County purchases Steimel Law Office property

The Holmes County Commissioners recently purchased a Millersburg property in hopes it will benefit the county and Millersburg’s lack of parking.

The commissioners recently discussed the purchase of the Steimel property located south of Commercial & Savings Bank on Clay Street. The house, which formerly served as the longtime property for Steimel Law Office, became available for purchase with an asking price of $300,000.

Commissioner Dave Hall said the paperwork had been completed, and a motion was made to adopt a resolution to allow the county to purchase the property.

Commissioner Joe Miller brought up the discussion surrounding the property being owned by current Holmes County Clerk of Courts Ronda Steimel and the possibility of there being a conflict of interest.

According to Misty Burns, Holmes County director of human resources, there is no conflict of interest.

“We firmly believe that is a fair price,” Miller said. “If it was some outlandish price, we wouldn’t have been interested in it.”

Hall said the house has sat vacant for quite some time, and because it is in a less than standard state, he said the purchase gives the county flexibility in what to do with the house while providing additional parking, something the commissioners said is needed in Millersburg.

He said if grant funding can be obtained, the house could eventually be razed to create more parking, or the county could relocate a department to the lot, should it become necessary.

“We’re a growing county, and we get complaints all the time about the lack of parking here,” Hall said. “We have to make sure parking is available.”

Hall said the idea of possibly moving probation from the courthouse to that lot could eventually become a possibility.

In other Holmes County Commissioner news, the board reappointed Mary Troyer of the Holmes County Sewer District, effective April 7.

Troyer indicated her intent to retire from her current position, effective March 31. However, Ohio law allows the reemployment of public employees following retirement, provided required procedures including public notice and public meeting are completed prior to reemployment.

Hall said the county sought to retain Troyer’s expertise, knowledge and services, and the public hearing took place March 23.

Troyer shall serve in the unclassified service at the board’s request, subject to termination any time.

Jason Troyer, Holmes County emergency management director, said the county recently completed the public assistance assessment collection for the county. He said he had five entities submit assessment including Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative, Knox Township, the Village of Millersburg, the Holmes County Engineer’s Office and Hardy Township.

He said the total estimates for the submissions came to $521,036.04 worth of damages. He said to hit the threshold, the county must submit at least $214,923.76, so the county did make that number.

“It’s a long, drawn-out process that isn’t quick,” Troyer said.

Troyer said the state compiles data and applies to FEMA if the state itself hits its threshold of just under $23 million.

“If the state doesn’t hit that threshold, we don’t get FEMA funding,” Troyer said. “Then we go to the state, and we can apply for the Disaster Relief Program.”

He said Holmes County is looking good in terms of retrieving some of those damage costs from recent storms from the state recovery program, if Gov. Mike DeWine approves the applications that are denied from FEMA.

He also said these are simply estimates, and once the county gets to the true reports, he will have a better sense of the actual numbers.