Washington County Commission denies request for grant funds
MARIETTA — Washington County Commissioners denied a request from Friends of the Lower Muskingum River Thursday that would have allowed the organization to apply for a grant from the Clean Ohio Fund to purchase 223 acres of land.
That land would have been used as a conservation site and remained as green space, with a pollinator habit and trails put in, the group said.
A pollinator habitat is planted with flowers and plants that attract bees, wasps, and other animals and insects that transfer pollen. The areas allows those creatures to thrive, ensuring they pollinate not only the pollinator areas, but the fields of agriculture in the area. Friends of the Lower Muskingum currently has more than six acres of pollinator habitat at their Luke Chute Conservation Area on Ohio 226 near Stockport.
According to its website, the Clean Ohio Fund is a state sponsored fund that restores, protects, and connects Ohio’s important natural and urban places by preserving green space and farmland, improving outdoor recreation and cleaning up brownfields to encourage redevelopment and revitalize communities.
“(The property) is in Washington County, into Morgan County up to McConnelsville,” said Tiffany Harvey, executive director for the nonprofit Friends of the Lower Muskingum River.
Harvey said the group wished to purchase the land in order to provide an environment that promotes pollinating insects, hiking trails, hunting and environmental education to residents of the county.
According to Harvey, the land at 3001 Graham Road, in Cutler, already has an environmental lien placed on it from previous owners that prohibits any type of new buildings, removal of top soil or the harvesting of trees on the property.
The first issue the commissioners grappled with was the more than $400,000 estimate on the value of the property. Commissioner David White said the property was over valued due to the restrictions placed on it by the environmental lien.
“This is just my opinion, I am not an appraiser,” he said. “But I see the value of that property to be about five figures.”
Commissioner Ron Feathers said he couldn’t sign off on the project.
“I can’t approve the use of taxpayers’ dollars for this,” he said.
Harvey told the commissioners the money wouldn’t come from the residents of Washington County.
“This money is already in the budget from Clean Ohio and would come from them,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter where it comes from, it’s still taxpayers’ dollars,” Feathers said. “This needs to be privately funded.”
Commissioner Kevin Ritter agreed with Feathers’ assessment and said he wouldn’t approve the funding of the project either.
Harvey said the project requires the approval of the commissioners as well as Fairfield Township Trustees to even be able to apply for the grant. The commissioners no vote essentially stops the grant funding process, leaving the project’s future in limbo.
Harvey said the outcome of the project will be decided after internal deliberation.
“Our board will decide if we want to raise private funds or to just drop the project,” she said.
Other business Thursday:
* Flite Freimann, director of Washington County Job and Family Services, presented the commissioners with an updated lease for the use of the 60 acres of land surrounding the County Home as low-income senior housing.
Freimann first introduced the potential $5 million dollar project to build 84 ranch style units to the commissioners during the Feb. 14 meeting. The lease was not signed at that time due to the commissioners’ concern over an incorrect amount of land needed that was stated in the original contract.
The old lease had a clause that if grants and tax breaks weren’t received by Sept. 1, the lease would be null and void. The new lease still has that clause but also added July 1, 2020 as another opt-out date for the commissioners. Freimann said the extra time would enable the commissioners to kill the project if they had any objections to how the process was going.
The previous lease was originally for a 99-year contract. The new lease breaks it down to two 45-year periods instead. Freimann said this gave future commissioners the option of ending the program if it doesn’t meet the needs of the county at that time.
The commissioners unanimously agreed to approve the lease and signed the contract.
Freimann said he used the lease to apply for the tax breaks from the state on Thursday. Even though he said final confirmation won’t be known for six to eight weeks, he feels confident about its approval.
“I’m 100 percent positive we will move a great project forward,” he said.
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Dates to Remember
* Noon March 4: Joint Solid Waste Committee meeting at Lori’s in Caldwell
* 8:30 a.m. March 12: County Home monthly meeting
* 7 p.m. March 18: Planning Commission meeting