The new dog pound on North Shore Drive received multiple final modifications and tweaks before its upcoming ribbon-cutting on April 7, according to the Highland County Board of Commissioners at its weekly Wednesday meeting.

Board president Terry Britton said the Ellis Fence Company sent a proposal related to some fencing that needed to be installed. Britton said the fence was needed because there was more area that the commissioners wanted fenced in. He said the fencing would be about 112 linear feet of new chain-link fence, with the pricing being $3,290. He also said the board would make a small modification to the fence by adding a gate.

Commissioner Brad Roades said the gate needs to be added because they found out there wasn’t one to allow people to bring the animals over to one of the sides.

“This additional fence provides some extra security into the facility so that there’s an area that just got overlooked when we were, when the fence bid went out,” commissioner Dave Daniels said. “This is an area that just provides a little bit of extra security in and around the kennel runs.”

The board approved the repairs and additions to the dog pound.

Britton also said the commissioners had a final checklist they want to go through to complete final preparations on the dog pound. He said all of the aspects they wanted to have fixed were corrected, including some doors that weren’t functioning properly, some weather stripping and a water leak in one of the outside runs on the roof.

In other news, the board announced that it planned to receive bids for mowing in the county. The bids are due on April 12.

Britton said the county’s one maintenance person throughout the summer had difficulty getting all of the mowing completed. He said that previously the county hired people to “pick up the slack.” However, he said that this year they decided to put it out for bid, with the bids also planned to be separated by building, allowing the board to pick and choose.

Todd Wilkin, Greenfield city manager, attended the meeting to thank Mary Remsing for her help in assisting the village of Greenfield in being a part of the Critical Infrastructure Grant program to help Sycamore Circle and its “tremendous flooding.”

“I’m a believer that I always want to give it back better than what we received it and so this is a grant that we applied for and through your office for critical infrastructure, and Mary really worked hard and I just wanted to thank her for that and bring recognition for her hard work on that,” Wilkin said. “With that grant we’re going to be able to give back Sycamore Circle better than what we received.”

David Tolliver, Highland County Board of Elections director, was at the meeting to discuss the purchase of new electronic poll books. He said thanks to House Bill 45, the state made some funds available that allowed the board of elections to purchase the poll books. He said the department wanted to try and get ahead of 2024 and the new election cycle with the purchase.

Tolliver said that the last time the department got new poll books was in 2019, with the state’s recommendation on the life cycle of them being about five years. He said that the new purchase was quoted at $48,250 and the department was granted $25,453 and would also get a buyback discount of $1,200 for turning in the old ones. He said the out-of-pocket cost for the department would be $21,547, which he also said was in its budget for the purchase of 50 poll books.

However, Tolliver said that because of the possibility of any additional cost, he wanted to make the board aware in case they might have a shortfall. He also said that whenever the contract comes through, probably in June, that was when it would be signed and paid for.

The commissioners approved its entrance into the Workmen’s Compensation Pool. Alex Butler, the county auditor, said that the County Commissioners Association of Ohio (CCAO) estimated the county’s total savings by participating in the program would be $12,991.

The board approved a letter and invoice to send to Liberty 1 Renewables, Hecate Energy, for the first 100 megawatts in the Mowrystown area. The board of commissioners also received a liquor license request for 1st Stop in Belfast, with Britton saying that the board would move on the matter next week if there is no incoming opposition.

In other news, there were two resolutions approved by the board:

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.