STEUBENVILLE — Revamping the Steubenville Marina, a pet project of outgoing Councilwoman at large Kimberly Hahn, has been dropped from the Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District’s Heart of Appalachian Ohio grant application due to logistical issues.

The district’s proposal seeks roughly $30 million for other activities on the city’s to-do list, however — including the Historic North Fourth Street streetscape, the Grand Theater, Castle Hall and Nutcracker Village, Crocetti Park (Dean Martin Park) and a dedicated bike lane to serve as part of the Great American Rail-Trail.

They also asked for about $70 million for activities in other parts of Jefferson County as well as Harrison, Carroll, Columbiana, Holmes, Tuscarawas, Coshocton, Belmont, Muskingum, Perry, Meigs, Guernsey, Ross, Scioto, Highland, Athens and Washington counties.

Roughly $440 million in Appalachian Community Grant funds is available for activities throughout Ohio’s 32 qualifying counties. Dodds said the Heart of Appalachian Ohio proposal came in at around $106 million – slightly higher than the $100 million minimum set by Ohio Department of Development — and includes 44 activities in 17 counties.

Guidelines said activities should have 20-year sustainability and regional impact.

Dodds said it was city officials who had to make the difficult decision to pull the marina project.

“In filling out the application, using the scoring rubric and staying up to date with what the Ohio Department of Development was requesting, you had to use common sense to see how to match what the funders want,” Dodds said, adding grant timing requirements for taking an activity from award to being under bid “had made some activities iffy and we worked with partners and decided mutually not to compromise the entire project.”

Rather than jeopardize the entire proposal, he said the city and the Jefferson County Land Bank withdrew funding requests for the Market Street trough, the Floto building and two pocket parks — Thomas Cole Park and McCook Square — and Carroll County officials nixed one of their projects, also because of logistical issues.

“(They) were removed after great discussion based on the budget, sustainability and how much of a draw each would bring to the area,” he said. “They were not easy decisions and in the case of the Floto building — it really was a painful decision, but the schematics and timelines were a factor, too.”

Hahn said she was “tremendously disappointed” the marina couldn’t be included, pointing out “it’s just gold sitting there, in terms of economic development and planning, as well as being one of our greatest untapped resources” in terms of recreation and economic development. The city acquired the marina from the Army Corps of Engineers in 2001.

“I think the things that will be included will be transformational for our city and a huge boost to economic development, and I’m eager to see what will transpire,” she said.

She said she’d hoped they could have worked at least the bathrooms in, since there already is water, sewer lines and electricity on site and and they already have engineering plans for them — “because this grant is a zero match, the city would not have had to spend any dollars to make it happen.”

“We just got into a time bind, needing to make sure the grant got in on time,” she said. “They just ran out of time.”

She said the Appalachian grant program “is a great opportunity for the city and county, working in collaboration with Jefferson Soil and Water” to transform the region, and vowed to continue working to make the marina a reality.

“The incoming council needs to remain aware that the marina is a city park and it’s the city’s responsibility to make it a priority,” she said. “People deserve to be able to go there knowing there are functional bathrooms and a good kayak and boat launch.”

Dodds, meanwhile, said while city officials also had hoped to broaden the streetscape to encompass a larger portion of the historic business district, in the end they chose to “scale back the streetscape because of time frame and permits.”

“The overall costs, the timeline between engineering and when it goes out to bid and completion date made it a huge challenge to go larger,” he said. “So, at the advice of (Steubenville Urban Projects Director) Chris Petrossi and (City Engineer) Mike Dolak, we kept it at the one block.”

He said JSWCD has picked up the Grand Theater project.

“We felt it prudent not to let them or any of the other activities fall off if we could cohesively fit them into the narrative and the budget, and they met sustainability requirements,” Dodds said. “It’s a good project that a lot of people have been working on for many years, like the vast majority of the Heart of Appalachian Ohio activities. It has a lot of financial support through donations and grant dollars, but most importantly it will be transformational, benefiting the regional and connecting to several of the other activities.”

“At the end of the day, all of the partners involved in the Heart of Appalachia Ohio project dedicated over a year and a half toward seeing this application submitted,” he said. “Endless hours, countless trips through the entire 32-county region, hundreds of meetings and conversations, a lot of paper, tears and sweat went into it. I am humbled and proud of the collaboration and we put together a phenomenal project that will be transformational, sustainable and reconnect people with the beauty of Appalachian Ohio that is rich with history, natural resources, art and a tenacious people who are willing to work together.”