Police sergeant position, city properties among topics in Hillsboro City Council's emergency legislation

Hillsboro City Council members approved a number of emergency ordinances and resolutions, including ones related to the police department, local infrastructure and city properties, during their Thursday, Oct. 15 meeting. 

At the start of the meeting, council voted 6-0 to excuse the absence of council member Heith Brown for the October through February meetings, as Brown will be away “for the next five months in training, serving our country,” according to council president Tom Eichinger.

Given that council will have a maximum of six voting members (not counting tiebreaking votes by Eichinger) for all of those meetings, the council president pointed out that “any absences basically eliminate the ability to vote on emergency legislation” as they would need a 6-0 vote to suspend the three-reading rule. 

However, as Thursday night’s meeting was full of emergency legislation, Eichinger said he doesn’t want that to become the norm. 

“I hope we're not going to see this as the standard from now on that everything is declared as an emergency because that's not the best way for us to run our business,” he said. “I understand the situation on most of these, but we really need to strive to avoid them as much as possible.” 

Among the ordinances considered Thursday was one to repeal and replace Section 32.035 of the codified ordinances of the City of Hillsboro, which was approved as an emergency at the request of Hillsboro Police Chief Eric Daniels.

The request was made to add a fourth police sergeant position to “balance” an issue following a recent change that splits the officers into four teams, as they have 12-hour shifts.   
“Over the summer, the bargaining unit approached me, requesting to go to 12-hour shifts,” Daniels said. “Instead of first, second and third shift, we now have four teams, and two teams cover 24 hours. The other two teams cover the other 24 hours.”

The existing ordinance allowed three police sergeants. Since the department changed to four teams, Daniels said they have a sergeant for three of the four teams, while “the senior officer on that fourth shift” is paid “five-percent above the normal hourly rate” through collective bargaining but isn’t classified as a sergeant.

“What I am seeking is to reorganize to facilitate that schedule model, so that we have equal supervision authority on all four teams,” Daniels said. 

Safety and service director Shawn Adkins added that the change to 12-hour shifts “has cut out a lot of overtime,” while Daniels said it “benefits their work balance.

“We're already paying that sergeant's wage, like it or not,” Daniels said. “I think it's only beneficial for the morale and welfare of my office and the department for the fourth person who's assuming all their roles to receive all the benefit of the role.”

Council suspended the three-reading rule and passed the ordinance as an emergency.

A resolution authorizing the safety and service director to entry into a contract with DLZ Ohio, Inc. for water line replacement design and engineering was also passed as an emergency, after recommendation by the finance committee to pursue funding for Greystone Drive and Westover Drive. 

In response to a citizen’s comments in August, Adkins had asked for a water main replacement on Westover Drive and Greystone Drive to be placed in the finance committee to determine financial feasibility. Chair Gary Lewis said the committee met Sept. 23 and voted 3-0 to recommend full council consider approving the project.

“Both lines have had so many repairs that it has become prohibitive to city maintenance crews as well as consumers on both streets,” Lewis said. 

Adkins had said in  August that the city has applied for a grant four times for a water replacement project and has been “turned down” each time.

“I have talked to the engineering firm,” Adkins told council Thursday. “They have time to do it this winter, so we can enter into our spring loan agreement with EPA and everything else. We have actually pushed this down the road four or five years now, trying to get grants. 

“I would like to have this done so we can move forward and get these water lines replaced. We actually have had 64 water main breaks on Greystone Drive, and about half that many on Westover.”

Lewis said he wanted to put it on “public record” that although “we try to also at least go over and repave the street” after water line replacement, that will not be the case for Greystone Drive. The citizen’s comments in August was from Joanne Whitley, who said that she has lived on Greystone Drive for 52 years and “never remembers it being blacktopped.” 

Adkins told Whitley in August that he doesn’t “want to repave your street, and we come in next year, replace a water main, the following year come in and replace a sewer main, and then we're going to have to replace the old paving.
 
“Greystone will not be repaved,” Adkins said Thursday. “Greystone is in our second phase of our sewer I&I thing, so my recommendation is to patch back the trench and not repave Greystone until we do our sewer I&I repairs, and then we can replace it. 

“As far as Westover, it is not in the I&I plan, so I think once we get the water line replaced, we can actually go in and have it resurfaced.”

A resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an easement agreement for the use of certain real property owned by the city was approved as an emergency as well, at the recommendation of city law director Hannah Bivens.
The legislation was prepared to “remedy [an] issue” where “part of a residential structure and a parking area owned and/or maintained by Karen M. Reno encroach[es] upon the city property,” the resolution says.  

“Ms. Reno owns a property at 142 Fair Street,” Bivens said. “The map that I've included [for council members] shows you there’s a duplex on that property that encroaches over into a yellow area. That yellow area is property owned by the city of Hillsboro. There is also a parking lot for that structure located wholly on city of Hillsboro property.”

Bivens said that when the duplex was built, “there was no building department, so there was no verification of property lines,” and the city was not aware of the matter until it was recently brought to their attention.

“Ms. Reno is trying to sell this property,” Bivens said. “Because of the encroachment issue, the is having issues selling the property unless the city will grant her what I am going to call a temporary easement for the continued use of the structure and the parking lot on city property. That temporary easement is narrowly constricted so that the continued use of the building and the parking lot are only for the lifetime of that structure.

“If it is deemed a total loss or destroyed, either voluntarily or involuntarily, the easement terminates, and then the building must be rebuilt within the property lines of Ms. Reno.”

Bivens continued that she also included “an indemnification clause” in the temporary easement so the property owner will “hold the city harmless” if “something would happen within that side of the building [partially on city on property] or in the parking lot.”

In response to a question from council member Cody Mathews, Bivens said the easement is “for the existing building as it sits … and for the parking lot,” both of which “cannot be expanded.” Adkins also asked if the city would have to deny permits for building improvements, and Bivens said that interior or exterior upgrades could be done if they don’t “expand the footprint of the structure.”

The law director asked council to consider passing the legislation as an emergency due to the liability issue for the city and for Reno to be able to pursue potential sale of the property, as “she cannot sell it until this issue is corrected.” Council voted 6-0 to suspend the three-reading rule and to approve the legislation. 

In another item involving city property, a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an access agreement with AECOM to conduct environmental purposes on behalf of World Fuel Services on property owned by the city was passed as an emergency after the three-reading rule was suspended.

“This is on North Elm Street, where Lykins Oil used to be,” Adkins said. “We have the railroad bed there. There's already sampling wells. They want to extend the sampling wells over onto the city property, and I would like you to pass this as an emergency in case there is leaching as far as any oils leaching on our property, so we can get this remediated as soon as possible.”

The environmental services involved “may include drilling, boring, excavation, and other subsurface activities, sampling, and use of heavy equipment” for a West Street property owned by the city, according to the legislation.

A third piece of legislation related to a city-owned property — a resolution amending Resolution Number 25-10 to correct the legal description attached thereto as Exhibit A to ensure the correct transfer of property — was passed as an emergency as well.

As previously reported, in June 2025, council approved a resolution transferring real property to the Hillsboro Community Improvement Corporation. The legislation described the property as .717 acre on U.S. 50 adjacent to a parcel already owned by the city. The new legislation amends that description to .496 acre.

Bivens said the transfer was to “help alleviate a property issue” for the owners “and also have us acquire a piece of property we needed for our trail system. 

“When that legislation was passed, there was a legal description,” Bivens said. “Our property is much larger. It was like a lot split, and since then, there's been some reevaluation of the exchange of property. 

“A different legal description has been developed. It’s a smaller piece of property that we are exchanging with them, so we just need to amend that piece of legislation to correct the legal description because there's been a change in what acreage is going to be exchanged.” 

Also approved as an emergency was a resolution approving a then and now certificate of the city auditor, authorizing payment of $40,886.75 to the Treasurer of State, Ohio Department of Transportation, for a scheduled payment on a State Infrastructure Bank loan from the Roberts Lane extension project.

“The reason for this then and now is because we have not received an invoice from ODOT,” city auditor Dawson Barreras said. “I contacted them last week about this payment because I knew it was coming up, and they said they sent the invoice via mail, and but we had not received it. 

“They finally sent me the invoice and the amortization schedule, and these funds were appropriated and are available, but the state law requires council the council approval before the payment can be made.”

A resolution authorizing the tax levies for the city of Hillsboro for the fiscal year beginning Jan. 1, 2027, as determined by the Highland County Budget Commission, and certifying said levies to the county auditor was also passed as an emergency.

Barreras told council that the legislation is to “approve the inside millage rates that are provided by the county and set by the state. 

“I did not pass these with the original tax budget, so we need to pass these now as they stand,” he said.

Only two of the nine pieces of legislation Thursday were not approved, as both involved proposed alley vacations. Council heard the first reading of an ordinance to review a petition to close an alley traveling north and south from South Street to the alley parallel to South Street and lying between 225 South Street and 226 South Street.

Adkins said the request was already denied by the Hillsboro Planning Commission and is now required to come before council.

“The mayor and I both had objections to this alley vacation,” Adkins said. “For one, we have a sewer main that runs right down the center of it, and it is a maintained alley. 

“It's paved, it's maintained, and also when we split it, the two properties on each side of the alley has rear parking. They cannot access that without going on somebody else's property if we were to vacate it.”

If the legislation is approved as written, council is approving the Planning Commission’s denial of the alley vacation.

Council also heard the first reading of an ordinance to review a petition to close an alley traveling east and west from Johnson Street to the alley parallel to Johnson Street and lying between 360 Johnson Street and 406 Johnson Street.

According to Adkins, this application was approved by the Planning Commission, and the ordinance would approve the commission’s recommendation.

“This alley is a non-developed alley that has actually been used for a parking area for the guy that owns the property on both sides,” Adkins said. “It has never been developed. There's nothing in the alley, so we have no problem with it being closed.”

In other discussion:

• After a presentation, a committee meeting, two previous legislation readings and a special meeting, a proposed sewer rate increase for the city of Hillsboro has been “substantially lowered” after the city auditor determined the increases were based on incorrect figures. For more, see the story at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/substantially-lower-sewer-rate-inc….

• In his report, Adkins discussed several ongoing city projects, beginning with the multimillion-dollar grant-funded Crossroads Park upgrades.

“Crossroads Park is moving along, not as fast as I would like to see it,” Adkins said. “The curbing is going on, getting ready for paving. The roofing has started, and the water feature has been completed.”

For the Rails to Trails project, for which crews have been paving, Adkins said work is “probably 75-percent completed.

“There's a section that we got into that was extremely wet, so they will start tiling it next week,” Adkins said. “It might not all be completed as far as paving, but there will be grindings and a base put before the end of the year, so we might have a little bit left to pave as far as next year.”

Adkins also reported that the city will again be seeking bids for upgrades to the intersection of state Route 73 and Fenner Lane.

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.”

Adkins said Thursday that the city had only received one bid that was rejected because it exceeded 20 percent over the engineer’s estimate.

“We'll put it out for bid and put a time frame on it,” Adkins said. “We should get more bids and better bids over the winter because of people getting projects for next year, so hopefully, it'll be a better bid.”

Adkins announced that he was made aware Thursday that “the county has filed foreclosure on all three properties” involved with the would-be Marriott Hotel development. He said that he reached out to developers with Leo Capital and received a written statement, which he forwarded to council.

“I did call them this afternoon, and I explained to them that we found out there was a foreclosure, and I wanted timeframes,” Adkins said.

(For more on the foreclosure and statement from developers, see: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/highland-county-commissioners-file…).

“My thing is, how long are we going to kick this can down the road now on this?” Council member Logan Kelly asked. “It’s back to square one, it feels like.”

“If you read our contract with the $200,000 [promissory note] that we gave them, as soon as they signed the bond agreement, we are out of it,” Adkins said. “We have no control over it. Guys, they can do it 20 years from now. We’re out $200,000.”

According to Adkins, the city issued 18 building permits, including 11 commercial and seven residential permits, in September. 

Upcoming city events outlined by Adkins included Jeepers Creepers on Oct. 16 and the start of the lighted trail Nov. 27.

• Street and safety committee chair Wilkin reported that his committee met Sept. 23 to discuss uptown parking.

“A couple of uptown business owners were invited to share some of the issues that they are having,” Wilkin said.” The main issue that seems to be the problem is individuals using the parking spots in front of businesses for all day parking when we have several lots available for free.”

Wilkin added that the city’s current parking code “is unenforceable with the technology we have” and that the city is seeking advice from other municipalities on how to address these issues. 

• During the citizens’ comments portion of the meeting, Hillsboro resident Aaron Brown asked council to consider issuing a proclamation in recognition of Parental Alienation Awareness Day, observed April 25, and to “support community-level education and mental health resources” related to parental alienation issues.