President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act into law March 11, 2021 and it allocated $350 billion to help local governments with pains caused by the coronavirus pandemic. When the commissioners learned they had nearly $74.4 million to spend, they invited other governments and agencies to pitch them ideas.
The county received an eclectic array of funding requests — totaling more than $200 million — including economic development and educational endeavors, help for the homeless, propping up small businesses, park and bike trail expansion and countywide broadband to name a few. They ranged in price from $24 million for the new advanced aviation and manufacturing training centers in Middletown and Hamilton to $125,000 for healthcare worker training.
The commissioners funded 44 projects worth a total of $73.4 million and $39.2 million has been spent on 13 completed projects, as of the third quarter report to the U.S. Treasury. The various recipients have until the end of 2026 to fully expend the funds. County Administrator Judi Boyko said the commissioners have invested $28.4 million in infrastructure, $22.1 million into the county’s workforce development and $20.6 million “community development-like projects.” Several projects were county based like County Recorder Danny Crank’s $650,000 records digitization project.
The 13 projects that have been completed — or the county money has been spent — include the $10 million allocation — there were two awards of $5 million each — to the county engineer for township paving, contributions to Miami University’s College@Elm Innovation & Workforce Development Center and the advanced manufacturing facility, Fairfield’s $3 million allocation for the Ohio 4 redevelopment project, Butler County Fairgrounds paving, park projects in Liberty and Morgan townships, rehabbing the county mobile dental unit and a couple sheriff’s building equipment replacements.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Miami University received the largest share of ARPA funding with $19 million — plus $1 million from the county general fund — for the Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Development, Research, and Commercialization Hub — referred to as The Hub — and the College@Elm workforce center.
The College@ Elm project got $5 million and the rest was for The Hub in both outright dollars and a matching grant pledge. Miami has applied for a $35 million Innovation Hub state grant and the commissioners agreed to give $5 million in matching money. The Treasury report shows a total of $15 million has been spent on the two projects.
Initially Butler Tech pitched the commissioners the advanced aviation and manufacturing centers — $12 million apiece — and the board awarded $7 million for the flight school and $8 million for manufacturing project. Butler Tech partnered with Miami early this year and now a $38.5 million shared facility is being renovated at the Vora Technology Park just north of Miami University Hamilton campus on Knightsbridge Drive.
The initial request to the commissioners has blossomed into a collaborative effort between the county, Butler Tech, Miami, the city of Hamilton and dozens of industry and other partners.
“This is the future of education, that’s what it boils down to, right now we are in a time where we have to bridge workforce and education together, I think historically we haven’t done either one too well, we’ve focused heavily on one side and not the other side so what we’re doing is the future of education we think this will be a model for not only Ohio but throughout the country. Ande Durojaiye, vice president and dean of Miami University Regionals, told the Journal-News. “When you think about who is coming together from a workforce and education standpoint, to meet all of the needs that they are going to need for a talented workforce to really drive industry and economic development.”
Randi Thomas, vice president for the university’s Advancing Strategy, Partnerships, Institutional Relations, & Economy program, said renovations on the former Vora Technology building are underway and the financial commitments — they have also applied for a $31 state Innovation Hubs grant — include the commissioners’ money, $20 million from Miami, $2.26 million from Butler Tech, $480,000 from Hamilton and a $750,000 state grant.
Ground has also been broken on the $15 million advanced aviation training center at Middletown’s Hook Field. Butler Tech is contributing $6.5 million, there is $1 million from the JobsOhio Site Inventory Program and $500,000 form the city. The 28,000-square-foot facility will feature labs for aviation maintenance, engineering, private pilot training, and unmanned aircraft systems. The U.S. Treasury report shows $650,353 has been spent.
“The Butler County commissioners were the first to recognize and champion our vision for transformative education in aviation and advanced manufacturing. Their leadership and financial support set the stage for these landmark initiatives, inspiring many others to join this collaborative effort,” Jon Graft, Superintendent/CEO of Butler Tech said. “We deeply value their commitment and the incredible backing of our partners who have contributed their expertise, resources, and support.”
Middletown received the second largest piece of the county’s ARPA pie at $13.5 million — including the aviation center at their airport — and former city manager Jim Palenick was the first to ask for money, with a $6.6 million request to help the city “transform and redevelop” the Ohio 4 corridor.
The commissioners awarded the city $3 million to demolish and remediate the former 14-acre Paperboard site that burned to the ground on New Years Day 2020 and $3.5 million — in two separate tranches —for the Sonny Hill Community Center renovation. The city spent nearly $2.6 million so far on the Paperboard demolition and nothing — as of the third quarter Treasury report — on the community center.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Acting City Manager Nathan Cahall said the Paperboard site has been cleared and they are still working with Ohio EPA on site remediation and the entire $3 million will be or has been used. He said they will be working on redevelopment plan for the site next year.
“We don’t have a clean bill health on that property just yet, we still have some monitoring and testing to complete in coordination with the Ohio EPA,” Cahall said. “With some cautious optimism the city will be starting in the first quarter next the planning process to develop a concept and redevelopment plan for that property and the surrounding area even.”
The Sonny Hill project was originally pitched to the commissioners by the city and the school district as a $6 million project to design and expand the facility but the schools backed out. Cahall said the project to completely “remodel and refresh” the existing community center started in October. In addition they are adding a new gym and programming area. The total project cost is $6.9 million.
The largest countywide project was $10 million — $3.7 million has been spent — to bring high speed internet to 50,000 “doors.” David Kramer, senior director for Corporate Strategy and Development with altafiber, told the Journal-News they are on schedule to complete the entire project in 2026 and to-date they have connected roughly 21,000 single-family doors that are “randomly distributed throughout the county, we build doors as we get the permits’ and 2,300 multi-unit dwellings.
He said the plan is to build another 15,000 next year and “the remaining doors are predominantly in Middletown, Trenton and Oxford and a little bit in Monroe.”
“In the 18 to 20 months we’ve been doing it I think 23,000 doors is pretty good out of the 50,000 and we feel pretty comfortable in getting the 50,000 doors done,” he said.
The commissioners said from the get-go they wanted the windfall to be “transformational.” Aside from the huge investments in education, broad band and infrastructure, the ARPA funds gifted to every other local government countywide have paid for park improvements, social services, food pantries and more.
Commissioner Don Dixon said it might sound easy, getting a huge amount of cash and spending it, but it was “very painful” at times, “we got it done and I think we did as best we could, time will tell.”
“We tried to use it to improve people’s lives in Butler County and not create any capital liabilities going forward,” Dixon said. “I think we’ve pretty well done that and created some economic development. I feel pretty good about it.”
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