The city of Athens held a public hearing Monday night during the regular session of Athens City Council to discuss the state's Community Development Block Program, offering grants the city will apply for in the next month.
The hearing allowed citizens and council members to discuss the program with Glen Crippen, community development coordinator for the Hocking Athens Perry Community Action Partnership. The partnership currently works with the city to apply for grants before the June 20 deadline.
The allocation could provide the city and county with almost $400,000 worth of funds to support a variety of projects.
Crippen said that the application selection is competitive, and although the city has never applied for the infrastructure grant, he was confident the city will have a very strong application.
“Community Action is very proud to work together [with the city] to apply for these funds, and if received, to implement them effectively,” Crippen said.
The city could receive two individual grants from the program — a $75,000 small cities grant for city maintenance projects, and up to $300,000 critical infrastructure grant used to fund specific countywide infrastructure projects in blighted or low-to-middle income areas.
The two grants are not mutually exclusive and, ideally, Crippen said, the city would use funds from both grants to provide the greatest number of potential public works projects.
Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said that there is “a spectrum” of potential projects that the funds from the critical infrastructure grant could be used for, but that they are currently considering the funds to update the Depot Street lift station, which manages wastewater in the city.
“We’re focusing on that because we know how old it is and how important it is to the infrastructure of the community,” Wiehl said. “We’re focusing on that but it’s not exclusive. If we see something else, we’ll look into other options.”
Councilwoman Chris Knisely told
in a previous article that the small cities grant would likely go toward general repairs to city sidewalks and small roads.
As an additional note, the members of city council said that they were “solidly in favor” of State Issue 1 on Tuesday’s statewide primary ballot and urged local voters to cast their support.
The issue would let the state borrow $1.875 billion in bonds over the next ten years for local infrastructure projects throughout the state.
“It’s not just pulling money out of your pocket and throwing it at somebody,” Wiehl said. “It augments what we do; it spreads the money farther.”
That borrowing would likely make it easier for the city and county to develop projects such as the E. State St. / U.S. 33 interchange, which is being developed by the Ohio Department of Transportation, Jennifer Cochran, D-at large, said.
