Trio of HDM buildings receiving CDBG grant upgrades

Historic Downtown Millersburg will get some building upgrades, both inside and outside, in a trio of its Jackson Street buildings, with the village building owners receiving $250,000 in grant funding to help pave the way for the improvements.

On Monday, July 29, the Holmes County commissioners passed a resolution authorizing commissioner chairman Dave Hall to sign the PY 2023 Target of Opportunity — State of Ohio — Community Development Block Grant program grant agreement.

The grant, in the amount of $250,000, provides funds that may be used by the county between July 1, 2024, and Aug. 31, 2026.

According to Arnold Oliver, Holmes County planning commissioner, the grant funding will be applied to a trio of projects in Historic Downtown Millersburg.

“This (grant) is a long time coming, and the businesses have been waiting patiently for about a year and a half or two years, maybe,” Oliver said.

He said the first is window work to American Hall, which will receive new windows at a cost of $100,000.

“Those windows have to be historic, and the state is very picky about that,” Oliver said. “They were going to be vinyl windows, but they didn’t qualify with the historic designation, so they are going to be modern wooden windows that are insulated properly, and they are expensive to put in.”

The second is Jackpot Pottery at 145 W. Jackson St., which will have some internal upgrades to its system and to the building’s facade repairs for $57,000.

The building located at 36 W. Jackson St., which was recently purchased by the Van Curren family, will receive façade work along with HVAC improvements for $68,000.

“All of these (dollar) numbers are subject to change,” Oliver said. “We have to have an architect review it, so they really are ballpark figures.”

Oliver said these improvements require matching dollars from the building owners.

“It’s not an outright grant,” Oliver said. “They have to make a significant investment in the downtown area.”