Utility help offered through winter crisis program
LIMA The Ohio Development Services Agency and West Ohio Community Action Partnership are encouraging those looking for utility assistance during the winter months to learn more about the Home Energy Assistance Winter Crisis Program.
“As the pandemic continues into the winter, it is important that Ohioans are able to stay safe and warm in their homes,” OSDA Director Lydia Mihalik said in a press release. “The Winter Crisis Program can ease the burdens of families. Ohioans who need help with their energy bills should visit energyhelp.ohio.gov to learn more about the program.”
Activate highlights community approach to health
By Josh Ellerbrock - jellerbrock@limanews.com
LIMA Activate Allen County provided an update of its programs, as well as insights into some of its future goals in housing, suicide prevention and children’s health, during an online community stakeholder meeting held Tuesday.
The 45-minute presentation featured multiple local officials from the group’s various members laying out some of the larger problems they are hoping to address in the community in the next few years as part of its Community Health Improvement Plan.
For example, Mental Health and Recovery Services Board CEO Tammie Colon highlighted the relation between suicide and drug use to talk about some of the local efforts to reduce suicide rates. They include recruiting behavioral specialists, increasing the availability of Narcan and trying to target prevention among youth.
Lifelong Lima resident Hettie recalls the old First National Bank & Trust Building during its heyday. Built in 1926, the building’s Chicago-style architecture with its Renaissance Revival influences had been a cornerstone of downtown when she visited the city in the 1970s to do her banking. She also recalls it sitting empty, vacant and deteriorating in the decades since.
When the city of Lima, state of Ohio, and a host of private and public partners including the Fifth Third CDC , Woda Cooper Companies and West Ohio Community Action Partnership came together to redevelop the site, Hettie jumped at the opportunity. She’s now settled into a pretty, second-floor apartment overlooking the town square. “I can see what’s going on downtown,” she says, given the open design and many windows afforded by her home, now called 43 Town Square.