Seven pieces of legislation, including a new pay scale ordinance for non-union city employees, were unanimously approved and adopted by Hillsboro City Council during its monthly meeting Thursday.
Under the new ordinance the annual pay range for the city’s safety-service director is $75,000 to $90,000. The salary range for the chief of police was set at $65,000 to $70,000 with an additional $20,600 for systems administrator duties. The salary range for the public works superintendent was set at $75,000 to 90,000. The salary range for police captain was set at $55,000 to $65,000. The salary range for chief building official/plans examiner was set at $65,000 to $85,000. The salary range for tax commissioner was set at $50,000 to $60,000.
In addition to those salaries for appointed officials, annual salary ranges for superintendents and supervisors were established under the ordinance. The salary range for water plant superintendent was set at $65,000 to $70,000. The salary range for waste water superintendent was set at $65,000 to $70,000, and the salary range for utility office manager was set at $50,000 to $60,000.
Hillsboro Mayor Justin Harsha spoke during the council meeting about events that have happened in the city during the past month and some upcoming events.
“We had the community cookout up at the old firehouse which was a great turnout, and we had a lot of the community come in and enjoy some good food and laughs and some council members were able to come up and help,” said Harsha.
Harsha said the city will be hosting another Movies Under the Stars event for Halloween with a showing of “Hotel Transylvania” scheduled for Oct. 27 at 8 p.m.
Harsha said the city will be taking over the coordination of the Oct. 7 Jeepers Creepers event from the Hillsboro Uptown Business Association (HUBA).
“Some questions arose about the city of Hillsboro buying insurance for non-profits, so we looked into that a little bit, and the insurance agency that we have our insurance through said that we are not allowed to supply the insurance to non-profits, so we presented that to HUBA, and HUBA decided to pass that event over this season to the city of Hillsboro, and I think maybe the possibility of the Christmas parade and the Christmas tree lighting.”
Later in the meeting, Hillsboro Public Works Superintendent Shawn Adkins said a contract has been signed to repair the culvert in front of the Hillsboro Plaza shopping center, and work is planned to begin at the end of September or beginning of October. He said the project will take six to eight months. He also said the city’s newly installed tornado sirens are working.
The culvert was washed out in a June 2021 storm and the city has been working with the plaza owner since to try to get the repairs completed.
Hillsboro Safety and Service Director Brianne Abbott turned her portion of the meeting over to Highland County Emergency Management Agency Director David Bushelman to speak about the Hyper-Reach emergency alert system that has been implemented in the county.
“Hyper-Reach is a mass notification system that my office purchased for the county,” said Bushelman.
The system can be used to warn residents about floods, fires, severe weather, public health alerts, criminal activity or other emergency situations.
“What’s really neat about the program, especially for the city of Hillsboro, is that we can draw a map in a certain area, whether it be a one-mile radius or a two-mile radius or whatever and only those people in that alert area will get the alerts,” Bushelman said.
Highland County residents can sign up for the free service at hyper-reach.com/ohhighlandsignup.html, by calling 937-500-0648 or by texting “alerts” to that number.
Council president Tom Eichinger said he received a request from the Hillsboro Swim Organization to be reimbursed for the first water bill for the pool. “It needs to be done in an orderly way from a legal point of view, so they made a formal request this year for that to be available to them in 2023,” he said. He referred the request to the finance committee for budgeting and legislative purposes.
The council approved and adopted an ordinance to rezone 850 West Main St. from Business “C” to Business and Residential “D.”
The council approved and adopted an ordinance to amend sections of the city’s codified ordinances dealing with zoning.
A resolution to annex 35.791 acres in Liberty Township to the city of Hillsboro was moved to a third reading at next month’s council meeting with no discussion.
An ordinance allowing Montgomery County to create a bond that will provide funding for Goodwill operations, including the facility at 500 Harry Sauner Road in Hillsboro, was approved and adopted after suspending the third reading rule. “It requires the city of Hillsboro to agree with that, and there is no commitment from a money point of view or anything else along those lines for the city of Hillsboro,” said Eichinger.
An ordinance to allow the city to auction off a dump truck and skid steer that are no longer in use was moved to a second reading at next month’s council meeting.
An ordinance authorizing the city auditor to transfer $73,841.88 from the Revolving Loan UDAG Fund (207) into the CDBG fund (208) was approved and adopted as it only required one reading as an appropriation. “The monies have been in the same fund, and this will allow me to separate the funds,” said Hillsboro Auditor Alex Butler.
An ordinance to reimburse $600 to participants in a cancelled 2022 city softball tournament was approved and adopted.
An ordinance to appropriate $130,000 to finish paving the pedestrian bridge that connects Shaffer and Liberty parks was approved and adopted.
Reach John Hackley at 937-402-2571.
