Ross County commissioners approved a series of year-end transfers, appropriations and contracts during their Dec. 29 meeting and adopted a 2026 budget the board described as balanced with a modest surplus.

Speaker 1 presented routine year-end accounting moves and line-item transfers, including a $100,000 transfer from the general fund to the law-enforcement corrections account and several smaller transfers for insurance and Medicare line items. The board voted by voice to approve those transfers.

The commission approved grant and appropriation items by voice vote, including a $342,104 appropriation for engineering projects funded by the Ohio Public Works Commission (OPWC), a $1,593,090 small-cities formula appropriation, and a $78,699.07 allocation for an opioid-abuse account. The board also approved a combined ACGP and SCBG development grant totaling $4,500,000 for Yactangy Park.

Contracts and capital items approved included a $720,000 construction contract with Brackley Incorporated for Baker’s water-line replacement and a $209,400 contract for juvenile residential/related services with Cornell Absa Raxos Group. The commissioners approved a $250,000 appropriation for care-and-custody accounts and several other program-specific grants and subsidies, including a $10,000 juvenile drug-court subsidy and a $30,000 OCJS law-enforcement allocation.

During public comment, an attendee identified as Speaker 5 raised problems with an older interview-room video system used by law enforcement, saying the recording "won't use it in court" and reporting a joint replacement quote of $23,990.52, with each participating agency paying $7,996.84. Speaker 6 said the county had reached out to vendors including Axon and Motorola and described a cloud-backed storage option and a proposed joint procurement with the city police department and prosecutor’s office.

Commissioners discussed budget timing and constraints on grant-funded work. Speaker 1 said the 2026 budget is balanced, projecting a roughly $79,000 surplus when revenue, expenses and carryover are combined. The board noted that ACGP and ARPA funds must be spent down by year-end or otherwise seek extensions, and that some project work in progress may qualify for extensions if the state permits.

Several commissioners raised concern about sharply rising foster-care and child-protective services costs. Speaker 1 noted that placement costs had risen from roughly $300 per day two years earlier to as much as $1,500 per day for higher-level placements, and described Ross County’s shared Job and Family Services arrangement with other counties as a driver of higher local fiscal burden. Commissioners said they will continue to examine program design and placement options to manage those rising costs.

The board reviewed all-funds totals (discussed near $215 million) and a general-fund figure of $39,241,365.51. A motion to adopt the 2026 budget was moved, seconded and approved by voice vote. After approving the package of transfers, appropriations and contracts, the commission adjourned formal business and scheduled routine follow-ups.

What comes next: commissioners said staff will continue to track capital-project funds separately for transparency, follow up on the interview-room video procurement with affected agencies, and monitor state guidance on ACGP/ARPA extensions and child-services funding.