First among Butler County’s 2021 goals: Getting coronavirus vaccines to residents

Butler County officials say they are prepared both financially and strategically for whatever the new year brings and will focus on the physical and economic health of the county.

The commissioners have already invested a good deal of their $18.7 million in federal coronavirus relief funds aiding the community, namely $6 million committed to a widespread COVID testing/vaccination program and $1.5 million in small business support. Commissioner Don Dixon said the number one priority for 2021 is tackling the virus itself and the side effects.

“I think this year is going to bring challenges we’ve never faced before,” Dixon said. “It puts us in a position where we have to take some matters I believe in our own hands locally, to help serve the general health of Butler County residents. As we have witnessed the rolling out of the vaccine has not gone well.”

Dixon told the Journal-News it will not be an easy task because the county can’t control when widespread vaccine capability will be available, the number injections they will receive or who can get them, when. He said they can however set the stage to be prepared with personnel and locations at the ready, when the roll out begins in earnest.

He said they have the ability to invest more than $6 million into the testing/vaccination process, now they need to get the cooperation of legislators at higher levels, so they can truly partner in the effort.

“I think they’ve figured out that they’re not so smart at the top, and they’re looking around and saying maybe we need to reach down and have a conversation with the people who really deal with the every day problems...,” Dixon said. “They see a number, we see a face.”

Commissioner T.C. Rogers agreed.

“I don’t know how much control that we’ve got,” Rogers said. “If you want to give me control I would bet that we could come up with something that is very efficient.”

County Administrator Judi Boyko told the Journal-News the team she assembled to vet the five proposals for the vaccine program will be meeting next week to begin winnowing down the top applicants.

Rogers said there is also new federal rental assistance available the commissioners will consider applying for next week. The federal government included $25 billion in the $900 billion omnibus bill passed late in December.

Aside from dealing with the unprecedented pandemic, this year is historic because the county began 2021 with zero general fund debt. So approximately $10 million is available to invest in capital improvements and economic initiatives in other county governments. The county already committed $2.5 million for infrastructure to support Hamilton’s massive Spooky Nook sports and convention complex.

Liberty Twp. Trustee Steve Schramm said he is hoping the commissioners will agree to help fund about $9 million in up-front costs for the proposed Millikin Road interchange at Interstate 75.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that the Millikan Road interchange would be the single biggest catalyst for the county since the Butler Regional Highway,” Schramm said. “It has that kind of potential to open up about 1,200 acres.”

All three county commissioners told the Journal-News they support the project but none would say how much they are willing pay. Rogers said one of his top priorities for this year is to establish criteria for investing new money.

“We obviously have funds so now there is going to be some of it spent in cooperation with other local governments,” Rogers said. “Now we need to determine the best way forward.”

Dixon said they need to be “cautious” in this endeavor and “there’s not going to be any super big deals.”

“We’ve already budgeted for Spooky Nook, it’s a done deal. The rest of them that are in the pipeline, we’ll look at and see,” Dixon said. “I don’t see any direct impact in us not being able to move forward with some of these projects.”

Commissioner Cindy Carpenter said the county needs to help a host of other entities like businesses, schools and other governments in the coming year and boosting the economy is also crucial.

“I think we’re going to get our feet on the ground, I think the board can continue supporting major initiatives across the county,” Carpenter said. “We’re going to look for development, intelligent development and development that supports the wide variety of communities and allows them to have the community vision that their citizens are looking for.”

More goals for Rogers include evaluating how well the county stands up to competition from other counties for attracting new businesses. He also wants to make sure all of the county’s properties and space are being utilized properly. To that end, the county still needs to find a new director of assets, procurement and projects and economic development administrator to run the county port authority and land bank.

Boyko also needs an assistant county administrator but she said she needs to fill the procurement position before the assistant director.

For 2021 Boyko is recommending the commissioners take a hard look at their government structure as a whole.”

“We have no real roadmap about what is the demand,” she said. “You have the commissioners and the other elected offices, what are our statutory operations that are required versus discretionary services. Just kind of doing an inventory of our operations and the services we deploy and aligning that with the best size for our county government.”

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