News

Beallsville students and staff step up yet again to make a difference in their communities.

The time has come again for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Neighborhood Revitalization Program applications to be submitted.

In a matter of weeks, Woodsfield will be welcoming back many of its own.The annual Woodsfield Alumni Weekend is a popular and well-attended event each summer during Father’s Day weekend - and the village goes all out to make sure it’s ready.Streets are cleaned and store fronts are decorated.Up and down Main Street there are signs welcoming home old friends and classmates.This year, Village of Woodsfield officials are taking an extra step to make sure Alumni Weekend is a hit as the village will kick off the official start to its Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA).The kickoff is the finalization of plans that have been in the works for the last few years.

Housing costs have been a challenge for many in Monroe County over the past few decades.Whether it is finding affordable rent or, if you can afford it, buying a home, a dream of security can often seem unattainable.Representatives from Buckeye Hills Regional Council and the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program met with the Monroe County Commissioners during their regular meeting Monday, May 20 to discuss grant opportunities that could benefit many who may have previously felt that housing security was unattainable.Jennifer Seifert, of the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program, mentioned several options that are current underway in other southeast Ohio counties and could eventually come to Monroe County.Seifert said the overall goal of the program was to “give communities the ability” to get out of poverty.Seifert has already secured grant funding to start efforts to create resilience housing, resilience hubs and resilience villages in Athens County.Resilience hubs are basically emergency shelters, while resilience villages offered long-term options for individuals facing housing issues due to domestic violence or substance abuse.Resilience housing is a new approach to creating affordable housing options in communities where there is a need.

The John and Lois Baker Education and Economic Development Fund, serving Monroe County, is accepting grant applications for its 2024 funding cycle.

The Monroe County Beekeepers Association will hold its monthly meeting at 6 p.m.

COUNTY COURTTonnie Chapman, Jr., Woodsfield, improper passing guilty, $125.

Philip Cook got used to riding around on a green lawnmower - but only reluctantly.You see, Philip, a proud member of the MACO Workshop, takes his job maintaining the grass around the county seriously.Whether it was at the rest area in Fly or Fisher’s Grove - and even if it was on a no-good green mower - Philip was going to make sure it looked good.But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t going to make sure folks knew his tractor could be better.“Philip has been on me (for years) to change colors from green to orange,” said Dan Lollathin, facilities, transportation and housing director for the Monroe Achievement Center.Despite Philip’s protestations, it wasn’t as if new mowers grew on trees, or as if someone in his family had a very important, big position in the Kubota organization...Except someone does!That’s right!

If you ask Monroe County Commissioner Bill Bolon, it might be best to use an eraser when discussing how to proceed with the county’s plans for the former Fairway’s Riverside Golf Course in Sardis.After only receiving a tenth of the $47 million requested in grant funding for the project when Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced grant recipients last week at an event in Marietta, Bolon questioned what can be done and at what cost during the commissioners regular meeting Monday, May 13.“I have more questions than I have answers,” Bolon said in response to a question from the county’s economic developer Jason Hamman about thoughts on how to proceed with the project.After finding out the county would only receive $4.47 million through DeWine’s Appalachian Community Grant Program, Bolon worried that the project might be “setting ourselves up for a liability we can’t handle later on.”