ASHLAND — Thanks to $88,000 of incoming money from the state capital budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, Jeromesville will launch three modernization projects beginning this summer.
Jeromesville’s Square Park, at the intersection of OH-89 and County Road 30A, will be the most significant of these ventures. The $50,000 of state funds will be used to revitalize the park.
“It’s been in dire need of some revitalization for quite some time now,” said Jeromesville Mayor Randy Spade. “To be able to do something like this to make the square match all the other cool stuff that we’re doing as a little community, with the help of the state, has been awesome.
“We have some historical pieces there along the square. We’re really excited to add to those and give it its own identity.”
Another $35,000 will be used to update a piece of property in Lewis Memorial Park. Jeromesville has two memorials in town to honor veterans and those who have gave their lives in service to the country.
“We have a pretty large veteran community,” Spade said. “Most of Jeromesville is generational, so to be able to honor and remember the people who have stewarded the community for us for generations in a nice and quiet place is really important to a lot of the folks who live here.”
Spade himself is a fifth generation Jeromesville resident.
The final project is the construction of two Native American-style totem poles. This will utilize $3,000 of state funding as well as a matched $3,000 in fundraising endowments.
Spade is hoping to establish two totem poles – one at Square Park and one at Lewis Memorial Park.
“We’re not sure of placement yet, so we’re still trying to lay out those plans,” Spade said. “I’m a historian.
“We really tried to find a way to recognize the Native American community that lived here before the land was settled.”
While the Delaware tribe who inhabited this region of Ohio did not construct or possess totem poles, Spade suggests that this creative approach will be able to honor all Native Americans.
Spade says that each of these projects are significant in their own unique way and was thankful for the state’s funding.
“We have tried to blend aesthetics with practicality,” Spade said. “Town beautification is a huge thing, but it is a costly thing, so to have that support from the state capital bill is really cool and really important to us.
“We’re hoping by June to get (the projects) underway and finished by the fall.”
Spade said he would love to have the undertakings completed by Jeromesville’s Blue and White Days festival so that they can unveil the finished projects as part of the celebration.
