In addition to reviewing a lengthy list of new legislation, Hillsboro City Council members heard feedback on several already approved items — including waste collection bids, street paving, the city’s DORA and the Marriott Hotel project — during their Thursday, July 11 meeting.
During the citizens’ comments portion of the meeting, two Hillsboro residents, Gary Heaton and Jane Stowers, spoke out against the city’s proposal to add trash pickup to their utilities.
As previously reported, a resolution to advertise and solicit bids for citywide waste collection passed as an emergency in June after suspension of the three-reading rule. According to utilities committee chair Greg Maurer, the committee was told that “waste collection companies would not provide RFPs and that we needed to authorize the administration to get bids to see if we want to proceed making this part of our city utilities.”
Maurer added last month that the committee was recommending suspension of the three-reading rule “because we need to get the bids in time to add it to next year’s budget,” should they decide to move forward.
Heaton read from the resolution in his comments to council Thursday.
“It says ‘whereas, council deems it in the best interest of the health, welfare and safety of the citizens of Hillsboro moving forward,’’ Heaton said. “I’m just wondering, has there been a problem with the trash pickup, to affect the ‘health, welfare and safety,’ that we’re going out for bids and kind of limiting the competitive bidding or competitive people that we already have now?”
(Editor’s note: Referring to the “public health, safety and welfare of the residents of the city of Hillsboro” is standard language contained in legislation approved as an emergency by city council, regardless of the legislation’s other content.)
Maurer explained that the lack of trash pickup at certain residences was “one of the reasons” the city is looking into this proposal, as it has “been a code enforcement issue.”
“But how would that change?” Heaton asked. “If you’re not enforcing it now, how will you enforce it later on?”
Maurer said the city is “enforcing” code enforcement issues, but if they add trash as a utility, the pickup “would basically be mandatory.
“You would be paying for the trash as part of your water bill and getting it picked up at your house,” Maurer said.
Heaton asked if the city had “any idea what it’s going to cost per month” and said it seems that “it’s a done deal.”
Council president Tom Eichinger explained that the resolution was “passed to allow the city to find out what kind of pricing we could get.” Maurer told Heaton that they are still “in the very beginning stages of trying to find information” and that they passed the resolution to seek bids on its first reading to start getting said “information as soon as possible.
“There’s still a process to it,” Maurer said. “We scooted that along so that we didn’t have to wait until the end of August to be able to put it out for bid. It wasn’t a done deal. It’s just a fact-finding mission.”
Heaton then asked if the city is looking into this “because a minority is making it hard on a majority that do have trash pickup,” which Maurer also denied. “We’re trying to save people money as well,” Maurer said.
Hillsboro Mayor Justin Harsha agreed, saying that “the whole point of bidding this out is to see if we can get better prices for the community.
“Right now I’m paying over $100 for three months,” Harsha said. “We’re hoping to slice that maybe by half for all the residents. A big reason is to help the citizens with the cost of utilities.”
Heaton thanked them for the information and said, “I do hope that if you do go through with it, that there is a cost savings to the community, and that you lock in a contract not just for five years, because five years goes by pretty quickly.”
Stowers said she “agrees with a lot of what” Heaton said to council. She told council that she appreciated her trash collector, whom she said is “inexpensive” and “dependable.
“Some of these others may not be very local, and we’re always asked to buy local,” Stowers said. “He’s local.”
Council member Don Storer said he uses the same contractor as Heaton and Stowers but pointed out that the number of local trash companies is dwindling, so that may eventually be a nonissue.
In other discussion:
• The city received three unrelated communications, as discussed early in the meeting.
Richard Spoor, bond counsel for Leo Capital — the developers for the long-discussed Marriott Hotel in the city — reached out with a request to change the tax increment financing (TIF) district for the project.
As previously reported, both city council and Hillsboro City Schools agreed in October 2019 to establish a tax increment financing [TIF] district for a proposed multimillion-dollar hotel project in the city of Hillsboro, near the state Route 73/Harry Sauner Road intersection. At the time of that approval, Spoor said that it would offset the cost of infrastructure, estimated at $3 million, and he had originally asked for a 30-year TIF.
The resolution agreed upon by both council and school board was for 25 years, but Eichinger said Thursday the developers are again asking for a 30-year term.
“The amount of $3 million for the bonds that we approved to consider, they’d like to raise that to $3.25 million, and also they want to ask us to extend the term from 25 years to 30 years,” Eichinger said. “All these, of course, have to be both approved by council and also by the school board.
“I’m going to put this in the finance committee to review that and make a recommendation back to council.”
Also placed in committee — this time, assigned to street and safety — was an unrelated request from the Hillsboro Pickleball Association asking the city to “take a look at the DORA structure and consider to extend the DORA down to the pickleball courts [on Railroad Street] and on over to The Porch [on North West Street] to tie all of that together.”
As previously reported, after nearly a year of planning, council voted — in a split decision, 4-3 — to approve the ordinance creating a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) in uptown Hillsboro in June 2023.
According to the Ohio Department of Commerce, “Per R.C. 4301.82, a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area or ‘DORA’ (aka Outdoor Refreshment Area or ‘ORA’) is nothing more than a specified area of land that a local legislative authority has designated as exempt from certain open container provisions as defined within the legislative act that created the DORA.
“Thus, patrons within a DORA that purchase an alcoholic beverage for on-premises consumption from a DORA designated liquor permit holder can leave the permit premises with an opened alcoholic beverage container and continue consuming it within the DORA.”
Currently, the hours of the DORA are Thursday through Saturday from 3-10 p.m. The total area is “approximately 24 acres in size,” including 100-139 North High Street; 100-139 South High Street; 101-160 West Main Street; 108-122 and 226 East Main Street; 235-237 West Beech Street; 118 South West Street; 126 and 108 Governor Trimble Place; and 107-119 Governor Foraker Place.
In an unrelated communication, Eichinger said the city has also received notification from the Ohio Division of Liquor Control that “Los Mariachis is looking to get the liquor license that LaRosa’s had because they’re moving into that location.” Council had no objection.
• In his report, Harsha announced that the city’s paving project is almost ready to begin.
As previously reported, at their December 2023 meeting, council voted to approve “$1 million worth of paving” in 2024, including some or all of West Walnut, Johnson, East South, East and West Pleasant, Oak, Vine and South Elm streets. Due to costs being under projection, in May it was announced the city its seeking bids to pave Fenner Avenue, Holmes Street, North Elm Street, Fair Street, Catherine Street and Bell Street, along with portions of West North Street, East Beech Street and Oak Street.
“Within the next couple of weeks, we’ll see both rounds of our paving started,” Harsha said. “I think the anticipation was probably going to be 10 to 15 days, I think, for the completion of that.
“I just want to let everybody know to be patient. There’s a lot of paving going on through town, so there’s going to be some traffic things. I also want to make sure that when each street is being paved, there’ll be some notification sent out. If people can be so gracious as to get their cars off the street to make that as seamless as possible, we would definitely appreciate that.”
• Safety and service director Brianne Abbott also had an infrastructure update in an otherwise brief report.
“The Roberts Drive project is still underway with curbs and lighting currently being installed,” Abbott said. “The expected completion date is still slated for the end of August.
“The North High Street lead line replacement will begin the week of July 22, as materials have been delivered for that project.”
In addition, the city is moving forward with plans to utilize a previously announced $5 million grant from the state for Crossroads Park improvements.
The City of Hillsboro received $5,204,536 award to supplement already earmarked grant funding for Crossroads Park (formerly known as the green space on West Main Street). The city has also secured $100,000 in state capital funding, through a partnership with Southern State Community College, for the project. The park has served as the site for the Hillsboro Festival of the Bells and other local events, including the city’s Movies Under the Stars and Jeepers Creepers programs.
“Choice One Engineering was selected for the design of the Crossroads Park amphitheater,” Abbott said. “Meetings for said project design will begin next week.”
As noted later in the meeting, the city is also seeking bids for the Beech Street and Railroad Street reconstruction project, which is to be completed before the park upgrades.
In other updates, Abbott reported nine commercial and 11 residential permits issued by the city for June, while there was no Hillsboro Planning Commission meeting due to lack of a quorum.
Abbott also encouraged the community to attend the weekly farmers’ market in the uptown district every Saturday from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. as well as the Movies Under the Stars events on Friday nights at Crossroads Park.
In unrelated discussion:
• At the request of city law director Randalyn Worley, “a review of amusement device regulations” was placed in the community enhancement committee.
• At the beginning of the meeting, council voted 6-0 to excuse the absence of council member Jo Sanborn.
For more from Thursday’s meeting, go to https://highlandcountypress.com/news/hillsboro-city-council-considers-l….
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