March has brought about plenty of items on the Holmes County Commissioners’ to-do list.
In the recent March 24 meeting at the Old Jail in Millersburg, the commissioners passed Resolution 03-24-25-1, authorizing the execution of the Appalachian Community Grant Program’s Technical Assistance Grant between the county and Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association.
The grant is a $25,000 grant that is committed to retaining the services of an engineering firm to design the Millersburg Jackson Street sidewalk project.
According to Arnold Oliver, Holmes County planning commissioner, this grant is in combination of several other grants for the project in HDM.
Resolution 03-24-25-2 authorizes the commissioner chairman to sign the Community Housing Impact and Preservation program’s Community Development Block Grant Program agreement.
Oliver said the other half of this agreement was passed one week prior by the commissioners. That grant was in the amount of $252,000 while this current grant being accepted was in the amount of $148,000, bringing the total to $400,000. Oliver said there also are some local funds available of $57,400.
According to Oliver, any resident in Holmes County is eligible to apply for the grant funding for improving community housing beginning in late-April.
“This is available for anyone who qualifies income-wise,” Arnold said. He said the grant funding is flexible in amount and can go as high as $70,000.
“It’s a two-year grant, and we keep working through it until we burn through the funding,” Oliver said of the first come, first served grant. He said in the past the county has used all the grant funds available to it.
The previously passed Resolution 03-20-25-9 authorizing the CHIP grant funding in the amount of $252,000 is a two-year grant program Oliver said the county has been involved with since 1999.
These CHIP housing program funds can be used by qualifying homeowners for projects such as roofing, electrical, plumbing and more.
“We probably do in the neighborhood of 15-20 projects through this funding,” Oliver said.
The commissioners presented a proclamation honoring Holley Johnson for her decade of service to the Holmes Center for the Arts.
Johnson’s leadership was instrumental in the creation of the new arts center near Berlin, and she recently stepped down as director there to become the executive director of the Holmes County Education and Community Foundation.
In the proclamation, it was stated that in 2019 the HCA began its mission to raise funds to construct a new facility that would serve greater Holmes County and beyond.
In 2021 more than $3 million had been raised, and construction began on a 14,000-square-foot building that has now been completed including the new Black Box Theater.
The commissioners recognized March as National Board of Developmental Disabilities Month, and the board was joined by Marianne Mader, HCBDD superintendent, who shared some of the many activities being celebrated throughout the month.
Those celebrations included the annual Holmes County Bucks versus Holmes County All-Stars basketball game and a provider fair that was attended by 10 agencies that work with individuals with developmental disabilities and their families including four members from the Ohio Tech Ambassadors.
“The State of Ohio is working very hard to help to have people with developmental disabilities learn how to use technology and become more independent,” Mader said.
She said technology has created scenarios that have allowed those with disabilities to become more independent and rely less on having individuals with them at all times.
The tech ambassadors travel throughout the state to showcase how these technological advancements have helped them live more independently.
She said the HCBDD actually has some of the featured equipment available for families to borrow and try out, should they be interested.
The HCBDD also is working with the Holmes County District Public Library for the March story walk, which features a book titled “I Am a Masterpiece,” a book written by a young woman with Down syndrome.
Jason Troyer, Holmes County Emergency Management Agency director, said the upcoming Holmes County Amish Health & Safety Day will take place Aug. 12 in Mt. Hope this year and will focus on tractor, e-bike and golf cart usage laws on roadways and a health and medical component focusing on tick and Lyme disease.
In addition, the EMA administrators will present Stop the Bleed training and carbon monoxide poisoning education.
