By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Every person may be entitled to their day in court, but it’s the attention of the Crawford County commissioners, or the lack thereof, Galion Mayor Tom O’Leary is concerned about.
O’Leary’s weekly mayoral press conference centered on recent issues he describes as being already determined by the three-person board of county commissioners without any prior input from Galion city officials.
Those issues are the Community Development Block Grant and county-wide public transportation.
“These are pretty big issues, especially in Galion where people feel their access to services isn’t as good as it should be,” O’Leary said.
O’Leary’s contention is that his community was not conferred with when it came time to divide and award money the county receives for the Community Development Block Grant. In previous years Bucyrus and Galion received significant portions, approximately if not actually equal, with the balance being used for projects in the villages and townships.
In recent years those funds were designated for demolition of derelict buildings. The Galion mayor said that the actual administration of the Community Development Block Grant changed a few years ago when the state apparently no longer wished to administer separate grants and made one grant to the county which continued the practice of dividing the money between Bucyrus, Galion and the rest of the county.
This year, however, things changed.
“We lost our direct allocation. Representations were made they (county commissioners) would continue to make allocations to the cities,” O’Leary said.
It did continue for two years. But this year, after two public meetings regarding the funds in which the various entities were to propose projects, O’ Leary says Galion is getting shut out while Bucyrus is receiving the funds. The award of funds not only applies to this year’s Community Development Block Grant funds, but next year’s as well. No Galion official attended either meeting. The mayor says no one knew about them.
The real issue, O’Leary says, is the quality of communication about the public meetings. Both were advertised but apparently only in the Bucyrus newspaper. O’Leary called it “pretty poor communication,” and noted he was only aware of the allocation until after reading it in the newspaper. He said although the commissioners met the public notice requirement, they only did so “minimally.”
O’Leary says the city of Bucyrus is looking at using the funds to extend water lines into the county. According to the Galion mayor, three projects are under consideration – a water line west of Bucyrus to the village of Oceola; an extension of the North Robinson water line down Ohio 602 to Brandt Road and then east to the Galion water tower; and the third extension project being considered is a water line to Leesville.
O’Leary called all three potentially seven-figure projects. He based that on the cost to Galion for water line work done on the Portland Way North project. Pipe alone on that project cost $51 per foot for a total of 2,084 feet.
“Because we didn’t read the back page of the T-F about two meetings, we missed out,” O’Leary said. “That’s not a good way to do business.”
But O’Leary said the Community Development Block Grant money was actually the least of his worries.
“I’m concerned this foreshadows Issue 1 dollars.”
While O’Leary’s estimate of Galion’s share of Community Development Block Grant money to be between $55,000 and $60,000, he says much more is at stake with Issue 1 funds – as much as $150,000 to $160,000.
“When engaged, we would listen,” O’Leary said. “Go with the flow to a certain extent.”
On Thursday Crawford County Now will detail Galion Mayor Tom O’Leary’s concerns about public transportation plans for Crawford County.