FC Cincinnati currently shares Nippert Stadium (pictured above) with the Cincinnati Bearcats football program. Plans for their own professional soccer stadium are in the making.
Total community project funding of $147 million represents between 5 percent and 6 percent of the total capital budget appropriations proposed in SB266 (Oelslager) and HB529 (Ryan).
Among Ohio’s three largest counties, Cuyahoga County stands out for the number of community projects, though its share of funding is not significantly higher than those for Franklin and Hamilton counties.
Cuyahoga County is in line for about 50 projects worth $20.5 million, from about $2.5 million apiece for a Franklin Hill stabilization project and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, to $32,500 for an emergency boat shelter in Bay Village.
Franklin and Hamilton counties each have about 30 projects and are in line for about $19.5 million each. They also have the two of the three largest funding awards in the capital budget — $5 million for Columbus’ Center of Science and Industry (COSI) and $4 million for a professional soccer stadium project in Cincinnati, contingent on the award of an expansion franchise from Major League Soccer.
Outside of the three largest counties, seven-figure funding allocations are proposed for:
– Clinton County, with $1.5 million for the Laurel Oaks Career Campus and $1 million for the county airport.
– Lawrence County, whose sole community project award is $1 million for Lawrence EMS Services and Senior Center.
– Lucas County, with $1 million apiece for the Toledo Museum of Art and the Imagination Station Theater Experience.
– Mahoning County, with $4 million for the Mahoning Valley Innovation and Commercialization Center.
– Montgomery County, with $1 million for the Dayton Arcade Innovation Hub.
– Sandusky County, with $1 million for the Ohio Partnership for Water, Industrial and Cyber Security.
– Stark County, with $1 million for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Center of Excellence.
– Summit County, with $1.3 million for Blossom Music Center.
– Wood County, with $1.6 million for the Wood County Senior Center.
The smallest funding award in the budget is $5,000 for the Medina County village of Seville’s Vietnam War Memorial.
Eight Ohio counties do not have any community projects listed, according to the Legislative Service Commission county-by-county analysis — Hardin, Knox, Logan, Mercer, Morgan, Morrow, Noble and Paulding.
Of those eight, six also lack state agency and higher education institution projects. In Knox County, a state developmental center is in line for a share of $4.5 million allocated to the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities. Morgan County is among three counties getting $6.8 million for Muskingum River lock and dam projects.