by Isabella Carwile | Nov 19, 2025 | Business Expansion, Community, Events, Funding, Property Development, Shoutout, Survey
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Village of Antwerp – Mayor Jan Reeb
Antwerp, OH — The Village of Antwerp is advancing plans to replace the deteriorated water main and add storm drainage along Canal and Wentworth Streets. In February 2024 the Village Administrator submitted a Community Development Block Grant application to help offset project costs for the Canal‑Wentworth project. Engineering services for the project were completed by CT Consultants.
Project Scope
- Project limits: Begins at the corner of Main Street and Canal Street; continues west to the intersection of Canal and Wentworth Streets; then proceeds north to West River Street.
- Work proposed: Replace the existing water line and storm drainage. Install new water lines and storm drainage. Add storm catch basins where none currently exist or where the system is deficient.
- Engineer: CT Consultants completed the engineering services and prepared the pre‑bid cost estimate.
Funding and Cost Estimate
- Grant requests: A Community Development Block Grant application was filed in February 2024. The Village Administrator plans to pursue a second funding request through the Ohio Public Works program in the amount of $400,000 in September 2026. The village will also seek a 0% interest loan to fund the balance.
- Critical Infrastructure Grant award amount: $500,000.
- Estimated pre‑bid cost: $2,021,000 (engineering estimate).
Benefits to the Community
- Improved public safety: Replacing the aging water line reduces the risk of breaks and service disruptions.
- Better stormwater management: New storm drainage will reduce localized flooding and improve roadway and property drainage.
- Long‑term infrastructure resilience: The combined water and storm system upgrades will extend the useful life of neighborhood utilities and support future maintenance efficiency.
Next Steps and Contacts
- Upcoming actions: Finalization of grant awards, preparation for bidding, and coordination of construction timelines contingent on funding outcomes. The Village will share project timelines and public notices once funding status and contractor selection are confirmed.
- Contact: For more information or media inquiries contact Village Administrator Brian Davis at 419.258.2371 ext. 1, or admin@villageofantwerp.com.
by Isabella Carwile | Nov 13, 2025 | Business Expansion, Community, Events, Funding, PCED Office, Property Development, Survey, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release November 13, 2025
PAULDING – Representatives from the villages of Cecil, Grover Hill, Latty, Oakwood, Paulding and Payne gathered for the fourth quarter Paulding County Mayors Association and Zoning Inspectors met this week at the Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) office.
The meeting kicked off with guest speaker Maria Martinez from the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission. Maria shared her role in advocating for Latino communities across the state and highlighted the services available to support diverse populations.
Oakwood Mayor Josh Duslak followed with an overview of Ohio House Bill 331, offering insight into how the proposed legislation could impact smaller villages like ours.
Estee Blair, representing Maumee Valley Planning Organization, gave an in-depth update on the WHO (Welcome Home Ohio) grant and what it means for local homeowners. She walked attendees through the eligibility requirements, the types of repairs the grant can cover, and how to begin the application process. Her presentation sparked a lot of interest, with several attendees asking thoughtful questions about timelines, income guidelines, and how the program might support aging homes in our area. It was clear that many saw this as a valuable opportunity to make much-needed improvements while easing the financial burden
Sarah McCabe, Paulding County Auditor, joined the meeting to provide clarity on local zoning maps and address questions related to zoning regulations. She explained how zoning impacts property use and development, and helped attendees understand how to access and interpret the maps for their own parcels. Sarah also broke down the differences between taxes assessed on mobile homes versus traditional housing, noting how factors like location, ownership, and property classification can affect tax rates.
An open discussion followed, focusing on the various projects currently underway throughout Paulding County. Attendees shared updates on ongoing initiatives from infrastructure improvements and community development efforts to local business growth and grant-supported programs. The conversation also looked ahead to 2026, with participants exchanging ideas and outlining goals for the coming year. Topics included potential funding opportunities, ways to strengthen village services, and strategies to keep residents informed and engaged as plans take shape.
The Paulding County Mayors Association / Zoning Inspectors meeting will meet again in February. Presenters for the upcoming agenda will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
by Isabella Carwile | Sep 17, 2025 | Business Expansion, Community, Funding, Property Development, Shoutout, Survey
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release September 17, 2025
PAULDING – The Paulding County Land Reutilization Committee (Land Bank) had a full agenda discussing the utilization of brownfield grant funding, residential and commercial blight grant funding, and Welcome Home Ohio grant program funding, all provided through the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD).
On the brownfield grant side, Environmental Specialist Matt Wagner, with Tetra Tech, opened with the latest information about environmental testing at the former gas station site in Grover Hill. The readings received were very positive, confirming that no contaminants were seeping into the groundwater. There will be some additional geotechnical samples taken at the site next week, but beyond some surface soil removal and replacement, the project should be complete later this fall.
A new project that was awarded ODOD funding is the village-owned, former Winkle Chevrolet building, located on the square in Paulding. Starting on October 6, Tetra Tech will have representatives on site to remove asbestos floor and ceiling tile and pipe insulation. The entire process will only take a few days. This will allow for a clean building in the opportunity of a future sale if needed.
The Stokely ponds property and former Grizzly manufacturing facility continue to be researched, monitored, and reviewed for site clean-up and future remediation.
Abby White, representing Maumee Valley Planning Organization (MVPO), who facilitates the ODOD projects and funding for all NW Ohio Land Banks, updated the team on completed projects all around the county from this round of funding. Projects have already been completed in Antwerp, Grover Hill, Haviland, Latty, Melrose, and Paulding villages, and in Crane and Jackson Townships. Additional projects are now scheduled in Antwerp, Broughton, Oakwood, Paulding, and Payne villages, as well as Brown and Harrison Townships. Demolition will take place based on the bid-winning contractor’s schedule.
Estee Blair, also with MVPO, shared updates on the growing list of projects associated with the $300,000 WHO funding grant. The Land Bank is hoping to rehabilitate 10 homes with grant-qualifying buyers by June 2027. The committee just purchased a home at 108 S. Main Street in Cecil. There is a pre-approved buyer who will purchase the property once the home is remediated. The Land Bank also owns a home at 621 Sugar Street in Paulding. Bids will be going out to rehabilitate that dwelling soon. The team is currently looking for a prospective buyer who may be able to help design the interior and exterior colors.
Now that the projects for this round of funding have been clearly identified, the committee will look at properties that were left over on the 2025 list, but were excluded in this round and consider additional properties that have been brought to the team for potential development in the future. Review by the committee will take place over the next few weeks to determine the best list to submit at the opening application period for 2026 funding.
Other items of note included:
- A speculative new home build, and where the best placement of that may be.
- The basement has started in the new Vantage Career Center in Latty Village
- Noted a current Land Bank account balance of $230,391.89
- Heard from Economic Development Director Tim Copsey on several property discussions taking place around the county for future project consideration.
- The committee agreed to provide stamps and envelopes to the PCED office for inquiry mailings to property owners.
- Changed the date of the next meeting to October 1 at 8:30 am to accommodate member schedule conflicts
Heard that MVPO will be in attendance at the new “No Wrong Door” event in Paulding on October 8 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., representing NW Ohio Land Banks.
by Isabella Carwile | Sep 9, 2025 | Business Expansion, Community, Funding, Membership, PCED Office, Property Development, Workforce
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release September 9, 2025
PAULDING – The Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) Board of Directors held their bi-monthly meeting this week. The Board held in-depth discussions on the potential for speculative commercial development at the 52.958-acre Gasser Road industrial park in Paulding. The team recently received a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers confirming the site is free of wetlands and ready for construction.
To date, there has not been any serious interest shown in the property, which has led to further discussion if an existing building would be more enticing to interested parties. Economic Development Director Tim Copsey shared that there have been several recent calls looking for existing buildings that serve 5-10,000 square feet and have a truck dock. Due to the lack of available buildings with truck docks, these opportunities are often lost.
The Paulding Community Improvement Corporation owns a nine-acre parcel on the west end of the Gasser Road property and 19.978 acres on the east end, and has an option to purchase 23.98 acres privately owned in between. The Village of Paulding, Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative, Ohio Gas, and MetaLink Technologies all have utilities to the site. The PCED board will continue the discussion and try to understand speculative development building funding options.
Discussion then turned to residential development. With the new Vantage Career Center built home starting in Latty, the Welcome Home Ohio (WHO) Grant funding appropriated to the county Land Bank for adding ten livable homes to the county, and upcoming Ohio Department of Development grants for residential infrastructure, there is a sense of excitement around residential development.
Many individual projects were discussed in regard to building homes on open lots and types of new housing or rehabilitated homes that could be offered. This could include clustered developments or as fill-in housing on open lots in villages. The hope is that interest rates will slightly drop soon to entice buyers for the affordable grant-funded projects.
Other items discussed in the meeting included:
- Marketing Committee shared information on a new marketing grant opportunity and what that could look like for the office. They also noted they are acquiring quotes to identify the new company vehicle with a PCED wrap, or at least window cling identification when staff are out in the county.
- Shared updates on the completed hotel feasibility study. The interest seems to be in identifying partner businesses that would be built beside a potential hotel at the US24/Highway 49 intersection in Antwerp.
- Updated about the ongoing progress with the Grover Hill Wind Turbine project, with 16.5 of the new 23 windmills completed.
- Shared thoughts about what the potential absence of property taxes would look like in the county and the PCED office.
- Was notified that the OhioMeansJobs/PCED commercial advertising will carry on through the 2025-26 sports season on Mysports.Live
- Went into executive session to talk about personnel and land acquisition, with no decisions on either subject after coming out.
The next PCED board meeting will be held as the annual Member Business and Industry Appreciation banquet on November 18, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. at Grant’s Catering in Antwerp, Ohio. For details about the banquet or to explore development opportunities in Paulding County, contact the PCED office.
by Isabella Carwile | Aug 15, 2025 | Business Expansion, Community, Funding, Property Development
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release August 15, 2025
PAULDING – The Paulding County Land Bank committee has been awarded the opportunity to receive $300,000 in grant reimbursements from the Welcome Home Ohio program through the Ohio Department of Development.
The reimbursement opportunity is available through 10 projects reimbursing $30,000 per project, but projects must be completed by July 1, 2027. Each project must be owned by the Land Bank. The project can be and can be rehabilitating an existing home, by spending $30,000 or more on upgrades, or it could be a new home build, with $30,000 reimbursed toward the cost of that build. In the current grant, the home cannot be sold for more than $180,000 to a low-moderate income (LMI) purchaser. Some additional stipulations must be met and will be covered with a potential buyer prior to a sale.
The Land Bank Committee has meetings coming up with realtor representatives and financial representatives to understand if there are already pre-qualified buyers waiting in hopes of these types of homes.
Additionally, a pre-vetting process is already happening with interested contractors that have an interest in bidding on these rehabilitation or new build opportunities. The Community Housing Impact & Preservation (CHIP) team at Maumee Valley Planning Organization (MVPO) will help establish the guidelines and make sure the structures are built to code.
Following initial discussion, the committee went into executive session to discuss potential properties around the county to review as projects. Coming out of executive session, one decision was made to change the project at 621 Sugar Street in Paulding from a demolition to a rehabilitation project. Bids will be advertised through MVPO on the project in the future.
The group was also updated on projects around the county, including:
- Former Grizzly Brake property, both the manufacturing site and the residential sites
- The Stokely Pond remediation project
- Former site remediation at the JJ Ross Gas Station in Grover Hill
- Asbestos removal in the former Winkle Chevrolet building, owned by the Paulding Village and located on the square
- The new Vantage Career Center home is starting in Latty Village this school year
- Created and shared a list of current Land Bank-owned properties around the county
- Noted a current Land Bank account balance of $239,861.58
- Approved a two-night stay and event registration reimbursement to PCED for Tim Copsey to attend the Fall Land Bank Conference in Marietta, Ohio, October 22/23
Wagner then reminded the committee that the Ohio Department of Development awarded Paulding County $85,074 in funding for asbestos removal in the Paulding Village-owned former Winkle Chevrolet building, located on the square. The building has asbestos-wrapped pipes and flooring that will be remediated to make the building safer to work in and allow a seamless future sale if the opportunity arises.
Wagner finished by providing brief environmental updates on the former JJ Ross gas station in Grover Hill and the former Stokely pond property in Paulding.
Paulding County Economic Development Director Tim Copsey noted that zoning changes have been completed on a Land Bank-owned property within the Village of Cecil. This will allow the group to move forward with selling a designated parcel to Patriot Railroad for a potential future transload site.
Copsey also provided the committee with information about the former Grizzly property. It is now under the EPA consultant oversight of T&M Associates in Cleveland. They will continue to collect data with the end goal of providing a clean property to the Land Bank in the future.
In addition, Copsey shared that a recent blighted residential property, purchased in Paulding at 621 Sugar Street, is currently being mowed and maintained until demolition takes place later this year.
Committee discussion then turned to the Welcome Home Ohio (WHO) grant funding. With the help of MVPO, the county has been awarded $300,000 to use for residential blight rehabilitation projects over the next 24 months. The current Land Bank financial balance is $63,904.08, but it was decided that with the influx of funds expected from the previously discussed property sales, the committee will begin looking for one or two residential home rehabilitation projects to purchase and target using these grant funds on. Additional discussion will now begin with realtors, financial groups, and contractors to develop a plan to use the funds accordingly.
by Isabella Carwile | May 14, 2025 | Business Expansion, Community, PCED Office, Property Development
Paulding County Economic Development Press Release May 14, 2025
PAULDING – The Paulding County Land Reutilization Committee (Land Bank) gathered for their May meeting recently. The group worked through a full agenda of open project updates, current project planning, and discussed what future projects could look like.
Matt Wagner, with Tetra Tech Environmental group, shared updates on several brownfield-funded projects:
- The former grain mill building in Antwerp, located on the Patriot Railroad-owned site, has been removed. The last piece will be site finish work to make space for the grain wagon and grain truck parking.
- The former JJ Ross gas station building, located in Grover Hill, has been removed. The site has been backfilled with stone, however, soil sampling has indicated petroleum in some soil, so further testing will be required. Once the data results are reviewed, it will help determine how much additional soil will still need to be removed. The remaining pieces of the cement parking lot will also be removed during final site completion.
- The Paulding Village owned Stokely pond property remediation is temporarily on hold awaiting results in regard to pond depth. The weather has played havoc with getting a boat out on the water to determine water depth. Knowing the depth will help the excavation team develop and understand a required work plan.
- The Paulding Village-owned utility building, at the corner of Perry and Main Streets, is awaiting state funding approval for asbestos remediation to make it a clean building and an easier discussion for its future.
The former Grizzley Brake facility property is now being remediated by its owners own environmental team, T&M Associates. Owner Arvin Environmental has recently allowed their environmental team on site to draw soil samples on the residential properties, located on the east side of the property. Results are expected soon and will help determine next steps. Additional testing will continue to take place inside the 33 acre fenced area.
Maumee Valley Planning Organization partner Abby White then shared updates in regard to the Residential/Commercial Revitalization Program. Some of the bigger projects are in process or are already in the queue for demolition:
- The removal of the 11 trailers, on the Land Bank owned property located at the north end of Main Street in Paulding, has begun. Dangler Excavation started removing trailers and the cement pads they sit on. Once this project completes the surface will be levelled, filled with topsoil and planted to grass until future development is determined.
- Following the trailer court project, Dangler will move forward with remediation at the Paulding County Library Annex building at 119 S. Main Street in Paulding; former car wash building, located at 316 S. Main Street in Antwerp; and the tile barn building located at 204 Harrmann Road in Antwerp, near the school.
- The fencing is around the perimeter of the former Faith Alive church building located at 220 N. Williams Street in Paulding. The clearing of this site will make room for the future Paulding VFW veterans’ memorial. Guest John Daeger attended, representing the VFW, and shared concerns about verifying compacting of backfill soil. This is critical for the setting of some of the granite memorial pillars. White will confirm compaction with the demolition team, Advance Demolition of McClure, Ohio, which was awarded the bid for this project.
Discussion from White then turned to estimating remaining funds from the $500,000 county allocation and identifying a next round of potential projects.
The committee then discussed additional grant funds. Indication from the Ohio Department of Development is that Paulding County has been awarded $300,000 of Welcome Home Ohio (WHO) grant funds. Unlike the demolition funding, these funds must be used to rehabilitate properties or residential structures. As the legal documentation is completed, the committee discussed several opportunities for current Land Bank-owned properties and potential new purchases to identify the best use of the funds. No decisions were made at this time.
The next meeting will take place on June 11 at 8:30 am in the commissioner’s office.
