Multiple workers from the Ohio Laborers’ District Council were in attendance at the weekly Wednesday meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners to discuss updates on the solar projects in Highland County.

Randy McGuire, the marketing director for the Ohio Laborers’ District Council, said that the Dodson Creek solar project is supposed to start “very soon,” with the Palomino project being “further along.” McGuire said that these sites were approved to be union sites “as of right now” and have the workers make $35 an hour and have a “career” so when they’re finished, the workers would be able to go to another one with healthcare and retirement.

For any solar sites, he asked the board to take notice on how the union ones are being built and how “safely” they’re being taken care of in comparison to sites that aren’t using unions.

McGuire also said that the council offers a three-day mobile solar training class that comes to the location and trains people. He said they “teach them everything they need to know about building a solar site and then we will put your community people to work in your community.”

He said that, normally for the class, the people learning have to be laborers and pay into the training fund to get access to the training center. McGuire said that they’ve gone outside their bylaws to help train people in counties for these jobs and help the community.

In other news, Janice Vaught, a concerned citizen, returned to the board of commissioners to ask if the board contacted the sheriff’s office about her matter with financial exploitation discussed at last week’s meeting.

Britton said the board did contact the sheriff’s office as well as the prosecuting attorney that the board receives its legal advice from. He said that the legal advice from them was that it was a “civil matter” and that Vaught should take it to civil court.

While Vaught said that she’d spoken to the attorney, Daniels said they’re the one that makes the decisions in Highland County and that the board of commissioners couldn’t help her any further.

Vaught also again asked the board of commissioners about a Humane Warden in the county. To that, Daniels commented, just as he did a week ago, that it was up to the Humane Society and that the board of commissioners had no jurisdiction on the hiring of that person.

To both of these matters, Vaught said that the board “can probably expect” to see her “next week as well.”

Daniels also said that, concerning the bid received from Federal Signal on the Greenfield tornado siren, they were still working on verification and haven’t heard back yet.

The board of commissioners also approved one authorization to execute, that being a building permit application for the City of Hillsboro for 117 E. Main St. for certification for occupancy from the Probation Department.

Concerning Res. No. 23-71, Daniels said it was to be compliant with the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and housing. He said the board of commissioners is supposed to update it every five years as a part of the federal program. He also said the resolution “allows” the board to apply for critical infrastructure grants and other “things” dealing with housing issues. Daniels also said the resolution is standard procedure.

In other news, there were five resolutions approved by the board of commissioners, which are as follows:

*Res. No. 23-71 is an agreement for an update to the plan for “Residential Anti-Displacement and Relocation Assistance” and provides assistance to each LMI household displaced by housing demolition or conversion of an LMI dwelling to another use as a direct result of assisted activities.

*Res. No. 23-72 is an authorization for an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds to unemployment compensation – County Miscellaneous in the amount of $10,000.

*Res. No. 23-73 is a request from Probation for a budget modification within the 2675 Jail Diversion FY14 account from OPERS to Program Expenses in the amount of $7,140.

*Res. No. 23-74 is a request from Probation for a budget modification within the 2685 Pre-Trial Supervision FY22 account in the amount of $7,350.

*Res. No. 23-75 is a request from Probation for a budget modification within the 2690 PSI Writing Program FY22 account in the amount of $3,860.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.