Former health district building to be razed this summer
The longtime former Holmes County Health District building located next to Pomerene Hospital in Millersburg will be part of Holmes County’s newest round of demolition grant funds. The project is set to begin within the next month.
As state grant funding continues to become available to Ohio counties seeking to raze dilapidated and unwanted buildings, Arnie Oliver, Holmes County planning engineer, continues to seek out structures that will help the county attain the full benefits of the current round of $500,000 grants through the Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Package.
While there have been a couple of rounds of grants already applied to a handful of structures in Holmes County, this particular round will see a somewhat iconic building being razed, that being the former Holmes County Health District building beside Pomerene Hospital.
Oliver is eager to get this project rolling, but in addition to this cornerstone $116,000 project, there are many more throughout the county that will take Holmes County very close to the possible $500,000 in state funding that any county can receive through the current round of grant funds.
“I’m very excited about this current round of grants in the demolition funding, and the former health building is going to be a really great project to showcase the good that can come from this program,” Oliver said. “As we’ve seen on several of these projects that we’ve done, there are a lot of wonderful possibilities that result once you clear the slate and let something new rotate into its place. This is definitely going to be our biggest project.”
Oliver said everyone is eager to get rolling on the project, and work should begin within the next month.
It was a project that almost didn’t take place during this current stage of demolition.
Initially, Oliver had worked with Gerber & Sons to bring them into the process as they prepared to tear down a series of buildings on the property they are now building as their new central location in Baltic.
However, once that was in place, Gerber & Sons leaders felt they needed to move on the demolition and building process more than the program would allow them to, so they pulled out.
Oliver said he had discussed the demolition of the former health district building with Pomerene Hospital CEO Jason Justus nearly two years ago, and when the former project fell through, he quickly reconnected with Justus to discuss where the hospital stood on moving forward with demolishing the old eyesore.
“We had all of our projects lined up for this round, and after Gerber & Sons dropped out, I knew I had been talking to Jason Justus about the program, so I immediately called them, and he said they were still interested,” Oliver said.
Fortunately, the state was more than glad to switch gears and allow the Pomerene Health Department building to take the place of the former Gerber & Sons project.
“That was a big sigh of relief because we were looking at a pretty big gap there of available funds that we didn’t have anything lined up for,” Oliver said. “It really worked out well for everyone.”
The commissioners received three bids for the job, and the lowest bid was that of Martin Construction, which has already done work with the county through this program, having razed the two houses on state Route 241 along the 90-degree turn near Jackson Street and a home in Millersburg on North Mad Anthony Street.
“They’ve done work with us before,” commissioner Dave Hall said. “We will be monitoring the work on a building that should have been taken down decades ago.”
Hall said the program is 100% paid for through the grant.
Oliver said the $116,000 health district project not only took the county up to the precipice of the $500,000 in available state funds, but also it will serve as a signature piece defining how valuable these demolition grants are in beautifying a county and creating more appealing, more useful land.
“Much like the health district building, these structures are no longer wanted and aren’t really usable for anything,” Oliver said. “We’re hoping that not only will this project be of value to Pomerene Hospital and to the county, but it will serve as something that really helps promote the value of what we’re trying to accomplish through these grant dollars.”
In demolishing a building that has been a big part of the county’s landscape and one that is so visually available, Oliver said he won’t be surprised to see crowds gathering daily to watch the progress.
Hall said there is another round of grant funding being prepared to make its way around the state for interested county governments, and Holmes County will once again be aggressive in seeking those dollars.
Oliver said he already has the next round of demolition structures in place, and he will have sent them to state for approval by the end of March.
“I have 34 properties identified, and all we need is authorization from the state that would come back over the next couple of months,” Oliver said.
He said those projects wouldn’t begin until late summer or into autumn.