RFL Alliance to conduct community survey

The Rocky Fork Lake Alliance met Tuesday evening and elected four new officials to the board of directors, and continued in ongoing discussions regarding crime prevention and business development in the area. 

Alliance president Dan Cowdrey told The Highland County Press that the group will be working on a survey of lake-area residents regarding quality of life issues, possible establishments of neighborhood watch programs, and what types of businesses they would like to see developed in the area. 

"There are 12 directors on the Rocky Fork Alliance on a rotating basis. There were four elected last night for a three-year term: Tom Armstrong, Roger Ruggles and Angie Mustard, and Bob Johnson was re-elected," he said. "They voted to run a survey of the people in Paint Township, North Shore Drive and the lake area to get input on what their needs and concerns are, and what services they need. That will be done in the next month or so. They'll talk about possibly establishing a neighborhood watch, or a buddy system, or a volunteer safety patrol, and commercial services." 

Among other items that they will ask about is the possibility of enacting a township curfew for people under 18. 

"We want to see if people want to support that, and then we would develop guidelines similar for what the county puts on for the month of October, but it would be all year round," Cowdrey said. 

Cowdrey said the overall purpose of the alliance is primarily "home security, theft and maintaining the quality of life in the Rocky Fork area." 

"When you look at the population, this area is like a small town, or a city, and there's a lot of people there," Cowdrey said. "There's more quality houses going in, and retirees moving in. It's a good place to live, so that's the way we want to keep it." 

The alliance, Cowdrey said, has had discussions possibly incorporating the area into a municipality, but that more study is needed and that type of action would be part of the "long-range plan" rather than an immediate goal. 

"We're still questioning if that is a reasonable way to go. The other part of the long-range plan is to look at what kind of business opportunities there are, and economic development in the area," Cowdrey said. "We're going to look at what kind of businesses there is a need for, and what are the opportunities for providing more for tourists."

During Tuesday's meeting, Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss spoke to the group on House Bill 86, which went into effect in September and changed sentencing guidelines in the state of Ohio. 

"I spoke about what's going on at the local level in terms of the jail issue and the expectations for sentencing now, from the state, based upon the changes in HB 86," Coss said. "The drive is to reduce Ohio inmates by 12,000, and reduce (Ohio Department of Corrections) expenses." 

Coss said that he explained the increased responsibility on local government, such as being responsible for pre-sentence investigations. The judge said that he wanted to help local residents understand that there are perimeters in which people are sentenced when they are convicted of a crime, and what types of sentences can be imposed for certain types of crimes. 

Also during the the meeting, Daniel Cox, law enforcement staff officer for the southwest Ohio region of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, spoke to the group of approximately 40 people on restructuring and law enforcement, and the jurisdictions between ODNR, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, and the Highland County Sheriff's Office. 

The alliance typically meets on the second Tuesday of each month at the activities center, but in November that falls on election night, so the meeting has been moved to Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. The meetings are open to the public, and area residents are encouraged to attend. The group will continue to host speaker, Cowdrey said, regarding law enforcement related issues.