Local entities working on 2016 projects

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Like individuals, governments and businesses also make New Year’s resolutions — although theirs revolve mostly around completing projects started the year before and the planning of new projects.

To that end, local government and businesses will revisit a number of projects started in 2015, as well as begin other projects approved or planned in 2015, but not yet started.

Arguably the most important government project will be the combining of county and city economic development offices. New Van Wert Mayor Jerry Mazur and Van Wert County Commissioners Todd Wolfrum, Thad Lichtensteiger, and Stan Owens have been worked for several weeks on the general outline of what the new combined office would look like, where it would be located, and how it would function.

However, while a number of ideas have been discussed, nothing is etched in stone, at this point.

Look for more meetings on the subject this year as Mazur and the commissioners include more stakeholders, such as Van Wert City Council, the Community Improvement Corporation, and Business Development Corporation, in the discussion.

An exciting improvement planned for this summer will be the Franklin Park project, which is being underwritten in part by philanthropist Scott Niswonger, a Van Wert native who now lives in Greeneville, Tennessee, and The Van Wert County Foundation.

The project will create a new park on the grounds of the former Franklin Elementary School that will include a shelterhouse, a basketball court that can be turned into an ice-skating rink or roller-blading area, a pickleball court that can also function as a volleyball court, a skating park, a children’s playground area, and lots of green space.

While a number of railroad crossings were improved this past summer (and other crossings closed), there still remains work to be done. Several railroad crossings will be getting new crossing arms and lights as part of the project begun in 2015. That work will likely take place sometime this spring or summer, but no dates have been set for the additional work.

Van Wert City School District is currently in the process of creating a new long-range plan that school officials are hoping will provide the district with a new educational focus for the next several years. An advisory committee that includes administrators and educators, as well as parents and community leaders, will continue the planning process in several meetings planned for this year, with the first scheduled for this coming Monday, January 4.

In addition to governmental entities, at least one business is also planning a big project for this year. Advanced Biological Marketing plans to construct a new $13 million worldwide headquarters in Vision Industrial Park. The two-phase project will increase the local bio-agricultural company’s production capacity by more than 78,000 square feet when completed.

The company completed the first phase of the project the purchase of approximately $1 million of equipment, and will break ground on its new headquarters sometime this spring.