Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced a $4,745,268 investment through the Appalachian Regional Commission’s (ARC) Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative for seven Ohio communities. The investment will help create and retain jobs, leverage millions of dollars in private investment, create and retain businesses, and train the region’s workers and students.
“Ohio workers can compete with anyone in the world when given the opportunity,” said Brown. “If we want to promote economic development throughout Ohio, we need to ensure that businesses and communities have tools and resources they need. Rural communities have been overlooked for too long. These new investments will help provide diverse opportunities for communities across eastern Ohio.”
The awards include:
- $50,000 to the City of Struthers for the Reimagining Struthers project. This grant will be used to create a regional strategic plan for green industrial manufacturing.
- $980,374 to Urban Mission Ministries, Inc. in Steubenville for Fresh Start Workforce Development Program. This grant will be used to prepare workers for careers in the culinary arts, warehouse management, and retail and customer service industry sectors. 10 jobs and 3 businesses will be created, including 10 new programs implemented.
- $1,314,880 to Switzerland of Ohio Local School District in Woodsfield for the Ohio River Valley Workforce Development Initiative. This grant will be used to serve unemployed, underemployed, and displaced workers in 11 distressed or at-risk counties covering Southeastern Ohio and West Virginia Opportunity Zones.
- $445,158 to Belmont for the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Training project. This grant will be used to provide training to 10 drug offenders each year in lieu of prison time, allowing them to secure employment and expand training to 50 students annually.
- $404,856 to Noble Local School District in Sarahsville for the Green Acres: A Regional Workforce Education/Training Ecosystem program. This grant will be used to provide dynamic and targeted access to in-demand training/education and upskilling programming.
- $1,500,000 to Washington Electric Cooperative, Inc. in Marietta for the Noble County Grid Modernization and Make-Ready for Broadband Deployment project. This grant will be used to upgrade 215 miles of main-line electrical routes to increase grid resilience and deploy fiber broadband along these routes.
- $50,000 to Morgan County Commissioners for the Morgan County Broadband Technical Assistance Project. This grant will be used for a feasibility study for expanding broadband infrastructure in underserved areas of Morgan County.
POWER is a congressionally funded initiative that targets federal resources to help communities and regions that have been affected by job losses in coal mining, coal power plant operations, and coal-related supply chain industries due to the changing economics of America’s energy production.
Brown has been a leader for Ohio’s rural communities, successfully securing a number of provisions that are important to Ohio farmers in the 2018 Farm Bill. He is the first Ohioan to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee in more than 50 years.
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