By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Local groups made their best pitches for Ohio capital budget money recently. It will be months before they learn if they scored funding or if they struck out.
State Rep. Haraz Ghanbari, R-Perrysburg, who is new to the capital budget process, asked local entities interested in funding to aim for the bleachers.
“As your state representative, I’m going to be advocating for every one of you,” Ghanbari said.
The pitches he heard were diverse – for a community theater group, for a shelter housing dogs and cats, for a 24-hour ambulance service, for families fleeing domestic violence, and for a playground for children with developmental disabilities.
The first request came from Bob Welly, speaking on behalf of the Black Swamp Players, the Bowling Green theater group that has never had a place to call home and moves from one venue to another.
“We’ve been gypsies for 62 years,” Welly said.
But the Black Swamp Players now has an opportunity to purchase a building on Oak Street in Bowling Green. But the building – originally constructed in the 1880s as a church, needs a lot of renovations, Welly said.
The building will not only give the group a consistent venue for performances, but also a chance to expand education opportunities, he said.
However, the estimated cost to renovate and make the site ADA compliant is $675,000. The theater group is planning to hold a major fundraising campaign, but is looking for the possibility of $500,000 from the state’s capital budget.
The next request focused on the needs at the Wood County Humane Society – for the dogs and cats that reside in the shelter, plus for the humans who volunteer there. Board member John Aleksander explained that much of the equipment at the shelter has not been updated since the facility was built in the 1970s.
The humane society relies on donations and volunteer labor. No state or federal funding is available, and the only county funding helps pay for an animal cruelty investigator.
The shelter is in need of upgrades to the HVAC and electrical system. “It’s well beyond its lifespan,” Aleksander said. A rough estimate of the costs to bring the systems up to code is $218,787, he said.
The humane society plans to put a portion of its own funding toward the HVAC upgrades, which will provide for separate air systems for the sections of the shelter for cats, dogs and humans.
“We need to get this done. It’s critical,” Aleksander said.
The shelter, located on Van Camp Road in Bowling Green, can house up to 20 dogs and 50 cats at a time. A surgical suite was added to the facility a few years ago so animals could be spayed and neutered on site. The shelter is on course to adopt out close to 1,000 animals this year, he said.
The next request came from the North Baltimore area, where the EMS that serves the village and neighboring Henry Township does not have adequate space, according to Michael Brillhart.
The EMS has a full-time director, a staff of 30-part-time employees, and three ambulances. The service responds to about 750 emergency runs a year.
The building that houses the staff and equipment is far too small, Brillhart said. It is lacking showers, restrooms and office space. One of the ambulances must be kept outside, where it must run constantly with a generator.
The estimated cost for a suitable building would be $750,000 Brillhart said. Efforts are being made to come up with some type of local share in the funding, he said.
Another request came from Kathy Mull, director of the Cocoon, which provides services for survivors of domestic violence. The agency operates an emergency shelter, which is able to house 24 people.
But the majority of the Cocoon’s work is offering non-residential help to those who have suffered from domestic violence. Mull estimated just 10 percent of those served need the shelter – while others need other types of services.
The Cocoon normally serves about 600 people a year, but by the end of October this year the agency had already helped 622.
So the Cocoon is looking for capital budget funding to help create confidential meeting space in its building. The structure, which was previously a banquet hall, needs renovations to create secure one-on-one meeting space – alongside the already secure shelter portion of the building, Mull explained.
The cost of those renovations is estimated at $800,000. The Cocoon is also looking at other funding sources as well to help with the cost, Mull said.
The final request came from Ryan Wichman, for the organization called Wood County Plays. The group wants to build an inclusive playground in Perrysburg for children with accessibility issues.
No such playground exists in Wood County, Wichman said. To be truly accessible and usable for all kids, it must have a smooth poured rubber surface, have equipment designed for children with sensory issues, plus be fenced.
The group wants the area to be usable for children ages 6 months to young adults. The playground will also have side-by-side peer play areas for “typical” children.
According to Wichman, the group would like to build its first playground in Perrysburg because that is where the greatest need exists – with about 70 percent of the county’s special needs families living in the northern half of Wood County.
The cost for the playground is about $825,000. Contributions will also be raised for the project, as well as for an endowment for maintenance of the site, Wichman said.
The goal of Wood County Plays is to build more of the playgrounds in the county.
“This isn’t a one-time shot for us,” Wichman said.
