SHILOH – The Richland County Foundation’s mission is to improve and enhance the quality of life in Richland County through philanthropy and community leadership.
Village of Shiloh councilmember Marilyn Hall said Tuesday evening she’s hopeful the organization’s mission may be put into action when foundation representatives visit the former Shiloh Elementary school building next week.
Foundation representatives plan to tour the former school building on Mechanics Street on Oct. 18 at 1:30 p.m.
The building is occupied by multiple organizations, including: The Boy Scouts of America; the Plymouth/Shiloh food pantry; a wrestling club; and Great Lakes Community Action Partnership, a social service organization based in Fremont.
Hall said the building’s west end and roof are currently in need of maintenance and she approached RCF to see if there would be an opportunity for assistance.
Lack of funds for needed maintenance
When she originally contacted RCF during the summer of this year, Hall said a problem the village ran into was the inability to show a source of income from the building.
“At that time (summer), we weren’t able to show money coming in as income that could help with maintenance and fixing things at the school,” she said.
Hall said that the village, which owns the building, does not charge the organizations occupying its space any form of rent or lease fees.
The organizations are currently responsible solely for their utility usage and their portion of building insurance costs, she said.
“Hopefully they (RCF) might have money that they may be willing to help us with repairs for the school,” Hall said. “Right now, we’re relying on the people (organizations) to pay the utilities.”
Opportunity to improve the community
Maura Teynor, chief advancement officer at RCF, said the foundation began a conversation with the village and would like to tour the school building to learn more.
Teynor said physically sending foundation representatives to tour the space is an important step in the process of potentially partnering with the village.
“When we’re made aware of projects like these, we like to converse and see how we can help improve the quality of life in our communities throughout the county,” Teynor said.
Hall said she’d love to see work be done to the former school building, hoping it can one day serve more broadly as a community center.
Recently, the village has allowed the building’s gym-space to be rented out for events such as birthday parties and wedding receptions to help provide a source of income, Hall said.
“I would like to see more things down there,” she said. “It should be more of a community center, because the people of Shiloh own that.”