The commissioners also approved three projects they delayed last year in favor of the Care Facility, namely:
- A $112,000 street and sidewalk project in College Corner.
- Okeana is getting a $105,000 storm sewer repair in Morgan Twp.
- A $33,000 fix on Amarillo Drive to improve drainage and prevent flooding in Hanover Twp.
RELATED: Community Development Block Grant monies awarded
Commissioners Don Dixon and T.C. Rogers said they prioritized the Care Facility for a couple reasons.
“How I justify that is it’s just a quality of life issue and a revenue source issue that had to be addressed,” Dixon said. “It hadn’t been addressed for the last number of years.”
Prior to 2015 the facility that is a last resort for poor county residents who need medical care, received virtually no physical improvements. It was dark, uninviting and losing money. Since then the county has spent $495,000 for a new roof, office remodeling, eliminated a trailer office, painted, replaced carpet, purchased new furniture, installed LED lighting, transformed the common areas and added fencing and landscaping, according to Community Development Manager Desmond Maaytah.
“For people coming and wanting to put their family members there, you just didn’t have a good feeling,” he said. “It’s looking a lot better out there… The reason this works for CDBG money is there are a lot of low income people out there.”
All tolled — with the 2018 award — $845,948 worth of CDBG money has gone into improving the Care Facility.
Rogers gave his main reason for making the nursing home a priority over some of the other funding requests.
“The primary reason for the funds to begin with is to help the less fortunate,” Rogers said. “So we made the determination this is like a concentrated area where the money can be spent on the type of population it was intended for.”
MORE: Staff cuts, renovations at Butler County-run nursing home
Lemon Twp. had the next highest request for a total of $392,000 for a Yankee Road culvert replacement and phase two of the South Main Street improvement — neither was approved.
In addition to the flooding issue in Hanover Twp. trustees there were looking for money for a park restroom and other upgrades for a total request of $272,000.
One of the considerations the county makes when approving the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds is whether a given jurisdiction has received funds in the recent past. Lemon Twp. received $248,000 in 2016 for the first phase of the Main Street project and Hanover Twp. culled $277,000 total in 2015 and 2016.
Dixon said the jurisdictions should not be relying on the federal funds for crucial capital improvement projects, because outside funding is never guaranteed.
“CDBG, I look at this like it may be gone tomorrow,” he said. “It’s a program the federal government put in place to do capital improvements, one-time improvements, not to live out of it and we’ve done that, but it could just as easily go away like the local government fund…,” he said. “These other governments they shouldn’t depend on this to run their operations.”
Ross Twp. was looking for $178,000 for Ohio 128 sidewalk construction, a request that’s on the cutting room floor. Township Administrator Bob Bass said they weren’t counting on the cash.
“We always look at the CDBG projects as for the betterment of the community but aren’t of a critical nature,” Bass said.
CDBG funds are also used for things like demolition, Supports to to Encourage Low-Income Families (SELF) and the relatively new Job Connector Shuttle. Those types of programs and monies the county collects for Fairfield and Oxford — those don’t directly get federal block grants so they will get $111,321 each from the county —total $387,642 this year.
Another $518,174 is expected for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program that funds housing for the disabled, Habitat for Humanity and down-payment assistance. A big chunk of that, $181,222 will go to Middletown, that city does not have it’s own HOME program directly with HUD.
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