Holmes commissioners discuss recycling, wastewater and more

The agenda for the Holmes County commissioners during the board’s Monday, Feb. 5 meeting at the Old Jail meeting room in Millersburg centered around plenty of positive growth in the county.

The commissioners approved Resolution 02-05-24-1, an agreement with Republic Waste Inc. for recycling for the county.

The county currently boasts 14 recycling centers within its borders with a 15th a possibility with the return of one to the Nashville area.

The agreement runs through 2026 and will maintain a monthly fee of $10,174.54 per month throughout the agreement.

According to Tim Morris, Holmes County director of buildings and grounds and recycling, Republic took all of the fees out of the previous contract, and there will be no additional fees placed upon the county over the entirety of the three-year contract.

“With no additional recycling fees after the fact, the county should receive roughly $30,000 in savings,” Morris said. “It took a little while, but we ironed things out.”

In Resolution 02-05-24-2, the commissioners accepted the short form of agreement for professional engineering services for the Berlin state Route 39 sanitary extension in the amount of $55,000.

The agreement will include field work and design for the project and will include one pump station and seven manholes extending from 4365 state Route 39 to 4070 state Route 39 east of Berlin.

Commissioner Dave Hall said he had spoken with county engineer Chris Young, and everyone seemed to be on board with the project.

Commissioner Joe Miller said several key entities were among those that would benefit from the new system, among them Encore Hotel, Bethel Church, Little Cottage Company and Erb’s Stove Center. Miller said the entire length was less than 1 mile.

“Bethel Church’s system has been failing for a long time,” Miller said. “We started this process probably five or six years ago that the church had requested it, and finally, we’re able to do that. It will be a good addition for those people out there.”

Hall said the system was a good starting point for the eventual connection of wastewater between Berlin and Walnut Creek along the state Route 39 corridor.

“That’s been Chris’ goal, and we’re getting to that point,” Hall said. “Both plants would help each other and provide a fail-safe.”

Resolution 02-05-24-5 approved a sub-grant agreement for Holmes County’s Healthy Aging grant.

Hall said Holmes County prosecutor Matt Muzik had looked over the proposal and approved it, and the board of commissioners were quick to adopt it for 2024.

The grant is in the amount of $191,644.

“These are the funds we went after through the State of Ohio that allowed Holmes County to pull down $191,000,” Hall said. “At first they had a plan where we would spend it and they would reimburse us, but the State of Ohio decided to go ahead and send the money to us. We will then work with the county health department to start the program part of it.”

Under the leadership of Susan Schie, Holmes County commissioner clerk, Hall said the project should be put in place soon.

The Healthy Aging grant will allow seniors to remain in their homes longer and will aid in the county’s ability to provide work in homes such as handrails, ramps and more that will reduce the risk of falls.

Hall said partnering with the health department as the lead agency makes Holmes County unique among the Ohio counties, others which have partnered with other entities. Hall said the precedent of partnering with the health department on the Healthy Aging grant is something the state may encourage other counties to pursue.

In other news Jason Troyer, Holmes County Emergency Management Agency director, said the group involved with the approaching eclipse committee continues to work on gathering details that could present health and safety issues during the total eclipse that will take place later this spring.

As of now, both West Holmes and East Holmes schools are slated to take that day off.

Miller reported Classical Construction, the company building the Holmes County Health Department building on Glen Drive in Millersburg, has asked for and been granted an extension of up to two months on completing the construction, something Miller said would still have them finish well in advance of the proposed July 4 date.

“They’ve been a wonderful group to work with,” Miller said. “A month or two isn’t going to make a big difference, and things are going well there.”

“The end product is still within our window,” Hall said.

The Holmes County commissioner meetings are held each Monday at 10 a.m. and are open to the public.