County staff outline infrastructure and downtown grant plans, note matching requirements

County staff presented a group of proposed projects and the grant strategies the county will pursue. The projects discussed included a pump-station replacement for West Unity (to be submitted under the Residential Public Infrastructure Grant program, which requires a one-to-one local match) and a downtown rehabilitation project at 119 South Beach Street with a listed project cost of $226,700 and an application cap of up to $250,000.

Staff said West Unity's pump station project would be eligible for RPIG funding but that the village would need to supply a matching share. The downtown proposal centers on accessibility improvements — adding a stairway, widening another stairwell and repairing an elevator that serves upper floors — and would need a city resolution and a building inspection to qualify for a 'slum and blight' designation for grant eligibility. "They would also have to get, like, an inspector to go in and basically say, yeah, this is some of light," a staff presenter said while describing the downtown-qualification process.

Staff also discussed prior OPWC funding and program timelines, stating the county had an example OPWC grant of $175,000 and noting that critical infrastructure grant awards are competitive and not guaranteed; one staff member said critical grants can be "up to $500,000." Officials emphasized the need to complete construction sufficiently early to allow state monitoring and final paperwork (paperwork typically submitted in April, with state monitoring usually in May) if a project is to be closed out and eligible for final draws.

Next steps identified in the record include preparing any required city resolution for the downtown application, confirming the village match for the RPIG submission, and ensuring projects are scheduled to meet monitoring and final-report timelines.