EATON — Lewisburg business owner Herschel Braughton II approached Preble County Commissioners on Wednesday, Aug. 14, accusing Sheriff Mike Simpson of disrespect and arrogance, and alleging he favors towing companies from outside the county, ignores Braughton’s business and contributes to county revenue loss.
Also discussed at the meeting were future cannabis dispensaries seeking to located in Monroe Township and/or New Paris.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Braughton accused Simpson of disregarding him over a 20-year period and expressed his frustration.
Braughton is the owner of Lewisburg Service Center in Lewisburg.
“For me to ever come to a meeting. Somebody has really done me wrong, and enough is enough. This dog has kicked me for 20 years, and that’s Sheriff Mike Simpson. Nobody wants to go against Sheriff Simpson, but I’m here to tell you he has kicked me, disrespected me for the last time. There’s commissioners here that obviously know what I will do for a community, a new business, anything. I’m very pro-business. I have a problem when somebody with an arrogant attitude attacks me over and over and over. If he wants to do his job, he can be just like everybody else. He can show up at meetings. I have called him. I’ve tried to get on a wrecker rotation with him for years. His answer to me is, ‘I can do what I want to, and you can’t do nothing about it.’”
“Me saying this, the aggravation is, this is a two-sided thing. I’m going to get into certain situations,” Braughton continued. “But why I’m here on this wrecker rotation? He’s letting money leave this county.”
Braughton said the PCSO brings out-of-county, and out-of-state (Richmond, Indiana) wrecker services in on crashes. “I’m in Preble County, but yet I’m not good enough for him,” he noted.
“And I have the best equipment of anybody, and more equipment than anybody in Preble County, but because he has some authority — and I know you can’t control the sheriff, but you can control his money. And this is what I want to bring to your attention. If he does not want to play a level playing field and give everybody an equal opportunity, I’d have a comment with anybody that wants to have a meeting with him, any time. I can give you names. I can back everything up. And it’s just continually going and going and going. I’m in the county, I can’t get on a rotation. When (those) tows leave here, Preble County does not get the revenue from that. Whether it be $1,000 or $10,000, or a rollover truck that’s $50,000, Preble County doesn’t see that, nor does he care, because he’s the boss and he doesn’t have to answer to anybody. This is the attitude that I’m getting from him,” Braughton continued.
“This guy has no follow up. It’s his own little clique,” he said. “And if things don’t fall in the way he wants it to fall, then you’re on his list. I’ve never done nothing to the man. We get along better with calm water. I can get you farther if we can all get along. If somebody wants to sit there and throw rocks at me, we’re not neither one of us going anywhere.
“I’m not intimidated by him. He can do what he has to do, because I have to do what I have to do. I would just like to hear his comments on why he’s bringing out-of-county tow trucks and out-of-state tow trucks over here when he won’t use the people that he’s got. And I want him to say he doesn’t have enough wreckers on a rotation because he won’t let me on the rotation, and that is his goal. I don’t need him. I’m surviving this fine without that.
“But when I see it coming in here, and it’s taken away from Preble County, this is going to go into my second phase of what I’m complaining about,” Braughton said before broaching his next topic.
“They’re bringing a cannabis store to 127/70, to try to develop that exit. Once it starts, that exit will be golden. I was a no vote. I voted against it. I’m not for it, but in the state, I’m the minority. Now, in the state, it’s legal. They give a legal license to people to do it. I have Justin Sommer, this man has been at every meeting. He has been on top of things, has covered it from top to bottom,” Braughton began.
“Sheriff Simpson has got an attitude going around the courthouse telling everybody, ‘I’m against it. I’m going to do everything I do stop it.’ Here we go again,” he alleged. “Let’s just have calm water. We can’t stop it. The people voted it in. I’m the minority, now. Take advantage of the money while you can, these people are spending money crazy. They’ve licensed it for Preble County. You’re not going to stop it. The state issued a license.”
Braughton said the company asked him to help set up a meeting with Sheriff Simpson, and Simpson returned a recent call regarding it. “Wow, was I impressed,” Braughton said. “‘Herschel, let me tell you something. This is my county. I don’t want your pot in my county,’” he reported Simpson as saying.
“Let me tell you, I’m not selling the pot. I’m just selling the real estate. Justin is going to help develop it for Preble County,” he added. He said Simpson told him to have the company call him.
Commissioner Adam Craft asked about the cannabis operation vote. Sommer, who was also at the meeting, noted, “there’s no moratorium in Monroe Township, so there was nothing that they had to vote on, but there was a presentation by the developer of the dispensary, and they did not oppose that. I wouldn’t say that they voted affirmative, but there wasn’t any action for them to take.”
Commissioners said they were unaware of the cannabis operation and what stage it was in.
Sommer, who is the economic development director for the Preble County Development Partnership, explained, “As I understand, the current status is the dispensaries had to have their applications into the state of Ohio for review. That has happened. As a part of their application, they had to complete a form that there was no moratorium in that jurisdiction that they were looking to locate. So that has been done. To my understanding, there were two submitted for Preble County, one in Monroe Township, one in the village of New Paris. So those are the two that I know of. I don’t know exactly where they’re at in the process. For the one in Monroe Township, it would require a zoning change, so it’ll have to go through the Land Use Management office. I don’t know if they’ve submitted that application yet. I know they were working on it. So that’s what I know about where the project is currently.”
Sommer later noted to commissioners the PCDP’s role related to the cannabis dispensaries. “Any business, my office will assist them in identifying land that may be developable for their purposes. And so that’s the services that my office has provided. There are some jurisdictions in Preble County that have voted no, and do have moratoriums in place. We’re not engaging in properties in those areas. We have met with the elected officials and the jurisdictions that are open to that business. They are legal businesses in the State of Ohio, so we will continue to provide those services as businesses come forward.”
What does Braughton want?
“This is just going to turn into a throwing rock match. I’m not into throwing rocks,” he said. “Here’s what I want. I’m here because I want it to stop. Just give me a fair shake. I promise. I don’t want to get anybody in trouble. I’m not asking for no apologies. Let’s just, let’s just make it right. Okay?”
“I would ask that they be removed,” he said of the out-of-county towing services. “Use only Preble County towing.”
Sheriff Simpson commented at press time on the potential cannabis dispensary, and the comments about it he was alleged to have made.
“His comments in the meeting seem to be off base from what our phone call was. It was a very cordial phone call. I suggested to him that we meet with the people that are going to operate the business so we can have a relationship with them. We look forward to working with any business that comes into the county — and ensuring public safety at the same time,” Simpson, who had listened to the meeting recording, said of the dispensary issue.
According to Simpson, he never made the comment about Preble County being “his county,” noting that was “totally, totally false.”
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
