Metro Edition 2/26/18

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The Press

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P Since 1972

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Basketball Preview

3 inducted See page 6 A supplement to The Press Newspapers December 4, 2017

Jacob Plantz Cover photo: Genoa junior guard by Russ Lytle) p ((Press file photo

RESS February 26, 2018

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Serving More Than h 33 33,000 000 H Homes & B Businesses i iin 4 C Counties ti

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Northwood

Project aids energy efficiency By Kelly J. Kaczala News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com

Continued on page 5

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of The Week

Everything you could call a cop I called him. Nicole Lange See page 7

Heroin expert speaks

At right, Dennis Whaley of the Lucas County D.A.R.T. Program, the county’s addiction resource unit, speaks at the East Toledo Senior Center. Photo at left, Patricia Staley, left, Doris Levy, and others in attendence asked Whaley questions after the talk. See story on page 7. (Press photos by Ken Grosjean)

Wood County Planning Commission

Forum is set for grant program By Larry Limpf News Editor news@presspublications.com The Wood County Planning Commission has scheduled a public forum for next month to hear project proposals eligible for funding from the Community Development Block Grant program. The forum will be held March 7 at 6 p.m. in the Wood County commissioners meeting room at One Courthouse Square in Bowling Green. The commission has sent letters to elected officials throughout the county, requesting they be prepared to report on their project ideas for 2018. A nine-page survey to determine the condition of each entity’s infrastructure systems and public facilities was included with the letters. Since 2015, the Ohio Development Services Agency, which administers the CDBG program, has used what is called the Community Development Implementation Strategy in determining what projects are best suited for funding. “For CDBG funding consideration, the proposed activities must be designed to

The state also doesn’t allow grant funds to assist water tapins unless there’s an environmental danger associated with it.

Northwood City Council at a meeting earlier this month established the city as an Energy Special Improvement District (ESID). The designation allows the city to apply for low interest loans for energy efficient projects. Businesses can also apply for funding to invest in energy upgrades. The loans can cover a variety of energy projects, including high efficiency furnaces, windows and insulation, and alternative energy devices. It also allows repayment of the loan via property tax assessments over a period of years. Northwood plans to make $70,000 in energy efficiency retrofits to some city owned buildings, including lighting upgrades to the municipal complex and the old fire station on Andrus Road, according to Northwood City Administrator Bob Anderson, who is representing Northwood on the board of directors of the Northwest Ohio Advanced Energy Improvement District. “We’re using it as another economic development tool,” said Anderson. As a result of a study, the city will save over $150,000 to make the upgrades, he added. “We’re going to save enough money as a result of the upgrades to pay the loan back over a period of three and a half years,” he said. One of the objectives of establishing the ESID is that it will help businesses and municipalities lower the costs of heating, cooling and lighting in their buildings. “In order for Northwood to join the district, we had to have a pilot project. So we decided we’d make ourselves the first project and improve all the lighting in our buildings,” said Anderson. “Now that we are a district, businesses can approach the Northwest Ohio Advanced Energy Improvement District and apply for a loan and make their own

primarily benefit low and moderate income persons, aid in the elimination of slum and blight conditions or address an urgent need (such as tornado/flood damage),” the letter says. Following the forum, the county will compile the information from the communities and prepare an assessment. Dave Steiner, director of the county planning commission, said projects will

be ranked according to their feasibility, whether they address public health and safety and the number of people affected. The county didn’t receive funding in 2017, he said, but in 2016 CDBG funds were used for an Americans with Disability Act restroom project in the Village of North Baltimore, a waterline replacement in the Village of Bradner, a door at the senior center in the Village of Walbridge and for assisting with costs to tap into a new sanitary sewer system in the Village of Bairdstown. If the county adopted a regional water system format, as has been discussed, it likely wouldn’t be eligible for CDBG funding, he said, because the grants have to benefit service areas where the population is mostly low to moderate income. The state also doesn’t allow grant funds to assist water tap-ins unless there’s an environmental danger associated with it,” Steiner said. Steiner’s letter was read Tuesday during the meeting of the Lake Township trustees. Trustees Jeff Pettit and Richard Welling said they doubted the township would qualify for a CDBG-funded project.

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