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MOUNT VERNON — Grant funding for traffic safety initiatives, in the amount of $35,000, is earmarked for the Knox County Health Department.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced in early November that $23 million would be awarded to support local and statewide traffic safety and traffic-related fatality reduction initiatives, with a total of more than 170 grants awarded to 132 local agencies in 66 counties and to 10 agencies for statewide programming.
Why is the local health department among the list of groups receiving traffic safety funds?
A range of organizations receive these funds annually, including impaired driving enforcement and selective traffic enforcement programs, statewide programming, countywide operating a vehicle impaired task forces and safe community programs — the latter of which the Knox County Health Department falls under.
The health department has been receiving grants from the Ohio Traffic Safety Office for about the past 20 years for its coordination of the Knox County Safe Communities Coalition, which includes local law enforcement, highway officials and other local agencies. The coalition is a program designed to promote community-based solutions to reduce traffic-related injuries. There are 43 Ohio Safe Communities programs as of federal fiscal year 2022.
Including Knox County Health Department, 28 health-related organizations received grants this year from the Ohio Traffic Safety Office, a division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
The amount of funding received varies year to year based on the three-year average of traffic fatalities per county, said Knox Public Health program coordinator for the safe communities grant Elisa Frazee.
This year’s $35,000 grant is based on an average of 8.33 traffic fatalities per year in Knox County. Knox County had six fatal crashes in 2020, seven in 2019 and 12 in 2018.
Knox County has had five traffic fatalities in 2021 so far, the majority of which have happened in recent months.
The first fatality of the year occurred in July. Frazee said she and the health department have not seen a trend or any one particular reason for crashes this year.
Based on the current data, 57.2% of driver involved in crashes were male, 39.3% were female, and 3.5% were other or unknown. Alcohol-impaired drivers were involved in 5.2% of all crashes but were not involved any fatal crashes.
The health department has not yet received the funds, as they are provided on a reimbursement basis.
“We don’t receive money from the grant until the money is spent in regards to traffic safety — any supplies and materials that we purchase as well as administrative costs such as salaries,” Frazee said.
The coalition has to submit the products or services for which it wants to use the funds to the Ohio Traffic Safety Office for approval before purchasing.
“Right now we’re actually brainstorming with our coalition what that’s gonna look like for this year,” Frazee said.
KPH does not yet know what this year’s funds will go toward, Frazee said, but ideas will be discussed during coalition meetings, which occur every other month.
Coalition meetings are open to the public, and community members can attend to share their own ideas about how to use the funds. The next meeting is at 2 p.m. on Jan. 13 at the Mount Vernon Fire Department. Participants will also be able to attend via Zoom.
During the bimonthly meetings, the coalition also regularly discusses roadway trends and conducts fatality reviews, coordinated by Lt. Gurjit Grewal of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
While the coalition has not settled on any specifics for funding use, a few ideas are being mulled over.
“Our first idea is based around the Super Bowl game,” Frazee said. “So, how can we kind of get our messaging out there in regards to not drinking and driving, and wearing your seatbelt and things like that.”
Another idea involves supplying local pizza shops with stickers they can put on pizza boxes that have traffic safety messages, Frazee said. In a past year, for example, the coalition purchased placemats with traffic safety messages and gave them to local restaurants in the area.
Frazee said the funds are most often spent on programming and speaking engagements within the community to raise general awareness of safe driving practices.
The coalition regularly has a presence at the Knox County Fair, First Fridays and the Mount Vernon Music and Arts Festival. The health department also does annual traffic safety campaigns (Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over and Click it or Ticket) as well as other regular events, including seat belt checks at local schools and 4-H CARTEENS (a traffic safety program for juvenile traffic offenders).
Other non-health-related local groups are set to receive traffic safety funds also, including $69,344.74 to the Richland County Sheriff’s Office, $53,973.98 to the Mansfield Police and $37,734.08 to the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office.
The safe communities federal fiscal year of 2022 runs from Oct. 1, 2021 through Sept. 30, 2022, so the funds will need to be used before the year’s end.
