Highland County Jail getting tablets

Highland County commissioners (l-r) David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton are pictured during their weekly Wednesday meeting.

Jacob Clary | The Times-Gazette

The Highland County Board of Commissioners approved the use of eight-inch tablets in the Highland County Jail from Inmate Calling (IC) Solutions at its weekly Wednesday morning meeting.

Highland County Sheriff Donnie Barrera said this new option from IC Solutions, the jail's phone system, was "another way to help the inmates correspond better." Barrera said the tablets can be used to file grievances if the inmates have one, order commissary, do education and get a GED do college courses, learn trades and make calls. He also said that the inmates will be able to do all of these within their jail cell with the tablet.

"So hopefully that’ll be a big success for us and for the inmates to educate themselves," Barrera said.

He said the introduction of the tablets wouldn't cost the county any money, with IC Solutions being the ones who would implement the program, and that if any of them need replacing, IC Solutions would cover it.

He also said ten mates would "basically" be renting the tablets out of their commissary money. Barrera said streaming was five centers per minute, email or texting was 25 cents per minute, video messaging was 35 cents a minute and the phone system paid through the computer was $6.25 for a half-hour.

In other news, Todd Wilkin, Greenfield city manager, was present for the official issuance of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the village's Downtown Façade Improvement Program.

"I’m very thankful. This will go a long way to helping businesses grow in Greenfield. We’ve seen much success through the program, so we’re just very thankful to the commissioners for, this partnership and commitment."

Jenni Lewis, director of Community Outreach and Training for the Area Agency on Aging District 7, was also in attendance at the meeting to discuss programs for the older members of the Highland County community.

Lewis said the organization works "very hard" to find resources in the community to help keep them at home, and that in 2022, they "served" 613 people in the county.

Lewis said one of those resources was the Senior Farmer's Market Nutrition Program, which in 2020 was expanded to all 88 Ohio counties. She said this program gives eligible seniors $50 in vouchers to use with participating farmers at farmer's markets to get fruit and vegetables. She also said the organization is looking for "a lot more" farmers to work with and asked for any interested farmers to reach out to them.

In other news, there were four resolutions approved by the board of commissioners, which are as follows:

*Res. No. 23-58 is a request for a budget modification within the Records Preservation fund from Other Expenses to Supplies in the amount of $2,000.

*Res. No. 23-59 is a request for a budget modification within the Rocky Fork Lake Sewer fund in the amount of $20,000.

*Res. No. 23-60 is an authorization of funding of the Village of Greenfield Downtown Façade Improvement Program Project with Coronavirus Local Recovery funds as established under the American Rescue Plan Act.

*Res. No. 23-61 is a request from the Probation Department for a budget modification within the 2675 Jail Diversion FY14 fund in the amount of $6,500. Also requested was an additional appropriation from unappropriated funds in the amount of $6,500.

There were also three contracts approved by the board of commissioners, which are as follows:

*Contract 35 is between the board of commissioners and the Highland County Sheriff for Amendment no. 2 with Inmate Calling Solutions to the Inmate Telephone.

*Contract 36 is between the board of commissioners, Highland County Child Support Enforcement Agency and Highland County Common Pleas Court for Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services IV-D Contract.

*Contract 37 is between the board of commissioners and Canon Solutions for a Human Resources Copier Lease Agreement.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.