(Jackson) – Families in southern Ohio will have a chance to celebrate the beauty of winter with a hike to admire the stunning views at Lake Katharine State Nature Preserve in Jackson County. The event, hosted by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Natural Areas and Preserves (DNAP) will take place on Saturday, Feb. 5 from 9am-2pm.
Caption: A winter scene at the scenic Lake Katharine State Nature Preserve.
The family-friendly event will showcase the views of the more than 2,000-acre State Nature Preserve. Lake Katharine contains stunning hemlock tree covered, 50+ foot tall sandstone cliffs that surround a beautiful lake. DNAP staff and guest experts will be on-site to share the preserve’s history.
The Friends of Lake Katharine will have warm cocoa available at the main parking lot for people to enjoy after returning from a hike along one of the preserve’s scenic trails.
Visitors should park at the main parking lot at 1703 Lake Katharine Road, Jackson, OH 45640. Visitors are reminded to wear appropriate clothing for the weather.
People visiting Jackson County are invited to make a stop at Jackson Lake State Park to work toward their winter hiking challenge sticker. To complete the Ohio State Park challenge, download the DETOUR Ohio Trails App, available at detour.ohiodnr.gov, or in the Apple App or Google Play store. Then participate in hikes at state parks in 3 different regions of our state between January 1 and March 1, 2022. Once you complete the hike, you can submit your information here.
(Columbus)—Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has announced that $14.9 million in American Rescue Plan (ARPA) Supplemental Block Grants funds will be used to help strengthen Ohio’s statewide mental health and addiction care services system, specifically in the areas of youth prevention and early intervention services.
“We know that 75% of substance use disorders and mental illness begin before the age of 25, and prevention and early intervention strategies are vital to building resilience and opportunities for long-term health,” said Governor Mike DeWine. “These dollars will make key investments in substance use disorder and mental health prevention programs and treatment services to help Ohioans live their best and healthiest lives.”
“Through close partnerships and collaborations with our community partners, these investments will be targeted in ways that facilitate more responsive, agile, and effective interventions supporting lifelong health and recovery for all Ohioans,” said Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) Director Lori Criss.
The funds will be distributed over the next four years and are broken down as follows:
Primary Prevention
$5M ($1.25M per year) for community coalitions and youth-led programs to address marijuana and alcohol prevention. These funds will be awarded on a competitive basis with a goal of reaching up to 250,000 individuals over the next four years.
$5.4M to support public health campaigns designed to enhance the perception of harm of alcohol and marijuana use.
Coordinated Specialty Care for First Episode Psychosis
$2.3M to fund two pilot First Episode Psychosis Coordinated Specialty Care Virtual Teams in year two and six additional teams in years three and four. Using telehealth to expand services, specialists at the Ohio State University Early Psychosis Intervention Center (EPICENTER) will provide medication management, psychotherapy, and family support and education. Individuals with first episode psychosis will access specific coordinated specialty care services through their local community mental health center (i.e., case management, education and vocational support and on-site nursing and medication management). EPICENTER will provide training and ongoing consultation.
$1.8M to mitigate losses for uncompensated care at 17 existing First Episode Psychosis/Early Serious Mental Illness teams in the following counties: Allen, Athens, Auglaize, Butler, Clermont, Coshocton, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette,Franklin, Gallia, Greene, Guernsey, Hamilton, Hardin, Highland, Hocking, Jackson, Lorain, Lucas, Mahoning, Meigs, Montgomery, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Portage, Ross, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, Vinton, Washington, Wood.
$307,926 for the purposes of adopting Healthcare, Outcomes, Network, Education (HONE) developed by Yale University to better collect outcomes on Ohio’s First Episode Psychosis clients.
As part of the ARPA block grant funding, OhioMHAS is also this month releasing $2.98 million in COVID mitigation funds to Ohio’s Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Boards (ADAMH) to be used by boards and community behavioral health providers for COVID testing, PPE purchases, contact tracing, healthy environment maintenance, and other efforts to prevent spread of COVID-19, as well as for behavioral health services for individuals in short-term housing who are at elevated risk of contracting COVID. These are one-time allocations to Ohio’s ADAMH boards for local distribution.
“We know our front-line providers continue to struggle with the effects of the variants of COVID-19, and these funds will help them continue to provide critically needed services safely,” added Criss.
(Chillicothe) – As part of the Ohio Department of Transportation—District 9’s Planning Department, the district’s Environmental Office is seeking public input for a bridge replacement on C.R. 39 (Mulga Road) in Jackson County.
JAC-CR 39-3.06 (PID: 103780) – It is proposed to replace the structure on C.R. 39 at the 3.06 mile mark in Jackson County, Ohio. The project is located in a rural area of Milton Township. The existing structure is a single span steel truss with timber decking on stone abutments with reinforced concrete cap on spread footings. The structure was built in 1963. The new structure will be a single span composite prestressed box beam with reinforced concrete deck on semi-integral abutments on existing stone abutments.
The project will not require new right-of-way.No homes or businesses will be removed by the project.
The roadway will be closed for the duration of the project.The local detour will be S.R. 32 to C.R. 38 (Hiram West Rd) to S.R. 124 to C.R. 39 (Mulga Rd). The local detour is approximately 6 miles.
The funding for the project is 95% State and 5% Local. The environmental commitment date is 10/1/2022. The project is currently expected to be awarded 1/2/2023.
Written comments should be submitted by February 25, 2022, or the deadline date that is posted on the web site, to: Greg Manson, ODOT District 9 Environmental Supervisor, 650 Eastern Avenue, Chillicothe, Ohio 45601 E-Mail: greg.manson@dot.ohio.gov
(Jackson) – The U.S. 35 rest area in Jackson County will be closed Tuesday, January 18 from 8am- 4pm for planned utility work by American Electric Power (AEP).
The rest area will be without power during this work, and will be closed to the public until work is completed. The rest area parking lot will remain open.
Motorists are advised to plan ahead to utilize alternate locations during this work.
(Athens)– The Jackson County Health Department is working in partnership with Ohio University to train and deploy 13 community health workers to address public health concerns and impacts of COVID-19 across 11 counties.
The project was made possible through a $4.5 million grant which was secured with the help of the Ohio Alliance for Innovation in Population Health. The grant will train workers in Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Perry, Pike, Ross, Scioto and Vinton counties.
The Alliance was created in October 2017 as a partnership between OHIO and the University of Toledo and is made up of Ohio University employees. Rick Hodges, director of the Alliance, said projects like this are what the organization was created to do.
The organization seeks to tackle problems at the local level using community members because they have a better understanding of their problems than outsiders. For Southeast Ohio, these problems are wide-reaching and complex.
Melissa Kimmel is an Executive in Residence with the Alliance. She said Southeast Ohio residents have health factors which put them more at risk of catching COVID-19.
“Our communities in Appalachia tend to have a higher rate of chronic illnesses and those factors make COVID-19 more impactful,” Kimmel said. To address this, the Alliance is training these community health workers to work on the front lines and improve health literacy in the region.
A community health worker is a community member who receives training in advocacy and brokerage for health care resources and health changes. The key factor that makes community health workers a fit for this project is the fact they come from the community.
“Sometimes people don’t necessarily trust health care and authority in the region, and these are people who speak like them and look like them being trained and returning to their communities to make them healthier,” Keri Shaw, an associate professor at Ohio University, said.
Kevin Aston, health commissioner with the Jackson County Health Department, said these workers are key when it comes to health measures like vaccinations.
“There’s no shortcut to building trust,” Aston said. “Folks who have interacted with me and my staff before the COVID emergency have been much more receptive to listening to what I and my staff have to say because we’ve spent time building those relationships.”
Community health workers can facilitate those connections. The grant gives community members the chance to receive credible health information from their neighbors rather than outsiders.
There is not a complete lack of community health care workers throughout Southeast Ohio, but Shaw says there is room for growth. Several county health departments currently employ community health care workers, but greater challenges limit health care accessibility. Hodges said the phenomenon of community health workers is a new, but severely needed.
“This answers a need we’ve had in health care for a very long time,” Hodges said. “The lack of it has contributed to poor outcomes and I think the presence of community health workers is going to improve them significantly.”
Those greater challenges Shaw mentioned include things like the age of the population, a resistance to seeking outside assistance, transportation, poverty, food options and housing issues. Due to these challenges, health care is not always accessible for Southeast Ohioans and COVID-19 only further complicated the issue.
“I live in a suburb of Columbus, I have great health insurance and I can walk into any provider of my choice within an hour if I need to and get great care,” Hodges said. “People who live in Appalachia who don’t have access to good insurance or face issues like transportation don’t have those choices. There are good primary care providers in Appalachia, but if you can’t get to them, it’s an additional barrier.”
Shaw, Hodges and Kimmel all stressed that the perception good health care is simply absent from the region or people in Appalachia just don’t make good health care decisions is patently false. The problem is the lack of access and that’s what the grant seeks to address.
To implement the project, Ohio University chose to work with the Jackson County Health Department because it is uniquely positioned to best meet the goals of the grant.
“Jackson County is a good fit to house this because the location is central to other counties in the area,” Kimmel said. “There’s a regional understanding of health that has been cultivated and the relationships between other health departments and Jackson County were already in place.”
While the $4.5 million will more than double the budget of the Jackson County Health Department and come with a large influx of staff, the Alliance is confident it’s a responsibility the department is equipped to undertake.
Aston added that the regional relationships will help his department transition into the grant smoother, and while he will be busy, he’s more than ready to take on the challenge.
“The challenging part is that there’s still a pandemic going on,” Aston said. “Public health is still really busy with the pandemic and it’s hard now, but it’s going to get easier … there should be an adequate span of control for the work that’s going to happen.”
The team working on the grant is taking a “strength-based approach,” which means highlighting what certain communities do well and replicating it throughout the area.
Currently, applications for the community health worker applications are being reviewed. In the next month or so, interviews will begin. The team expects hires to be completed by mid- to late November and then training will begin soon after.
Aside from the program’s immediate goals, the Alliance is hoping it has long-lasting effects on health care in Southeast Ohio.
“I hope there is an embrace of health literacy, proactive health behaviors and I would really like to see a reduction in the stigma associated with Southeast Ohio,” Kimmel said.
Shaw added that she hopes to see an increase in trust of health departments and public health. She also hopes that there is an increased understanding of the important role community health workers can play.
There’s also hopes among the Alliance that this grant and programs like it will lead to an increased presence of Medicaid providers in the area, which is currently among the challenges factoring into public health in Appalachia.
Aston said he hopes the grant leaves Southeast Ohio in a position to achieve better health outcomes across the board. Factors like substance use, exercise habits and diet all feed into bad outcomes. Aston hopes increased health literacy can curb those outcomes.
Beyond those goals, Aston wants to spread the word about not only Jackson County Health Department, but all health departments in the area.
“I want people to know local health departments care about the citizens they serve, and I’m happy to have another ally on my team,” Aston said. “Sometimes I’ve heard public health officials maligned, but our hearts are in the right place and I’m happy we’re going to get some extra help and hopefully build some trust.”
The USDA Farm Service Agency is taking applications for the Grasslands provision of the Conservation Reserve Program through August 20th.
CRP Grasslands is a working grasslands provision of CRP that allows landowners to offer hay and/or pasture acres that will remain in forage production for a 10-15 year period.
While there are benefits for hay and pasture, the program can also apply to fields simply being maintained as grass cover.
Acceptable offers will receive an annual rental payment for the acreage enrolled and be eligible for cost share assistance of 50% on fence, water systems and certain management practices. Small livestock operations receive added points in the ranking factors to encourage participation in the program.
Acres are currently available in the Scioto River Watershed Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. This option offers up to double the rental rates for enrolling eligible acres in the Scioto River watershed which covers most of our coverage area.
For more information, contact the Jackson-Vinton-Scioto-Pike FSA Office at (740) 286-5208/extension 2 or (740) 259-3075/extension 2.
A few road repair and tree trimming projects along area roads will slow and in some cases block traffic, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.
There will be daily lane closures for tree trimming operations starting August 11. Closures will be in effect daily from 8am to 5pm excluding weekends. Affected routes are State Route 335 in Scioto and State Route 139 in Scioto and Jackson.
August 13th-27th: State Route 139 in Scioto and Jackson will be closed between Minford and State Route 32. Traffic will be detoured via SR 335 and SR 32.
August 11th & 12th: State Route 335 will be closed in Scioto between Shumway Hollow and Bennett School House Road. Traffic will be detoured via US Route 52 and State Route 139.
In Pike County: State Route 772 will remain closed overnight this week as part of a slide repair project being performed by our maintenance crews. The road will reopen August 13th by 6pm. Traffic is being detoured via State Route 124, State Route 32, 104, 551 and 220.
(COLUMBUS) — Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio EPA Director Laurie A. Stevenson have announced that two dozen communities will receive a total of $9 million in H2Ohio funding for projects to improve the quality of drinking water and to repair or replace aging water, wastewater, and sewage infrastructure.
“These projects will improve the quality of life for thousands of Ohioans by giving them reliable access to clean water and by addressing failing wastewater and home sewage treatment systems which are also a threat to public health and the environment,” said Governor DeWine. “All of our communities deserve to have strong water infrastructure, and I am committed to helping our local partners with these costly improvement projects.”
Projects include the construction of a new water treatment plant, the replacement of aging water lines, and the installation of new water lines and water mains. New wastewater infrastructure projects will solve sewer system backups, extend sanitary sewers, and replace failing household sewage treatment systems with new sewers. Projects were selected based on the community’s economic needs and project readiness.
West Union in Adams County will receive $1 million in H2Ohio funding for a project that will eliminate the septic systems for approximately 60 homes and businesses and bring them into the West Union sewer system. The home systems servicing the Panhandle region are in poor and failing condition and are creating unsanitary conditions in the area.
Athens County will receive $500,000 in H2Ohio funding to support the installation of 14,000 linear feet of gravity sewer and nearly 3,000 linear feet of force main in the Happy Valley and Baker Road areas, abandoning household sewage treatment systems that are failing based on observed fecal coliform bacteria contamination levels in local streams, including Margaret Creek. The project will serve 168 homes.
Coalton in Jackson County will receive $500,000 in H2Ohio funding for a project that replaces a portion of the existing septic tank effluent gravity collection system with a more conventional, sealed gravity collection system, serving at least 50 homes. This will eliminate sewer overflows that regularly occur at existing businesses and residential structures in the project area.
“Governor DeWine’s H2Ohio initiative enables Ohio EPA to extend available funding to help communities across the state address their water and wastewater needs and replace failing home sewage treatment systems,” said Director Stevenson. “We are using H2Ohio funding to make a difference in these communities and in the lives of Ohioans.”
Home Sewage Treatment System Replacement Projects – $1.6 Million
It is estimated that approximately 31 percent of all household sewage treatment systems in Ohio are experiencing some degree of failure and are discharging untreated sewage that potentially exposes citizens to harmful bacteria and pathogens.
A total of $1.6 million in H2Ohio funding will go to the counties listed below to help low- to moderate-income households repair and replace failing home sewage treatment systems. Each county will receive $150,000 for the projects.
The $9 million in H2Ohio grant funding announced today is in addition to a new water and sewer program announced by Governor DeWine last week. More details about the new program, which will be funded with $250 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, are forthcoming.
Governor DeWine launched H2Ohio in 2019 as a water quality effort to provide clean and safe water to Ohio. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Department of Agriculture, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and Ohio Lake Erie Commission each have a significant role in H2Ohio through the natural infrastructure of wetlands, the reduction in nutrient runoff, and the increase in access to clean drinking water and sewer systems. To learn more, visit h2.ohio.gov.
