FREDERICKTOWN – At its first council meeting of the year, Fredericktown village administration received a welcome visit – and a welcome message – from Area Development Foundation Vice President Jeff Gottke.

“You’re about a year and a half ahead of everybody else,” Gottke told council Monday night.

What he’s referring to is the process of downtown economic revitalization that the ADF will foster each county borough through during the coming years. The Foundation hired Gottke in November to not only handle most Land Bank duties, but also help shepherd Knox County’s city and villages through the planning process involved with bracing for population expansion coming from Columbus.

Fredericktown’s official preliminary “Downtown Revitalization Plan,” written by the Neighborhood Design Center two years ago, has already been completed and approved by council. This means that council and village administrators can begin delving into some of the checklist items presented in the report, which used community feedback to target possible improvements for the village’s downtown corridor.

Mount Vernon has its plan done, Gottke said, but it has not yet been accepted by council. The county’s remaining villages are still near the beginning stages of the planning process. It will likely take them about a year and a half to catch up to Fredericktown, as they will need to hire a firm to conduct their community revitalization study, which will take about a year, and council will then need to approve the plan before work within each village can formally begin.

Given the expansion expected to occur north of Columbus over the coming decades, Gottke called the race to make municipal improvements “competitive.” He said Fredericktown is in position to lead the way in Knox County, given its head start.

“I mean, Columbus is growing. It’s supposed to grow by half a million people by 2050, and about 20 or 25 thousand of them are planned to end up in Knox County. So it’s kind of a competition of, where do you want them to go?” Gottke told council.

“You probably want them to come to Fredericktown. So the more organized, the more out-in-front of this growth you can be, the better.”

Gottke told Knox Pages he has spoken with city and village officials across the county since being hired about conducting and executing a downtown revitalization plan, and he plans to speak with every council about the process during the coming weeks.

The ADF is meant to serve as “co-pilots” and “consultants” to the each city and village during the revitalization process, Gottke said. Municipal administration can gauge community feedback to prioritize items of improvement, and Gottke can help during the implementation process – that means finding funding, construction vendors, and potentially helping with grant applications.

Gottke told council that he also has experience working on streetscape projects through his time on Mount Vernon City Council, which could benefit villages if they wish to seek advice on such an endeavor.

“I don’t want to tell you what to do because that’s your job and that’s your citizens’ job, to come up with what you want the town to look like,” Gottke said. “But the ADF wants to help you to implement it once you decide what you want to do.”

Lisa Lloyd, Program Manager at the Knox County Foundation, attended Monday’s meeting as well. She said the Foundation has set aside grant money “specifically for villages who complete these plans” over the next five years, which will help villages complete projects sooner.

Lloyd said the Foundation will also help fund the revitalization studies for the county’s other villages and municipalities, and that it will be working closely with the ADF on countywide downtown development in the coming years.

Gottke commended Fredericktown for its thorough and cost-effective plan, which was performed by a mix of Ohio State architectural students and professionals at NDC. The plan, a thick packet which Gottke held up during his discussion, contains multiple layers – it assesses Fredericktown’s economic and structural reality, includes community feedback on possible improvements, and then provides solutions.

The last two parts of the plan are “implementation” and “funding,” which detail what steps the village can take over certain time frames (1-2 years, 2-4 years, 4-6 years, 6-10 years and 10-plus years). For example, some of the suggestions for the “1-2 years” category include “consistent and attractive signage” for both parking and wayfinding signs, as well as “green space that’s define, usable and attractive.”

Gottke also mentioned another way the ADF could help in Fredericktown’s revitalization – utilization of the Land Bank. The Land Bank is a county agency run by the Area Development Foundation. It acquires vacant, abandoned, or tax-delinquent properties upon foreclosure and looks to sell the properties through an application process.

Because the Land Bank is run by the ADF (a private entity), it does not have to follow public bidding procedures. The Land Bank accepts applications for properties and takes a number of factors into account before selling it – intended use of the property, planned ownership, planned investment into the property after its sale, etc.

The Land Bank will hold the property mortgage until the necessary improvements are made by the buyer, Gottke said, and then it will be turned over after a final inspection.

“Our end goal is always, what’s the highest and best use for the property? What’s going to do right by the neighborhood and what’s going to do right by the village?” Gottke said. “So we are your partner in helping you to build a neighborhood and build a community through these creative strategies for the Land Bank.”

Gottke said the Land Bank can also help facilitate the rehabilitation of parks, playgrounds, parking lots and other community areas. By working with the Land Bank, he said, Fredericktown can further its effort to revitalize the community.

Village Administrator Bruce Snell expressed his support for the ADF and KCF and said the village looks forward to working with them in the future. Council member Bill Van Nostrand added that the Fredericktown Community Development Foundation and Merchants Association are “100 percent” behind the planning and implementation processes discussed on Monday night.

Gottke said this synergy will help Fredericktown move faster in its development, which could pay dividends in the coming years. He also expressed his excitement for Fredericktown and the county as a whole, given what lies ahead.

“From my understanding of an economic development perspective, Fredericktown has a lot going for it. It’s got a lot of potential and it’s got a lot going for it,” Gottke said. “So it’s exciting for me to help you all to do that.”

In other business, council:

  • Voted to appoint James Hobson as Council President Pro-Tempore for 2019.
  • Approved council rules and regulations, the mayor’s council committees and the mayor’s 2019 annual appointments.
  • Heard from Village Fiscal Officer Mary Lou Hannan, who said she is currently finalizing the 2018 fiscal report. Hannan said the village looks to be “in great shape.”
  • Heard from Fredericktown EMS Chief Rick Lanuzza, who said EMS runs were down 2 percent in 2018. The unit made 904 total runs last year, Lanuzza said; 11.5 percent were mutual aid runs and 10 percent were “double-runs,” meaning both of the station’s trucks were out at the same time.
  • Heard from Snell, who said the village addressed the manhole on 2nd St. and Chestnut St. on Friday. Snell said there are still cones around the area, which is now flat and solid after a concrete pour, because it needs time to properly cure before trucks begin driving on it. He said it should take “a week or so” for the area to cure.
  • Snell also said there seems to be confusion among residents about leaf pick-up. The village is no longer picking up leaves at this point in the year, Snell said, so residents should not rake them out to the curb and expect them to be carried away. However, if residents bag their leaves and put them on the curb, Snell said a local farmer will come by and pick them up. The village is still picking up Christmas trees, he said, as well as brush from the New Year’s Eve windstorm. Both the trees and brush will be recycled into mulch.