Greene County offers communities grants

Funds are earmarked for permanent public improvement projects.

Commissioners recently approved $500,000 to be set aside for permanent public improvement projects.

State budget cuts after the Great Recession still are felt by local governments, but a healthy cash reserve this year in Greene County is being used to fill some of those gaps for local communities.

County commissioners recently approved $500,000 to be set aside for the new Countywide Financial Grant Fund, which is being administered by the Greene County Department of Development and is earmarked for permanent public improvement projects.

The county’s 22 cities, villages and townships will receive varying amounts of the total fund in December. For Beavercreek, Bellbrook, Fairborn and Xenia, $175,000 was allocated; the remaining $325,000 has been allocated to the townships and villages.

County Administrator Brandon Huddleson said the allocations for the two sets of recipients are based on census data, with the largest populations receiving the highest grant amounts.

The program has two requirements: The money must be used for permanent public improvements, and local officials must report back to the county next October explaining how the money was spent.

Huddleson said commissioners debated extensively over how this

program would be administered and how the monies would be allocated.

“(The commissioners) should be commended for putting to work some of our resources back into these communities who have suffered right along with us and probably to a greater degree from some of the cuts from the state and increases in expenses,” Huddleson said.

The county’s current carry-over balance in the general fund, minus the encumbered funds, is $24 million, according to Greene County Treasurer David Graham.

The county also has a budget stabilization fund of $3.25 million, Graham said.

It’s too early to tell how the monies will be spent in many communities, including Xenia Twp., which is set to receive more than $41,000.

“We conservatively lost between $80 to $100K a year with all of the cuts,” Xenia Twp. Administrator Alan Stock said of the impact from state budget cuts. “We used to budget money each year for several years for new dump trucks and snowplows. We are using our reserve fire engine longer than we used to . ... We find in some ways we are reacting to needs more than we are able to be proactive in some circumstances.”

The city of Beavercreek is slated to get the biggest grant, at more than $71,000.

Beavercreek voters have supported tax increases over the past several years, which have helped to maintain services, said City Manager Pete Landrum.

“With the local government fund cuts, it caused us to have to ask for larger amounts in levy funding instead of reductions in services,” Landrum said.

Commission President Tom Koogler said he hopes to see the “ROI,” or return on investment, which will help in deciding whether to increase funding next year.

“Local communities, the political subdivisions, know better how to spend their money. And this really is their money. It’s the tax dollars ... that need to be reinvested back into the communities so that everybody gets the benefit of that,” Koogler said.

During the debate over how the program would be administered, one idea was to have communities apply for the grant, but “we know they need it,” said Commissioner Alan Anderson.

“We opted to figure the number that would be on a per-resident-type basis and give them the money,” Anderson said.