Milledgeville is a small, rural village in Fayette County. It boasts a post office and less than 100 residents.
The village, near the intersection of Interstate 71 and U.S. 35, is, to many, a “drive through town." And, until recently the village’s curb appeal was hindered by their abandoned school-turned community center.
Though the village’s council used it for meetings, it sat in an increasing state of disrepair on their main road — a victim of rural Ohio’s unfunded and blighted infrastructure.
“It just got to where it was in such a bad state of repair that it needed to be torn down,” said Steve Creed, who works with the Fayette County Land Bank. “So by using the state demolition money, we were able to help the village in order to get that building down.”
That state grant money came from the Ohio Department of Development's Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program. It set aside $500,000 in grant money per county, meant to address sites like these. The money has been used to clean up over 3,500 properties all over the state.
Creed said the Fayette County Land Bank used their state grant money to clean up the community center site and open a park in its place. He said they hope to eventually build a new community center on the property.
“In small town America, there's not a lot of funds available to do a lot of these things that we would like to do,” Creed said.
"If you get a nice clean space and everybody starts cleaning, painting, fixing, it brings up the whole neighborhood."
Small communities like Milledgeville often don’t have organized funds for expensive demolition projects. Their abandoned buildings sit empty, falling deeper in disrepair: a tax burden, eyesore and danger to the community.
The Fayette County Land Bank takes in these properties. Most often, Creed said they’re abandoned homes, defunct on property taxes and burdening communities.
“By getting a hold of these properties and redeveloping them, we’re helping to provide more housing for the community,” Creed said. “Increasing the tax base for the community in order to pay for services needed like fire, police, and city streets.”
Creed is also the housing director for the county’s community action commission, where they’ve used some of the properties for their self-help housing program.
With the program, the land bank’s cleared buildings are replaced by new homes: its low-income participants receive county assistance to build their own home.
Darke County has also received funds from the Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program. Matt Aultman, Darke County commissioner, said their work with demolitions is an investment in community pride.
“The neighbors that live around the properties we cleaned up don't have to look at that derelict property anymore,” Aultman said. “I think the biggest thing that is going to come out of all this is personal pride on their own property. If you get a nice clean space and everybody starts cleaning, painting, fixing, it brings up the whole neighborhood.”
In Darke County, there is no land bank. Property owners retain ownership once the building is demolished and repurpose or sell the property.
Aultman said most of their list of hopeful demolition projects were instigated by property owners who lack the extensive funds needed to clean up dilapidated buildings.
Each year the Department of Development makes a round of grants based on county applications for specific building sites. It will allocate another round of funding from the revitalization program later this year.