County must be smarter on Clean Ohio push
Published 9:35 am Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Lawrence County should be selective in its support for Clean Ohio grant applications being submitted for funding.
Each year, Clean Ohio Fund accepts grant applications for projects from any county within the state of Ohio. Projects ranging from Brownfield cleanups to park projects, green space enhancement, farmland preservation and main street projects are eligible for consideration. In 2011, the Clean Ohio Fund will award 12-13 grants to fund a variety of those projects. The competition is usually fierce with applications being submitted from across Ohio.
According to The Tribune, Lawrence County currently has three grant proposals under consideration: two from the City of Ironton and one for an environmental analysis of the former Superior Cement property near Pedro, Ohio which is being submitted by the County Commissioners on behalf of a private landowner.
The Ironton grants have a high probability of success, which serve the greatest number of people in the shortest time frame, should be given priority. The Superior Cement application may serve only to diminish and detract from the grants that are more likely to succeed.
We currently have only two experienced county commissioners in place and the selection of a new person to serve as the third commissioner may lead to a re-evaluation of the merits of the Superior Cement plant proposal.
The current grant application is only for an evaluation of potential environmental hazards in a rather small parcel of land off U.S. Route 93, near Pedro.
There seems to be no well-substantiated plan in place that ensures the project will go forward as presented.
As the timeline for this project is much longer, deferring the application endorsement until some future date when there are no competing applications from within the county and the application exhibits a stronger potential for long-term benefit to the county and to the state taxpayers would seem to be in order.
The current likelihood of obtaining private financing for recreational facilities, such as the one proposed for Superior Cement, is not good; therefore the delay in submission of the grant application would not impede activities at the former cement plant.
Sally E. Francis
Chesapeake