{"id":161678,"date":"2023-01-03T04:41:45","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T09:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=161678"},"modified":"2023-01-04T04:42:21","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T09:42:21","slug":"van-wert-county-area-could-benefit-from-new-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2023\/01\/03\/van-wert-county-area-could-benefit-from-new-organization\/","title":{"rendered":"VW County could benefit from new RTPO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local Ohio Department of Transportation officials have noted that northwest Ohio has the largest area not currently represented by a RTPO (regional transportation planning organization) or an MPO (metropolitan planning organization), but that\u2019s about to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Hughes, Ohio Department of Transportation District 1 deputy director, sought to remedy that void and introduced the idea of forming a regional transportation planning organization (RTPO) to serve Van Wert, Putnam, Hancock, Hardin, Wyandot, Auglaize and Mercer counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"336\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Chris-Hughes-II-10-2022-e1672825308979.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-159231\"\/><figcaption>ODOT District 1 Deputy Director Chris Hughes has introduced an RTPO to serve Van Wert County and the surrounding area. <em>VW independent file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Hughes, the new RTPO will provide local public agencies access to more funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Within the BIL (Bypartisan Infrastructure Legislation), an RTPO may apply for federal grants,\u201d Hughes explained. \u201c It\u2019s not a lot of money yet, but it\u2019s something. If you\u2019re not part of an RTPO, you don\u2019t have access to that. As time goes on, you will be more and more left out if you&#8217;re not part of one of these organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The RTPO will provide local entities assistance with planning their transportation projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The RTPO can bring their projects to us,\u201d Hughes stated. \u201cIt will truly help rural counties identify transportation issues and get those issues solved. It will provide them an avenue they don&#8217;t currently have to get things done.&#8221; said Hughes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All seven of the counties have submitted resolutions stating they plan to be part of the new agency, titled West Central Ohio Regional Planning Organization (WORPO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WORPO will be administered by the Lima-Allen County Regional Planning Commission which is currently working to secure the needed staff. The new RTPO is expected to be operating this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff\/submitted information Local Ohio Department of Transportation officials have noted that northwest Ohio has the largest area not currently represented by a RTPO (regional transportation planning organization) or an MPO (metropolitan planning organization), but that\u2019s about to change. Chris Hughes, Ohio Department of Transportation District 1 deputy director, sought to remedy that void [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 03:15:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161678"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161725,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161678\/revisions\/161725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}