Mayor Scott Schertzer is announcing that the City of Marion has received notification of a $300,000 competitive grant award for a Neighborhood Revitalization project in the Lodo Neighborhood (Lower Downtown Neighborhood) from the Office of Community Development (OCD), a division of the Ohio Development Services Agency. OCD recently announced that thirty-five (35) top ranking proposals were being awarded a total of $9,698,000 through the PY 2015 Community Development Competitive Set-Aside Program.
The Lodo Neighborhood Revitalization project that was submitted is a combination of five (5) projects that came about through meetings and discussions of the Lodo Association, a subcommittee of Downtown Marion, whose membership consists of various representatives from local government, as well as business and property owners that are located within this district that are interested in working to revitalize the Lodo area.
Mayor Schertzer states, “Grants like this are rarely possible without the interest and cooperation of those directly affected by this type of project. The business and property owners taking part in the Lodo Association have been key to the initiating the revitalization of the lower downtown area.”