An upgrade to the Highland County Justice Center’s records management system was approved Wednesday by the county commissioners at their weekly meeting. The commissioners are declared October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
It was the last meeting for outgoing commissioner Gary Abernathy, who notified his colleagues earlier in the month that Friday would be his last day due to his moving out of the county.
An aging software platform will be upgraded at the Justice Center following approval of a contract Wednesday with Central Square Technologies.
Michael Higgins of the Greensboro, North Carolina records management system corporation, said it was a migration from the current older Central Square platform into a newer, consolidated package.
“It will have in it computer aided dispatch, mobile records management and jail management,” Higgins said. “It’s all integrated, so it works together and it’ll provide a greater amount of efficiency for the sheriff’s office to allow it to continue to give better support for citizens and the deputies in the field.”
A proclamation was issued declaring October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and Dara Gullette, director of the Alternatives to Violence Center in Hillsboro, requested that commissioners renew the marriage license fees program since the agency experienced a recent substantial cut in funding.
Commissioners unanimously moved to approve the measure.
As previously reported, $17 from each marriage license fee is earmarked for the center’s domestic violence prevention programs.
“We were requesting $560,000 from our VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) and we actually got $383,000, so that means I’m going to have to do some soul-searching in terms of cuts to staff or benefits,” Gullette said. “We’re understaffed and overworked, so I would hate to have to cut benefits.”
Also Wednesday, commissioners moved to accept the bid for a replacement vehicle for the sheriff’s office from Lebanon Ford, which Highland County Sheriff Donnie Barrera said would cost $32,111.
Concerning budgets, Britton said the county could probably afford to purchase one of the five specific vehicles that Barrera said the auto dealer had on the lot, and perhaps acquire two more after the first of the year.
Abernathy agreed with Britton’s recommendation to “hold off a few more days to see where it’s going to come out of the budget.”
Barrera said that one vehicle had yet to arrive that had been ordered from Mt. Orab Ford, and that a replacement was needed for one that had been totaled in a crash. He said other cruisers in the sheriff’s office fleet were approaching high mileage bringing with it concerns of increased maintenance costs.
“If we could get one or two vehicles, that would be great,” Barrera said.
Executive director Cheryl Subler and assistant director John Leutz of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio presented Abernathy with a crystal recognition of service award near the close of the meeting.
“It’s been one of the great honors of my life to serve as a county commissioner,” Abernathy said. “I want to thank Jeff and Terry for all their help over the last two and a half years, along with the two greatest clerks in the world, Mary Remsing and Nicole Oberrecht — we made a great team.”
In other matters, only one line item budget transfer resolution was approved, along with three contracts.
Also discussed was acceptance of a quote from Duro-Last Roofing Systems for repairs on the Highland County Administration Building.
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.
