Waste collection, Marriott Hotel, DORA and infrastructure updates among topics at Hillsboro City Council meeting

In addition to reviewing a long list of new legislation, Hillsboro City Council members also heard feedback on several items already approved during their Thursday, July 11, meeting, including waste collection bids, street paving, the city’s DORA and the Marriott Hotel project.

During the citizen comment portion of the meeting, two Hillsboro residents, Gary Heaton and Jane Stowers, spoke out against the city’s proposal to expand their utilities to include trash pickup.

Gary Heaton

As previously reported, a resolution was passed in June to advertise and solicit bids for citywide trash collection as an emergency measure following the suspension of the three-reading rule. According to Greg Maurer, chairman of the utilities committee, the committee was told that “waste collection companies would not be issuing RFPs and that we needed to authorize the administration to get bids to see if we wanted to make this part of our city utilities.”

Maurer added last month that the committee is recommending suspending the three-reading rule “because we need to get the bids in time to add them to next year’s budget,” should they decide to proceed.

Heaton read from the resolution in his comments to the council on Thursday.

“It says ‘whereas the council deems it to be in the best interest of the health, welfare and safety of the citizens of Hillsboro to move forward,'” Heaton said. “I’m wondering if there has been an issue with the garbage collection that impacts ‘the health, welfare and safety,’ that we put it out to bid and limit the competitive bids or competitive people that we already have?”

(Editor’s note: Referring to the “public health, safety and welfare of the residents of the City of Hillsboro” is standard language in legislation passed by the City Council as an emergency, regardless of the other content of the legislation.)

Maurer explained that the lack of trash pickup at certain properties is “one of the reasons” the city is investigating this proposal, as it “is a code enforcement issue.”

“But how would that change?” Heaton asked. “If you don’t enforce it now, how are you going to enforce it later?”

Maurer said the city is “enforcing” code compliance, but if they added trash as a utility, pickup would “basically be mandatory.”

“You pay for the waste as part of your water bill and it is collected from your home,” Maurer said.

Heaton asked if the city had “any idea what it would cost per month” and said it appears “it’s a done deal.”

Council President Tom Eichinger explained that the resolution was “passed to allow the city to figure out what kind of pricing we could get.” Maurer told Heaton that they are still “in the beginning stages of trying to find information” and that they passed the resolution to seek bids on the first reading to get that “information as quickly as possible.”

“There’s still a process involved,” Maurer said. “We did it as quickly as possible so we didn’t have to wait until the end of August to put it out to tender. It wasn’t a done deal. It’s just a fact-finding exercise.”

Heaton then asked if the city is looking at this “because a minority is making it difficult for a majority that does have garbage collection,” which Maurer also denied. “We’re also trying to save people money,” Maurer said.

Hillsboro Mayor Justin Harsha agreed, saying that “the whole point of putting this out to tender 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 maybe halve that for all residents. A big reason is to help citizens with utility costs.”

Heaton thanked them for the information and said, “I really hope that if you go ahead with it, that there is a cost savings to the community, and that you get a contract and not just for five years, because five years goes by pretty quickly.”

Stowers said she “agrees with much of what” Heaton told the council. She told the council she appreciates her garbage man, who she described as “inexpensive” and “reliable.”

“Some of these others may not be as local, and we’re always asked to buy local,” Stowers said. “He’s local.”

Councilman Don Storer said he uses the same contractor as Heaton and Stowers, but he pointed out that the number of local waste companies is declining, so this may eventually no longer be a problem.

In another discussion:

• The city received three separate messages, as discussed earlier in the meeting.

Richard Spoor, bond advisor for Leo Capital, the developers of the city’s long-discussed Marriott Hotel, reached out with a request to change the project’s tax increment financing (TIF) district.

As previously reported, in October 2019, both the City Council and Hillsboro City Schools approved creating a tax increment financing (TIF) district for a proposed multi-million dollar hotel project in the city of Hillsboro, near the intersection of state Route 73/Harry Sauner Road. At the time of that approval, Spoor said it would offset the cost of the infrastructure, estimated at $3 million, and he had originally requested a 30-year TIF.

The resolution, which both the council and school board agreed to, was for 25 years, but Eichinger said Thursday that the developers are again asking for a 30-year term.

“The $3 million bond amount that we approved to consider, they want to increase it to $3.25 million, and they also want to ask us to extend the term from 25 years to 30 years,” Eichinger said. “All of this, of course, has to be approved by the board and also the school board.

“I will present this to the finance committee so that they can assess it and make a recommendation to the council.”

Also before the committee – this time assigned to street and safety – was an unrelated request from the Hillsboro Pickleball Association, asking the city to “look at the DORA structure and consider extending the DORA to the pickleball courts (on Railroad Street) and further out to The Porch (on North West Street) to connect all of that together.”

As previously reported, after nearly a year of planning, the council voted — in a split 4-3 decision — to approve the ordinance that will create a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) in downtown Hillsboro by June 2023.

According to the Ohio Department of Commerce, “Under RC 4301.82, a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area or ‘DORA’ (also known as an Outdoor Refreshment Area or ‘ORA’) is nothing more than a specified tract of land designated by a local legislative authority as exempt from certain open container provisions as defined in the legislative act that created the DORA.
“For example, customers within a DORA who purchase an alcoholic beverage for consumption on the premises from a DORA-designated liquor license holder can leave the licensed premises with an opened package of the alcoholic beverage and continue to consume it within the DORA.”

Currently, DORA’s hours of operation are Thursday through Saturday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. The total area is “approximately 24 acres,” 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 also received a notice from the Ohio Division of Liquor Control that “Los Mariachis wants to obtain the liquor license that LaRosa’s had, because they are moving to that location.” The council had no objection.

• Harsha announced in his report that the city’s paving project is almost ready to begin.

As previously reported, the council voted at their December 2023 meeting to approve “$1 million in paving” by 2024, including some or all of West Walnut, Johnson, East South, East and West Pleasant, Oak, Vine and South Elm streets. Due to the costs coming in below budget, it was announced in May that the city was 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 begin,” Harsha said. “I think the expectation would probably be 10 to 15 days, I think, for completion of that.

“I want to let everyone know to be patient. There is a lot of paving going on in the city, so there will be some traffic situations. I also want to make sure that a notification is sent out when each street is being repaved. If people would be so kind as to move their cars off the street to make that go as smoothly as possible, we would definitely appreciate it.”

• Safety and Service Director Brianne Abbott also provided an update on infrastructure in an otherwise brief report.

“The Roberts Drive project is still ongoing, with curbs and lighting currently being installed,” Abbott said. “The expected completion date is still scheduled for late August.

“The replacement of the North High Street lead pipe will begin the week of July 22 as materials for that project have been delivered.”

Additionally, the city is moving forward with plans to use a previously announced $5 million grant from the state for improvements to Crossroads Park.

The city of Hillsboro received $5,204,536 to supplement its already-set-aside grant for Crossroads Park (formerly known as the West Main Street green space). The city also secured $100,000 in state capital funding, through a partnership with Southern State Community College, for the project. The park has served as a venue 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 to design the Crossroads Park amphitheater,” Abbott said. “Meetings for that 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 must be completed prior to the park renovation.

In other updates, Abbott reported that the city issued nine commercial and 11 residential permits in June, while the Hillsboro Planning Commission did not meet due to a lack of a quorum.

Abbott also encouraged the community to attend the weekly farmers market in the city center every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., as well as the Movies Under the Stars events on Friday nights in Crossroads Park.

In an unrelated discussion:

• At the request of Municipal Code Director Randalyn Worley, an “amusement device regulation review” was presented to the Community Improvement Commission.

• At the start of the meeting, the council voted 6-0 to excuse the absence of Councilman Jo Sanborn.

For more information about Thursday’s meeting, visit highlandcountypress.com.

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