{"id":3561,"date":"2011-02-23T04:01:33","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T09:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=3561"},"modified":"2011-02-24T04:23:45","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T09:23:45","slug":"convoy-officials-seek-village-input-for-possible-grant-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/02\/23\/convoy-officials-seek-village-input-for-possible-grant-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Convoy officials seek input on grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Convoy officials and others gather for a ribboncutting on another important village project, the 2008 reconstruction of Tully Street. (VW independent file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CONVOY \u2013 A number of Van Wert County municipalities have used federal Urban Revitalization Community Development Block Grant money for utility lines, parks, beautification projects, sidewalks and other items, and Convoy officials are hoping it\u2019s their turn to use funding from the next such grant for a worthwhile project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are several different avenues that we can take this grant money for,\u201d said Convoy Mayor Brad Guest after the meeting.<\/p>\n

Village officials held a town meeting at the Edgewood Park Community Building to give the approximately 40 people who attended some information on what the grants entail \u2013 and how much the village could stand to receive if approved.<\/p>\n

Guest said Tuesday\u2019s meeting was the first of five meetings required to receive the grants and was informational only, to provide village residents with how much money could be awarded and what kind of projects can be chosen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s essentially HUD (Housing and Urban Development Department) money that comes down to the state, and then the state has this process we must go through,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Ohio receives approximately $30 million for the Urban Revitalization grant program, with each \u201cblock\u201d of money awarded totaling $300,000, Mayor Guest said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little town like this, we can make $300,000 go pretty far,\u201d he added, noting that Ohio City has used the grant program twice for village projects, and Wren also has participated.<\/p>\n

Only one project is generally applied for each year in the county, the mayor said, adding that the Van Wert County Board of Commissioners generally has approximately $35,000 in \u201cseed money\u201d to help a community pay for preliminary work that needs to be completed as part of the grant process.<\/p>\n

The first step, Guest said, is to indicate a community\u2019s interest in the project and then meet the qualifications for grant award.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is so much competition for the normal state funds,\u201d the Convoy mayor said. \u201cThis is a little big different because you have to qualify first with a certain percentage of your population in the low- to moderate-income area.\u201d<\/p>\n

A survey was done last year to see if the village met the guidelines, and Guest said the survey indicated that 61 percent of village residents met the income guidelines \u2013 enough to qualify.<\/p>\n

Assisting the village with the application process is grant writer Ron Putoff of Fanning\/Howey, who he praised for his work so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cRon Putoff is doing a marvelous job for us,\u201d Mayor Guest said, adding, \u201cWe just don\u2019t have the manpower and hours (in-house) that such a process requires.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next meeting in the grant process will be Tuesday, March 15, at 7 p.m. in the Edgewood Park Community Building and will be publicized closer to the meeting date.<\/p>\n

Unlike the initial meeting, the March meeting will begin the process of selecting a specific project for the Urban Revitalization grant program. After a narrower scope of projects is decided on, the village will then move to selecting the final project.<\/p>\n

One possible project option, the mayor said, is a waterline project along Main Street (Ohio 49) within the village.<\/p>\n

Guest said village officials received recommendations when doing the recent Tully Street reconstruction project to install a 12-inch water line along that street, which was done. Convoy Fire Chief Don Wilson said at the time that the larger line would improve his department\u2019s ability to provide water to fight fires in the area.<\/p>\n

However, when looking at the Main Street project, village officials discovered the street had only an 8-inch water line running along it. To provide waterline installation on that street as an option for CDBG Urban Revitalization funding, village officials wrote a letter of intent asking ODOT to postpone doing that project from this coming summer, to next summer instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cODOT was very cooperative,\u201d Guest said, adding that, if the waterline project is selected, it\u2019s much better to install it first and then repave the street, rather than tear up a newly paved street to install the lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not something people really like to do,\u201d the Convoy mayor said.<\/p>\n

Guest did note, though, that there were other possible projects that could be selected, if the village so desires, adding that he hopes a large number of village residents turn out in March to help in the selection process.<\/p>\n

The timeline for any project selected, if the village is approved for the CDBG loan, Guest said, would be to complete design and engineering work by the end of this year and then bid the project in early 2012. Work on the project itself would begin next summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor CONVOY \u2013 A number of Van Wert County municipalities have used federal Urban Revitalization Community Development Block Grant money for utility lines, parks, beautification projects, sidewalks and other items, and Convoy officials are hoping it\u2019s their turn to use funding from the next such grant for a worthwhile project. \u201cThere are several […]<\/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-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 12:28:36","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\/3561","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=3561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}