Holmes County busy revitalizing, improving communities
The Holmes County commissioners approved Resolution #02-12-24-1, authorizing the contract for administrative services for Holmes County — community development funded programs — CDBG allocation and competitive set-aside grants.
The board received a contract for administrative services with the Ohio Regional Development Corporation as set-aside grants including but not limited to the Neighborhood Revitalization Grant, Downtown Revitalization Grant, Critical Infrastructure Grant, Targets of Opportunity Grant, economic development programs, Residential Infrastructure Grant and other developmental grants.
“This is a program we have done for many years, and we’ve had a great partnership,” commissioner Dave Hall said.
According to Arnold Oliver, Holmes County planning commissioner, this is a two-year renewal.
Oliver said five or six firms made requests for the proposal packets that define the types of services involved in the program, but ORDC was the lone entity to submit a proposal.
“They’ve done this for us ever since before I was even here, I think dating back to 1997,” Oliver said.
Oliver said typically this covers the Community Development Block Grant, the Community Housing Impact and Preservation grants, and the county also has used it for the Historic Downtown Millersburg revitalization grant twice.
“It’s kind of a catch-all,” Oliver said, adding that over the years the CDBG grants have gone down in monetary size, although it has been stable the past four or five years while the others have remained stable.
“They’ve worked really well with our communities over the years, and we look forward to continuing that partnership for the next two years,” Hall said.
Commissioner Joe Miller asked if the county townships have requested funding from this program, and Oliver said they have requested funding over the years, but it has been mostly for road projects, which Oliver said the CDBG funds no longer cover.
He said sidewalks are something a township could request, although a township would have to complete an income survey for any request.
“We have put a lot of sidewalks into many of our villages,” Miller said.
In other county news, the commissioners met with Leslee Mast, Holmes County treasurer. Mast said the county currently has $74.2 million in investments, and they are doing well. She said the county doesn’t have any investments maturing in the near future.
The commissioners also made a pair of reappointments to the Holmes County Airport Authority including Chad Clark and Josh Troyer.
A resolution also was passed establishing a Holmes County 911 Program Review Committee and appointing members to said committee.
The three members appointed to the committee included Holmes County Sheriff Timothy Zimmerly, Salt Creek Township trustee Dan Gingerich and Holmes County commissioner Dave Hall.
The resolution was created because the state now requires each county have a 911 program review committee as part of the guidance and programming completing each county’s final 911 plan.
“This is a state process we’re going through, and the next steps now will be to adopt a plan that we are currently working on,” Hall said, noting Holmes County Sheriff’s Office member Eric Troyer and others are currently working on building that 911 plan for the county. “We will have that plan before the three-member committee to adopt in April.”
Hall said this effort will create the next generation of 911, and this initiates the first steps in the state and counties working together to improve 911 operating plans throughout the state.
“It’s a great step for us to assure that we always have quality service for that program,” Hall said.
The commissioners also authorized the purchase of a small portion of land in Knox County by the county.
The land was purchased from Rodney Tyler Jones and approved by Holmes County prosecutor Matt Muzik.
The property is 1.14 acres of land along Wally Road that abuts the wastewater treatment plant there at the October Hills Treatment System.
“We’ve done this in the past,” Hall said. “We did this in Winesburg and the Berlin plants, and this is just being proactive for the board for the future. We have to be mindful that the EPA will eventually force us to grow someday, and land is hard to find and won’t get any cheaper, so when it becomes available, you’ll want to purchase that small tract because of expected expansion.”
The land was purchased for $47,500, and that price includes an empty mobile home that the commissioners said will be sold off.
Funds will come from the county’s sewer district operating capital improvement funds.
The commissioners also said talks remain ongoing in hopes of purchasing land near Loudonville at the Spellacy Covered Bridge, where visitor parking is extremely limited, and with an expected healthy amount of visitation traffic, land purchased for parking and a possible park would be ideal.
