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Marietta holds final public meeting on block grants

The community room in the Armory is packed with 37 private residents, nonprofit leaders and downtown business owners Monday for the final public meeting to request a federal Community Development Block Grant. (Photo by Janelle Patterson)

A group of 37 learned Monday how the requirements have changed to be counted as a citizen in Marietta.

No email, no phone call, no face-to-face interaction by a city resident will be counted as the city’s federal grant request to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is compiled.

Only individual sheets of paper (available at the city development office and as of direction Monday night to be available for printing from the city website by today) which are completed and signed by a person residing in Marietta will pass muster.

“Last year we had people say that their votes weren’t being counted,” defended Development Director Andy Coleman as he conducted the final public meeting to solicit federal funding requests for Community Development Block Grant monies.

The meeting saw the community room in the Armory, 241 Front St., filled with private citizens, leaders of nonprofits and downtown business owners all of which voicing suggestions for CDBG projects, but whose requests will still not be counted, nor weighted without each individual citizen writing their request on the development office’s form and submitting a copy to the development office by 5 p.m. on Aug. 2.

Louise Gwinn, a Norwood resident, asks for funding to build a walkway down to Buckeye Park from Lower Norwood during a public meeting for CDBG money Monday. (Photo by Janelle Patterson)

Coleman opened the meeting saying that the only requests which can be considered are ones which align with eligible goals of the program, including affordable housing, economic development, adding critical infrastructure, disability accessibility, elimination of slum and blight and public transportation access.

He said in the past he could take requests by phone, email or conversations on the street, but with the question of being counted coming up during last year’s citizen participation window, the policy of his office changed.

“Is that HUD’s policy or the policy of the city administration?” questioned Councilwoman Cassidi Shoaf.

“Neither one, it’s mine,” replied Coleman.

By that direction, none of the requests made Monday orally, without also filling out Coleman’s form, can the public expect to be documented.

Requests Monday included:

1) Tear down 615-619 Putnam St., a condemned commercial strip mall at risk of sinking into the underground creek and putting the former YMCA and current McDonald’s, plus many surrounding homes at risk of flooding.

2) Aid in an economic development project to build an indoor pool to competition regulations, following the closing of the YMCA pool.

“When we lost the YMCA we lost a regulation-size pool affecting at least 75 students,” said Jennifer Powers, of Marietta.

She noted the development of an indoor pool could not only benefit local swim team practices year-round, but trickle down in the local economy to bed taxes during meet weekends, development of a college swimming program, and benefit potential nonprofit relationships with local physicians and rehabilitative agencies.

3) Norwood pedestrian access to Buckeye Park through sidewalks and ramps, following the closure two years ago of the only stairs down the hill from Lower Norwood to the park.

Louise Gwinn, a Norwood neighborhood resident, explained that without the stairs, children have no clear walking path to the city park.

“There are no sidewalks all the way down from the street nor where the stairs used to be,” she said.

4) Utility upgrades to the Baltimore and Ohio historic train cars, estimated to cost $50,000, to repurpose the cars as bed and breakfast locations for the Historic Harmar Bridge Company, a nonprofit, to garner revenue for the planned renovation of the walking bridge.

5) A new curb and new catch basin to divert water from degrading the Flanders Field playground and basketball court, estimated to cost $1,000 in materials.

6) Street and alley resurfacing across the city.

7) Added picnic tables along the rivers.

8) Bus markers and shelters.

Councilman Geoff Schenkel pointed out following two citizen requests on bus signage and shelters Monday that a similar request was made last year and funded, but had yet to be fulfilled.

Coleman said quotes on the signs and posts are being fielded this week by his office and that next week the screen printing quotes will be obtained.

He said the bus signs should be in place by the end of the year, which Schenkel requested that citizen input guide the placement of said signs.

9) Wayfinding signs to the Washington County Fairgrounds from state routes and the interstate.

10) Aid in the roof replacement project for the Toy and Doll Museum on Gilman Avenue.

11) Aid in the facade restoration for the Mid-Ohio Valley Players theater on Putnam Street.

12) Aid in an accessible ramp installation for the Boys and Girls Club gym project.

13) A renewed request for historical marker funding for two more signs denoting Marietta’s historical figures Rufus Dawes and Ephraim Cutler Dawes, as organized by the Civil War Roundtable.

14) Trail map signs for the eastern end of the city River Trail and the Armory, as requested by the Broughton Foundation.

15) Added security lighting along the River Trail, estimated to cost between $10,000 and $15,000, as requested by Council Finance Chairman Mike Scales.

16) Added security lighting in Norwood, also estimated between $10,000 and $15,000 as requested by Scales, who also represents the first ward where Norwood is located.

17) A pavilion at Indian Acres Park, as requested by Third Ward Councilman Steve Thomas.

18) A handrail to the Indian Acres boat dock, as requested by Thomas.

When asked how he would treat a petition by city residents, Coleman replied that a petition would be considered as one vote/request only, not assigning votes to each signature on a petition.

When Shoaf then asked if requests made in writing could be copied to be separately signed by different individuals, Coleman said such requests turned into his office would be counted as separate votes.

“I cannot accept this,” Coleman pointed out of the 25 signatures Marietta Main Street’s Harmar-driven sub-recipient Main Street West submitted through Jackson Patterson for the Flanders Field request.

Coleman also said there would be a question to the eligibility of requests 2, 4, 10 and 11, and that he would have to review federal regulations with the nonprofits.

He said the pool idea was a better candidate for a capital improvement project with the city, which if the pool were built on city land, CDBG funding could be a contributing part.

He said the request for a walkway to Buckeye Park had previously been determined by the city engineering department as not feasible.

And he called the first request, to tear down the strip mall at the corner of Putnam and Seventh streets, requested by Susan Vessels, an incumbent councilwoman to take office in January, the “ideal project” because it could be turned into green space and therefore remain in possession of the city as a pocket park, fulfilling a HUD goal of eliminating slum and blight.

In the past Coleman has told Marietta City Council during CDBG budget reviews that while the legislative body which is responsible for fiscal oversight of city finances has final discretion on what’s authorized to be submitted to HUD, and that the annual request is submitted at council’s discretion, the weight of citizen-driven requests is the top motivation for staying in good graces with the federal granting agency.

But Monday he switched gears on that previous guidance.

“City council’s only role in this is to determine if their residents have been heard,” said Coleman.

However, without council’s approval of the grant request, Coleman would not have the authorization to submit the proposed budget for $402,000 to HUD.

To obtain a copy of Coleman’s request form go to his office on the first floor of 304 Putnam St.

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