Holmes commissioners start year with busy first meeting
The Holmes County commissioners kicked off 2024 at their Thursday, Jan. 4 meeting in the Old Jail in Millersburg hosting a number of candidates hopeful to win the seat of commissioner Ray Eyler, who is retiring after this year.
In addition, there was a visit from new Millersburg Mayor Kelly Hoffee and plenty of county news to discuss.
A resolution was passed vacating a portion of a public roadway in Salt Creek Township in Mt. Hope. The county commissioners held a viewing of the road and adopted a petition with no opposition acknowledging the vacating of the roadway, which is an alley near the main intersection in town.
“Basically, what this is is the Yoder family has land there where they tore a building down, and it was an old alley that was never used,” commissioner chair Joe Miller said. “They are going to build a new building for the First Federal Bank.”
The land is adjacent to the Wayne Dalton Corp. land.
Resolution 2 was passed, a voluntary demolition agreement allowing the county to raze a garage as part of its demolition program created through grant funding.
According to Arnold Oliver, Holmes County planning commissioner, the garage is on a parcel of land next to the former Holmes County healthy building beside Pomerene Hospital.
While the actual house on the property is part of the hospital’s land and was formerly already a part of the 2024 demolition program that already has 16 properties, Oliver said the garage was on property owned by the county, which meant an individual request would have to be made to raze that portion of the house.
“This garage adjoins the house and was formerly part of that property, but the county owned that specific portion that the garage resides in. The garage is not in good condition, and I think Pomerene already used part of that for parking,” Oliver said.
Oliver said the 2024 grant is for $500,000, and although 16 different requests have already been submitted to Oliver to be torn down, he said funds remain for even further demolition projects.
“You’ve done a lot of good getting rid of a lot of eyesores over the last many years,” Miller said to Oliver.
Commissioner Dave Hall said those monies come from the Brownfield Program from the state, and compiling the list to demolish old, unwanted structures is a strong program that helps beautify the county and makes areas more attractive.
If someone owns a property with a vacant structure that needs demolition, they are asked to call Oliver at the Holmes County Planning Commission at 330-674-8625.
The program is provided at no cost to property owners and is an initiative that aims to alleviate the financial burden on property owners.
All project submissions must be made by March 30, and Oliver suggests people act promptly to ensure their property is considered for this grant.
Jason Troyer, Holmes County Emergency Management Agency director, said his division is currently working with counterterrorism seminars, and he will attend a two-day counterterrorism training seminar in Columbus that will include information from Homeland Security, FBI and other state EMA divisions.
He said there has been a recent surge in skimmer devices being placed in gas pumps in the Cleveland and Akron area. These devices are placed in the card readers in pumps and look normal but allow identity thieves to collect credit card data from unsuspecting people.
“They are very hard to identify,” Troyer said. “There have been five skimmer occurrences in the Cleveland area within the past week.”
Hall said one way to combat that is to use the pumps closest to the gas station buildings, where they are less likely to be placed.
Troyer also said people should pay close attention to their credit card statements for false purchases.