Montgomery County page debuts today
Commissioners reflect on the year’s achievements thus far while looking ahead to a brighter, pandemic-less tomorrow.
Happy spring, Montgomery County residents! It felt like an especially long winter to us. Has it to you, too? We think between snow we’ve seen, remaining indoors due to the cold and the threat of COVID-19, and the fact many of our children have been remote learning, we all have a bit of cabin fever. We are all anxious to feel “normal” again.
As we look forward to the return of normalcy and breathe in the fresh spring air, we are reflecting on some of last quarter’s achievements. And while, as county commissioners, we acknowledge we still have a lot of work to do, some wonderful initiatives came to fruition during the winter.
First, we concluded the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act program. We are happy with the way our $92.8 million dollars were administered. Many individuals, families, farmers, small business owners, non-profit organizations, health care institutions, schools, and other entities benefited from this aid and received financial relief.
We are also fortunate that our community will receive more aid through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. What this act means to us is more opportunity.
We get to pick up where we left off pre-pandemic, funding upgrades to our aging infrastructure, to include bridges and roads, criminal justice enhancements, as well as water and sewer improvements. In short, these are investments that benefit us all.
The Digital Equity Initiative that we supported with CARES Act dollars rolled out in December 2020, offering high-speed internet services at five Greater Dayton Premier Management housing areas. This provides required technology access for low-income individuals and families, elderly citizens and people who are disabled.
The requirement for digital resources was amplified during the pandemic, with many human services support agencies and programs recommending online enrollment for Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Some of the people who desperately needed these benefits didn’t have the digital capability to enroll. Now, households in these five GDPM areas have access to free highspeed internet and Chromebook laptops to access it.
The Employment Opportunity Center, located at Westown Shopping Center in West Dayton, is another investment we are very proud of.
As construction begins, the EOC is now taking shape and we hope to see it completed this summer. It will bring career, resume and interview training, as well as job search resources to citizens in underserved areas of our county. It will also house the Male Leadership Academy mentorship program and the new Female Leadership Academy. Miami Valley Career Technology Center will be bringing their Aspire program to the EOC, which will help individuals with high school equivalency programs and workplace education. We also partnered with Sinclair Community College to offer information technology training.
IT is a high-demand career field, and, along with learning the needed skills in classroom instruction, students can take part in a work apprenticeship with the county’s internal IT department. We are looking for private sector tech companies to help us build this IT apprenticeship program and build the future workforce.
Also, sometime soon, Job and Family Services programs and services will be brought to you by a “JFS On The Move” mobile truck. We have plans to order a truck that will save you a trip to JFS downtown on Edwin C. Moses Boulevard!
This seemed like an important investment for us, especially during the pandemic, when people were trying to follow social distancing guidelines and public access to The Job Center was limited, but people still needed help filing for benefits.
It is difficult to find a silver lining when considering the hardships we’ve recently endured, but through the pandemic and the aftermath of the tornadoes, we noted some of our deficiencies and found solutions to bringing services to you via the “JFS On The Move” mobile.
Providing another solution to our community is the Gem City Market, which is opening soon in Northwest Dayton. We were thrilled to get a tour of the Market, which will offer healthy foods to an area that has a shortage of grocery stores. Additionally, it will provide nutrition classes, a community room, coffee shop, and a mini health clinic. We are really impressed and can’t wait until it opens! Paired with the Homefull Mobile Grocery Truck and The Foodbank Inc.’s Mobile Pantry, we are hopeful about the advancements we have made in eliminating food deserts in Montgomery County.
Some fantastic news for fellow dog lovers: The Animal Resource Center was named the Ohio County Dog Wardens Association 2020 Agency of the Year! We are so proud of the leadership and teamwork we have at the ARC. They incorporated technology, utilized social media in the field to quickly find the owners of strays, and revamped the volunteer and foster programs. Plus, they added a mobile clinic so they could bring vaccination and low-cost spay and neuter surgeries to help control the region’s pet population.
So, as we spring into a new season, we can’t help but feel optimistic as the sun shines on our faces and signs of new growth surround us in this beautiful place we call home.
Can you feel it? It’s hope.