By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Despite not receiving grants from the state government, the Galion NOAH Project group plans to continue forward. That organization has proposed an affordable senior housing project on Church Street where the old Galion High School building used to stand.
Galion NOAH Project founder Su Rowles explained that the reasoning behind the project’s failed attempt for the building grants came down to numbers.
“Most of the projects that have been accepted, or are accepted are for the Appalachian area at this time,” Rowles said. “They are feeling that there have been so much lack of work and housing in that area that they added a particular area of scoring points for those projects so they would have a little hands up you might say because of the great need.”
Rowles explained what the future of the NOAH Project in Galion will be going forward.
“We’re working with our consultants and our partners, and there are some additional things we would like to add to the project,” Rowles said. “But it helps when you have more local support and support of other collaborations and other businesses; you get scoring points for some of these things. We scored very high on some of these points, but it’s just the fact that we were not in the Appalachian area, and we didn’t have a lot of outside funding for the project and making it a little more unique.”
While an article on the GalionLive website titled “Arsenic and Old Property” reports that a study done of soil samples at the former school grounds tested came back with high levels of arsenic, Rowles’ explanation of the studies was different.
“We’ve had environmentalists here doing EPA studies, the school board had hired, it was required that they do this testing and so on,” Rowles said. “We worked with environmental issues and they believe that there are no greater possibility (sic) of contamination of this soil than much of the soil in the area.”
Even without state funding the NOAH Project is holding a fundraiser Tuesday evening. The fundraiser features a silent auction at 5:30, a dinner from 5:30-7, and a live auction with 50/50 drawing at 7 with Craig Miley handling auctioneer duties.
The revelation of Galion not receiving funding for the program has put a halt on the planned NOAH Project in Bucyrus for the time being as well.