A life-changing event for Killbuck community comes in form $5.7M Appalachian Grant

Killbuck Mayor Rick Allison sees the $5.7 million Appalachian Grant the village was awarded as a life-changing experience for the community.

"We were totally surprised, but this is definitely going to be a shot in the arm for Killbuck," Allison said. "It will be a good pick-me-up, with us losing the school and MRV Siding moving their factory out of town, it's definitely a plus for us. It will definitely be a life-changing experience for the village of Killbuck."

He said some of the funding will be used to connect the Holmes County Trail to downtown via a 10-foot wide bicycle path along the west side of Main Street and turn west at the square and reconnect at Turtle Pond through the Killbuck Watershed.

There will be a streetscape, which will install new curbs on Main Street and replace old trees in town, as well as the addition of some decorative lighting throughout downtown.

"We've been trying for 10 years to get the bicycle path to come down through town," Allison said. "We've also wanted to replace our curbs because they're shot. Most of them are below the road or busted up. It will give Killbuck a different look; a nicer look."

Funding for Ohio's Appalachian Community Grant Program was generated by House Bill 377 and is a highly competitive grant that offered $500 million for transformational projects in communities.

Allison said he has no time table as to when all this will begin. He just learned of the grant award.

Grant writers played a huge role in securing funds

Holley Johnson and Michelle Wood were the grant writers who helped procure the funding for Killbuck. Johnson is the executive director of Holmes Center for the Arts and Wood was recently retired as the program administrator at the Holmes County Soil and Water Conservation District.

"It started with a steering committee, and we were kind of like the facilitators of the grant," Johnson said. "We attended all the meetings with OMEGA (Ohio Mid-Eastern Government Association) and the other Appalachian districts that were applying for the grant. We went through the process, and met with the four Holmes County villages that we were applying for."

Johnson noted the grant is $5,763,000 which is the full amount they applied for Killbuck.

Glenmont, Holmesville and Millersburg also applied but did not receive any funding.

Focus is on eco-tourism, centered on Holmes County Trail

"The project is focused mostly on eco-tourism," she said. "We have this great resource in the Holmes County Trail, and we see the future of tourism pointing in that direction. People wanting to do outside activities and to have authentic experiences in these communities that surround trails and river access.

"With the great trail system, the Killbuck Creek, we thought, how could we get people off of the trail and into these communities, get them to stay and spend some time before they get back on the trail," Johnson said. "That's what all four of those communities' applications were all about. We were excited to get the grant for Killbuck, and very disappointed we didn't get the others."

Johnson said they have started the process and she hopes to continue that momentum and keep plans forming for the other communities, so any time someone is on the Holmes County Trail they have places to stop, eat and rest, use facilities and have a good experience.

She said there are plenty of positives to take from participation in the process of going after the grant funding. She said even though some of the villages did not receive money this time, they discovered funding sources and opportunities as well as incentives to go after available grants.

"When more funding does become available, organizations and villages will have a plan ready and a goal, and they can just go for it," Johnsons said.

Making use of the wetlands and other resources

Wood credited Karen Gotter of the SWCD, who has long been looking at wetland properties and opportunities around Killbuck, and was instrumental in getting the ideas rolling.

"That led to ideas about bringing people in for birding, kayaking and we tied that into bringing people to the village of Killbuck," Wood said. "One of the pieces we wanted to see was better access to Killbuck Creek. The banks are steep, a lot of it is on private property, there was not a lot of public access."

She said there now is the opportunity to install launch ramps along the river, which ties into the eco-tourism aspect of the grant.

"That snowballed into tying in the village so people could see all the natural resources that are there to enjoy, like hiking, kayaking and whatnot," Wood said.

Hall: Small communities can get big bucks, too

Holmes County Commissioner Dave Hall said that two years ago state legislators passed a bill to fund the Appalachian Counties Grant, which received requests for nearly $2 billion in proposed projects.

"It was one of the most competitive grant processes I've ever seen," Hall said. "We had quite a few local projects we thought would be good for the communities. Unfortunately, some didn't make it through, but Killbuck was able to get the funding."

Hall hopes this will be a starting point for some of the other communities in the county to go after funding for projects.

"This shows we can go after large sums of grant funds that usually go to bigger counties," Hall said. "Kudos to all the great communities that were right there on the front line, trying to enhance our programs. We can expect exciting times over the next few years in Holmes County."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Appalachian grant is means to link Holmes Trail to downtown Killbuck