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STEUBENVILLE -- The Jefferson County Commissioners are hoping to secure Appalachian Community Grant funds to pay for their parking lot/streetscape project in downtown Steubenville.
At Thursday's meeting, commissioners asked the Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District to work on their project, located across from the Tower building, into JSWCD's multi-county application.
"We haven't heard anything from the port authority," Commissioner Tony Morelli said. "Soil and water's plans include streetscapes in the city of Steubenville, and my understanding is they're getting requests from other entities around the state. To me, it fits good with soil and water. I don't know if we're ever going to meet this project manager for the Jefferson County Port Authority, so I'm ready to give it to soil and water."
The port authority is now working with the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association, which is taking the lead on an omnibus application. Commissioners had several times asked port authority personnel to bring their project manager, Neighborhood Strategies CEO Jim Lenner, to a meeting so he could talk about what they're cooking up, but so far, the meeting hasn't materialized.
"I kind of agree," Commissioner Dave Maple said, pointing out when they'd peppered JSWCD Project Manager Aaron Dodds with questions about the application he's working on several months ago he rattled off several ideas about what they could do with the site and how it would dovetail nicely with a streetscape plan city officials want to do.
The county has been making plans to pave a parking area across from the Tower building and turn two adjacent parcels into a greenspace by teaming with the Jefferson County Land Bank to tear down two decrepit buildings adjacent to it. The engineering and design work is already done for the project, which Dodds told them in July would be a plus for any project they joined.
The county's share of the demolition cost is estimated at around $190,000, with the land bank pitching in another $30,000.
Maple told Dodds he'd given them "some ideas that weren't really in our head" back then. "Do you think you can build some of this into the grant?" he asked Thursday.
Dodds said it wouldn't be a problem, pointing out he's already working with the city of Steubenville to incorporate pocket parks and green spaces, some building restoration, redoing a parking lot and developing the riverfront from Blum Park to the marina.
"This would fit in, it would be a continuation of that," he said, telling commissioners he could "extend the streetscape up to the towers building and tie in the entire area."
Maple questioned if the commissioners would have "final approval of what it would look like."
"It's your project," Dodds replied. "It's just that it would be attached and interwoven in our story. I have no say other than how it's going to fit into our (application) -- it's your project."
After the meeting, Maple said Dodds "brought a good idea to our attention about how part of our project (involving the parking lot and tearing down that building to create a green space) would fit nicely."
"(Plans for the site) had never been identified as a project, but if he can fit it into his (application) and if it meets up with the city's streetscape project that he's been working on, it makes sense to ask them to include it and see if it would go through," Maple said. "If it goes through, that would give us an extra boost in that little area down there."
Morelli agreed it "makes sense, it ties in with" what JSWCD is already doing.
"And then we got some money to repurpose, we'd already set money aside to do the park, so I think it would be great," Morelli added, pointing out the state figures to fund four or five projects in the $100 million range and JSWCD is at, or very near, that benchmark.
Dodds, for his part, said JSWCS "looks forward to working with county commissioners on developing their parking lot and greenspace plans and tying it in with the goals of the city to create a beautiful streetscape that highlights the history of Steubenville, Jefferson County and Appalachian Ohio."
Commissioners also talked about what they can do with the old Armory on Cherry Avenue. Maple characterized it as an introductory discussion, saying he plans to "keep putting it on agenda" from time-to-time so it stays fresh in their minds.
He said they have options: Turn it into a business incubator, sell it outright or "repurpose it into something that could benefit" the county.
"People use the phrase 'good bones,'" Maple said. "That's a solid, solid building. As you walk through it, it makes you think business incubator, something like that."
The property was recently vacated by the developmental disability board.
"We're lucky to get it back," Maple said. "DD vacated it, now we have a really good building that we have no direct known use for it at this time."
Commissioner Eric Timmons said he'd "like to see what the port authority can do with the property, that'd be my first thought on it."
"I think we're going to have the port authority (consider it)," he said later. "(Port Authority Executive Director Robert Nailer) is going to be here in a couple of weeks, so we're just going to see what he thinks about it, and then we'll proceed."