City seeking ODNR grant

Lebanon City Council on Tuesday approved a resolution to submit an application to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for a NatureWorks grant.

Council authorized seeking a grant of up to $160,000 for the replacement of playground equipment at Harmon Park. City officials said the preliminary cost estimate to replace the playground equipment is $160,000 and the estimated grant amount the city will request from the state program is $63,000.

City Manager Scott Brunka said the playground equipment is more than 20 years old. He previously told council that the rust on the equipment will be treated this year. their service to community at its meeting Monday.

The district established the Student Achievement Award in 2001; hundreds of students have been honored since its inception. Students are generally recognized at the Board’s regular meeting each month.

Student Achievement Committee members include parents, community residents, board members, administrators, and students; they meet during the school year to evaluate nominations which may be submitted by students, teachers, administrators, or community members.

This month, the board recognized:

■ Jazmyn Angel was honored for exemplary service to others. When school was shut down last spring, she made hand sanitizer to donate to her neighbors and to the Franklin Division of Police to keep the officers safe.

■ Jared Erwin was honored for recently earning the rank of Eagle Scout, which is achieved by only 5% of Boy Scouts and requires the completion of a service project.

His service project was the creation of a picnic bench with lattice and fire circle with benches for his church, St. Mary’s of the Assumption in Springboro.

■ Jay Patel was honored for testing out of the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Program based on his 2020 OELPA exams. He is trilingual, speaking Hindi, Gujarti, and English, has a 3.358 GPA, and has been accepted to University of Cincinnati. Patel plans to go into the medical field.