also involved the CIC purchasing these two parcels, with council approving a partial alley closure for the project in March. Adkins explained that the city is “relocating” the alleyway “to the center of this parking lot, so [traffic] will still be able to go through.

Mathews asked if not passing the legislation on its first reading would impact the construction timeline for the parking lots.

“No, because the CIC is an arm of the city, so it's our property,” Adkins said. “We're going to go ahead and go ahead and work on it. 

“We just want to get it off our books because when we have a survey, we're going to have it all surveyed one lot, the two together with the Parker House.”

During his report to council, Adkins said construction on the new parking area “will begin shortly.

“We're just waiting on the plants to start making hot mix [asphalt],” he said.
• A resolution authorizing the city auditor to transfer money from the General Fund to the Miscellaneous Government-Pro Services Department, pursuant to ORC 5705.14(E), had its second reading. The legislation was introduced as an emergency in March, but no vote was taken after a motion to suspend the three-reading rule failed to pass. It involves moving the money for the payment of the law director, as the city is currently contracting with Hannah Bivens, following the resignation of former director Randalyn Worley, who was in an elected position.

“After going through discussion with Gary Lewis and Shawn, I would like some time to contact the state of Ohio tomorrow to see if we can just move this money into the law director Pro Services line instead of Miscellaneous Government,” Barreras said Thursday. “I would ask council not to make this an emergency tonight.”

In other discussion:

• Adkins gave an update on several ongoing or upcoming construction projects in his safety and service director’s report.

According to Adkins, there has been a delay in plans for the state Route 73 and Fenner Lane reconstruction due to a recent property sale in the area.

Council had approved a resolution authorizing the safety and service director to advertise, solicit bids and enter into contract with the lowest and best bidder for the reconstruction project in February. According to street and safety committee chair Adam Wilkin, the project will involve “adding left-turn lanes while keeping through lanes as well,” while Adkins spoke about the need for the project due to its frequent “traffic congestion.”

“We had all our agreements in place, and before we got everything written down in a contract, one of the pieces of property that we need a right of way sold,” Adkins told council Thursday. “We have finally found out who owns it. We actually have a phone call tomorrow to see what they're going to want out of this property. Hopefully it's not as much as we’re expecting, and then it will go out to bid as soon as we get that straightened out.”

Mathews asked if the city could “get agreements in writing in the future.

“I just hate to see it sell and then that increase our costs,” he said. “Land speculation is a hobby for some, and I want to make sure that we don’t fall victim to that and increase our cost on projects unnecessarily.”

Adkins said that until they speak to the new landowners, the city is unsure if the impact on costs, while they “had no clue” about the real estate transaction until it occurred.

For the multimillion-dollar grant-funded Crossroads Park upgrades, Adkins said crews are making progress with “walls being formed up for pour” and one of the parking lots finished. Work on the Rails to Trails project is just beginning, with crews “working on clearing and grubbing,” Adkins said, while the Ohio Department of Transportation “still needs to finish up on the bridge at Clear Creek.”

In updates on private development, Adkins said that their most recent report on the long-discussed Marriott Hotel project is that the bonds for infrastructure “will be sold in early May.” During a special meeting March 31, council extended a promissory note for the development for another two months, to May 31, as hotel developers said they had identified a potential buyer for the bonds. 

Also since the last council meeting, the new Amazon facility has opened and is currently operating from 6 a.m.-11 p.m., while GloFiber is continuing to to work on fiber-optic installs for commercial and residential customers.

Adkins also reported that the city issued seven commercial and 16 residential building permits for the month of March, while the Hillsboro Planning Commission denied a rezoning application.

• Under communications, council president Tom Eichinger said that the Ohio Department of Commerce noticed the city of the opportunity to submit objections to retail liquor permit renewals, which prompted Lewis to ask about the city’s lack of a state liquor store since Rite Aid closed nearly two years ago.

“We will be addressing that with the Statehouse next week,” Adkins said, referring to the annual “Highland County Day” set for April 22, during which local officials and business representatives will visit with state leaders. “They've reopened the application. I don't know what happened with the application last year, but they threw them all out.”

As for the liquor permit renewals, Eichinger said the information could be forwarded back to the state as council had no objections.

• During the citizens’ comments portion of the meeting, council heard from Hillsboro resident Scott West regarding a shed on his property. West said that he was issued a citation for an alleged code enforcement violation, which is pending in Municipal Court, and argued that he does not believe he is in violation of city code.

“I'm extremely angry that something that's noncriminal was thrown at the police to come over and give me a citation,” West said. “This could have been handled over mail.”

Eichinger referred the matter to Adkins for further review.

• Adkins requested that the city’s wage study for elected officials be placed back in the finance committee.

• At the beginning of the meeting, council members voted 6-0 to excuse the absence of council member Dan Baucher. Harsha was also absent.

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