Holmes commissioners fine keeping EOC in Old Jail

The Holmes County Commissioners conducted meetings Monday, April 21 during the weekly meeting sessions in the Old Jail in Millersburg.

Kevin Miller, Holmes County buildings and grounds supervisor, said the new windows continue to be installed in the Holmes County Courthouse on the south side of the building, where new, more efficient windows will make a major savings impact.

Holmes County Emergency Management Agency Director Jason Troyer said his department has received some leftover grant funding that has been redistributed to Ohio counties, noting Holmes County EMA will receive $5,167 as a supplemental.

Troyer also said he was approached by Eric Parker and Josh Galbraith about the possibility of having the emergency operation center moved from its current location in the Old Jail’s first-floor meeting room to the engineer’s office facility once the new building is in place east of Millersburg.

“They are creating a training room that would meet all of the needs for the EOC,” Troyer said.

Commissioner Joe Miller quickly shot down the idea, noting they had tried to put the EOC into the new health building plan and that had not come to fruition.

“We went that route with the health department, and we don’t want to get involved with that,” Miller said. “At this time we’re not interested. We appreciate our engineer’s office greatly. Josh and Chris (Young) have been wonderful to work with, but as far as us getting involved with building that building, we’re not interested.”

Troyer said the current meeting room is sufficient because most of the entities that would be involved with any type of emergency such as fire and EMS and law enforcement would most likely be out in the field responding to needs rather than jammed into the EOC.

While the construction of the new engineer’s building remains in the future, Troyer said they needed to have an answer to add it to a grant request if it were to be added.

Finally, Troyer talked about the Hazardous Mitigation Plan for the county.

He said according to FEMA, the county’s plan must be updated every five years.

“This is not a requirement from the state. It is actually a federal law that we need to have this plan in place if we have an incident that qualifies for federal reimbursement,” Troyer said.

He said with the BRIC grant funding currently on hold with no direction as to whether it will be continued or not, funding is up in the air.

“The good thing about our Hazardous Mitigation Plan is that it doesn’t expire until March 20, 2026, so we have a little bit of time,” Troyer said. “Once we get closer to that, (the commissioners) may have to make a decision as to whether we’re going to fund it or not.”

He said the EMA does have carryover funds he could apply to it, but he doesn’t want to decide on using those funds until the BRIC decision is made.

The other issue is that of FEMA and whether or not it will even be in existence next year.

“FEMA requires it, but will they even be here next year?” Troyer said. “That’s what is so frustrating. We’re playing this waiting game of unknowns.”

The amount of the funding is $25,500, and Troyer said the county will simply play the waiting game, noting Knox County also is waiting until there is more information.

“We have been told by Ohio EMA to plan 2026 as if there is no FEMA and no federal funding,” Troyer said.

The commissioners agreed putting any type of movement on hold is the best approach.

In other news the commissioners passed a resolution approving a Memorandum of Understanding between the Statewide Consortium of County Law Library Resources and the commissioners on behalf of the Holmes County Law Library that will allow the county to purchase a new computer for the law library on the second floor of the courthouse building.

The county received a grant of $1,205.67 to make the purchase.