Explanation
BACKGROUND: This legislation authorizes and directs the director of the Department of Development to enter into a not-for-profit service contract in the amount of $50,000.00 with the Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio (WDBCO). This $50,000.00 expenditure is allocated to support the city’s partnership with WDBCO and Franklin County to pilot a year-long workforce development program specifically designed for the Milo-Grogan neighborhood. The goal of this year-long pilot program is to work with the community of Milo-Grogan to facilitate a job readiness and retention program for the unemployed and underemployed.
Milo-Grogan is a neighborhood of the City of Columbus, Ohio. Milo-Grogan is defined by the rail corridors to the north, east, and west, and Interstate 670 to the south. The neighborhood was settled as the separate communities of Milo and Grogan in the late 1870s. Large-scale Industrial Development fueled the neighborhood’s growth until the 1980s, when the last factories closed. In recent years, revitalizing this neighborhood has been a major focus of the City of Columbus, and the neighborhood has begun to experience something of a resurgence. Several businesses have decided to locate in the neighborhood, including Rouge Fitness, which is constructing a 600,000 square foot corporate headquarters, manufacturing and distribution center, and several other businesses are expanding within the neighborhood. In addition, the City of Columbus, along with its partners, has just completed an infrastructure overhaul of the 5th Avenue corridor, west of I-71 to Grant Avenue that included approximately $7.7 million in roadwork improvements, new sidewalks, street resurfacing, and the redesign of 5th and Cleveland Avenue intersection. With this investment, Rogue, Rumpke, COTA and others are reinvesting in the neighborhood creating employment opportunities for local residents.
However, despite the increase in the number of employment opportunities av...
Click here for full text