14 Butler County projects receive funding

Fourteen projects in low-to-moderate income areas throughout Butler County will receive funding through the Community Development Block Grant and HOME housing assistance programs.

Every year communities throughout the county are invited to apply for these funds, and commissioners approved Tuesday more than $1 million for 14 projects.

MORE: Here are some of the Butler County grant requests

One of the projects, a $100,000 grant to Morgan Twp., will fund the majority of an Okeana storm sewer project.

“Being a small community we don’t have that kind of money to stick into the project,” Trustee Darryl Huff said of the $135,000 project to address flash flooding in the area. “It’s dully needed, that’s a main traffic flow in and out of Okeana for people to go back and forth to work.”

In New Miami, a $65,000 CDBG grant will be used to improve the village’s water system by updating infrastructure.

Shawn Campbell, an engineer for the village, said the grant will leverage $585,000 in Ohio Public Works funding for the project.

This is the second time the village has tried for the OPWC funding, and the CDBG money and other local funding pushed the project ahead in the approval line.

Components of New Miami’s water system need attention, he said.

“The last several years, with the very gracious support of the county commissioners, the village has been able to make leaps and bounds in improving the water quality and updating old antiquated and failing infrastructure,” Campbell said. “When I use the term failing I’m talking about the pipes that are continuously breaking because they are just so old.”

Commissioner Don Dixon called the New Miami project a “no-brainer.”

“We have been trying to focus on New Miami water issues up there,” Dixon said. “For me, it’s more enticing if you can get a match like that and you don’t have to repay it.”

Two years ago, the county approved $40,000 in CDBG funds to pay for a valve for the village’s $1 million water tower that had sat dormant for years.

RELATED: Dormant $1M water tower finally pumping in New Miami

The biggest project approved this year is $260,000 for repaving the access road to the Butler County Regional Airport.

Desmond Maaytah, the county community development manager, said the road needs attention and is not eligible for Federal Aviation Administration funding, like other capital projects at the airport. Maaytah said the airport sits in an area that is low-to-moderate income and improvements could boost economic development and benefit those residents.

MORE: Airport remains a drag on Butler County budget

The county is expecting to receive about $1.13 million in Community Development Block Grant funds this year from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and $586,799 HOME Investment Partnerships Program monies. Requests totalled almost $2.9 million and came in from 26 communities and entities for CDBG and $577,000 for things like down payment assistance and Habitat for Humanity.

The largest HOME grant goes to the city of Middletown for $187,992 in down payment assistance. This allotment is a bit deceiving on its face. Middletown does not have it’s own HOME program directly with HUD, so it partners with the county to get the funding.

Likewise, the cities of Fairfield and Oxford don’t directly get federal block grants, hence the $113,000 Good Neighbor Park amenities on the commissioners’ list for Fairfield and another $113,000 total for Oxford for Americans with Disabilities (ADA) sidewalk ramp improvements and a line item listed as “administration.”

Director of Development for the county David Fehr said those communities pick their own projects outside of the commissioners’ approval, but the partnership is helpful.

“The pot is bigger if we partner together,” he said.

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