Main Street Reimagined Podcast
This is a podcast for dreamers, creators, developers, and entrepreneurs to learn, share, and be inspired to change your community through small business.
Main Street Reimagined Podcast
Episode 39: Putting Past Experiences to Work in City Leadership with Mike Bodine & Rob Cowell
City of Marion Service Director Mike Bodine and Safety Director Rob Cowell join host Luke Henry to reveal how their unexpected career paths prepared them for public service—and how they're leveraging those skills to secure millions in grant funding for betterment of the city.
Behind every successful community initiative lies a network of relationships years in the making. "You never know what's going to come back around," Bodine shares, explaining how connections from his past have resurfaced to create powerful collaborations. From hiring a dedicated grant writer who's already secured multiple funding opportunities to partnering with the local vocational school to replace blighted properties with student-built homes, Marion's approach demonstrates how creativity and persistence can overcome limited resources.
The city's innovative fire station project exemplifies their pragmatic problem-solving. Rather than building entirely from scratch, they're repurposing a 15-year-old building that could save taxpayers upwards of two million dollars. It's this kind of thinking that recently earned Marion recognition as "Strongest Town in the United States and Canada," mobilizing schools, businesses, and citizens in a display of community pride that surprised even its leaders.
For anyone involved in community development, this conversation offers invaluable insights into turning grand visions into practical reality. The directors' emphasis on relationship-building, creative funding strategies, and patient persistence provides a roadmap for communities facing similar challenges. Whether you're a local Marion resident or a change-maker in your own town, their experiences demonstrate how collaborative effort can trigger the ripple effects that transform communities from within.
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Henry Development Group:
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You never know what's going to come back around. I have countless opportunities, people out of my life for six years and all of a sudden they come back and next thing you know we're working together. And maybe it's not in a role with me directly, or maybe it's just. There's a lot of things. When you get to this point, it just helps to be a facilitator at some point. And when you get those connections and you have that trust within others and others have that trust within you, it pays dividends.
Speaker 2:This is the Main Street Reimagined podcast, a show for people ready to turn visions into realities and ideas into businesses. Hey, I'm Luke Henry and each week I lead conversations with Main Street Dreamers who took the leap to launch a business, renovate a building or start a movement, their ideas, their mindsets and their inspirations, as well as some of the highs and lows along the way. This is a place for dreamers, creators, developers and entrepreneurs to learn, share and be inspired to change your community through small business. Enjoy the show. Hey, friends, luke Henry here. This is the Main Street Reimagined Podcast. Thank you so much for being with us again today. I'm excited for another great conversation talking about redevelopment, revitalization, restoration, collaboration and lots of other things too. So I have with me today a couple of gentlemen from the city of Marion. I have Service Director Mike Bodine and Safety Director Rob Cowell.
Speaker 3:Gentlemen, thanks for being here, thanks for letting us on this morning, yeah absolutely so.
Speaker 2:We're going to kind of cover things from the public angle a little bit. Talk about what's going on here in the city of Marion. If you've been listening along to our podcast and our journey, we did have the Mayor, bill Collins, on a while back and he talked about some different initiatives that were being worked on or coming down the line in the future. Some of those are continuing to move forward and we're going to get some updates from these fellows. Today.
Speaker 2:We're also going to talk about some other things that are going on and I think, whether you're here, local to Marion, and looking to learn more about what's going on, how things happen, how these processes, what all they take to get across the finish line Spoiler alert some of them pretty much all of them don't move as quickly as we'd all like, but if you're not from around Marion and you're just looking to learn about how to put new and fresh ideas into action, where funding maybe comes from, how collaborations are built, that's what we're hoping to tackle today. So, again, I got a couple of great guys here that are working hard here in Marion to make some things happen and looking to pick their brains and hopefully share some wisdom.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You're up for the task here guys.
Speaker 3:Right, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, good, Well, let's start with a little introduction, so I'll let each of you share a little bit about I'm assuming that when you were in kindergarten and talking about what you want to be when you grow up, you know safety director, service director. Maybe wasn't at the top of the list, but somehow that's where you've landed, and so tell us a little bit what that journey looked like. Mike, we'll start with you.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, my journey started back in, I would say, when I was a kid. I kind of have a background in civil engineering, but I also have a deep background in graphic design and that comes from me being a kid and sketching album covers on poster boards back before computers and doing all that sort of stuff. And as my career has progressed, I've ended up doing a healthy job, I would say, of meshing the two together. So I've only worked in public service for the last year and a half. Before that I worked for civil engineering consultants and during my time there I had a job basically doing construction plans, but also I would get calls from other departments.
Speaker 1:I'd work for large companies that had multiple you know, single family, railroad, et cetera, et cetera, and they would ask me like, hey, we have a proposal and we're going for this job. Can you make us an awesome presentation? So that's where a lot of my background comes in, and I think my value is kind of meshing those two together. Basically, I like looking at a shiny package, and I think others do too, so anything that promotes us in the best light possible, that's what I like to do. So, um, fast forward to, um, doing my graphic design. I ended up, uh, helping out on some Facebook items for some stuff, and then, uh, the mayor, before he was mayor, asked me if, uh, I would like to join him if he wins. And and here I am. So I'm kind of meshing both of those together and it's been a, it's been a awesome ride. Um, I have a passion for the city. I've, I've always looked, I've always looked at a gentleman in our town, uh, named Lowell Thurston, and I don't really know, lowell, that well.
Speaker 1:I know him better now than I did then, but I always looked at him and go man wouldn't it be nice to be someone like that in our community that everybody sees and just says hi to whatever, just be kind of a staple in our community? So it's always been my passion to help this community because I love Marion and I want to see it prosper as much as possible. So that's how I landed where.
Speaker 2:I'm at today. Yeah, yeah, it's interesting how all those roads end up kind of converging to being where it seems like you're meant to be. You know and all the past experiences you're able to pull together and use really now for the common good of the community and and just having that basis of loving the city of Marion, loving this community and wanting to make it better is a theme we see throughout people that have been on the show. I think that it takes people really caring that's where it starts Absolutely experience to be able to bring those to the table and then work with others that might have different experiences and different gifts and talents and abilities, and when we can really work together, big things can happen.
Speaker 1:So I'm excited to talk about what that looks like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Well, my path was almost the exact opposite, but a little more straightforward. I retired after 38 years in the fire service, which I started as the family business. My father also was a firefighter and a cousin and an uncle went out of different towns. So I did 38 years at the fire department, loved every day I was there. It was a fantastic job for me. But it was time for me to retire.
Speaker 3:And when Bill approached me about taking the safety director's job I was extremely excited because I knew it was time to leave the fire department. But I wasn't ready to give up trying to make Marion a better place. So when he picked me for that, I was excited and to this point the job's been great. I've been in there since January. Things move a little slower than what I would like on some of the projects that I pick, but not only overseeing to make sure the police and the fire departments run smoothly for our citizens, but he tasked me with also cleaning up some of the blight, not only the downtown area but our residential areas on the fringes and neighborhoods in Marion as well. So that's kind of how I wound up here, but it's always been public service for me.
Speaker 2:So Well, interestingly, having known both of you just from around the community for quite a few years now at this point, I also know that both of you sort of have moonlit with additional work through the years and it seems like that is kind of also serving you in your new roles. So you know, mike, you have always had this graphic design thing and you know marketing and some of that that you're obviously using pretty heavily in this in this role, and Rob, with some construction activities, and you know, using that background and experience, it's just interesting, isn't it, how you know and kind of connect the dots, looking back to how that led you to where you are today and having those experiences, you're putting that background knowledge to work.
Speaker 3:And to the test.
Speaker 1:So, 100 percent, I mean. I mean I think I wanted to touch on a little bit about you know, a lot of this life is a wing in it. Yeah, true that, and sometimes you swing for the fences and sometimes you miss, but sometimes you don't. But I think the key to it is surrounding yourself and taking surrounding yourself with people that help you achieve the same outcome that you're looking for. And a lot of that happens organically. And when that happens organically, to me that's the best possible outcome for all of this.
Speaker 1:So when you, when you've worked in the community, as you mentioned I do have a graphic design business on the side, but I've had that for many years and through that you know you have to be a people person. You have to. You have to be able to tell a story, you have to be able to sell something and you're not selling yourself as much as you're selling the idea of excitement to somebody. And a lot of that correlates with what we're doing at the city, and when you get enough people on board, there can be a movement.
Speaker 1:And when the movement happens, stuff starts happening and things start falling into place, and I think that's the, that's the key to the whole thing Networking one-on-one.
Speaker 3:So I would, I would concur, I mean and you don't always, and I think that's the key to the whole thing. Networking 101. I would concur, and I don't think you don't always need everybody to be a clone of each other. I think you want people to bring different opinions to the table, different visions, and that's how you move forward. It's not always going to be a straight path. It's going to have some curves and life's going to throw you some curve balls, but I think by by bringing different views, and everybody, I think, has the best interest of the city at heart. But how we get there sometimes isn't always a direct path.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well and again, a lot of that is informed by our past experiences what we've, what we've come through and what we're bringing into the role. And you know, when you have those different perspectives and experiences at the table, I think that things can really get done and they can get done well, and I think it's worth mentioning too there's somebody out there that's listening that you may be younger in your career.
Speaker 2:Don't don't despise you know some of the humble beginnings. Don't despise some of the side jobs and the gig work and you know some of that stuff that maybe you're thinking gosh. Just you know I'm doing this for fun, it's a passion project, it's whatever you're gaining important experience, life lessons, relationships that are likely going to come back to Boomerang and serve you well or help you serve others well in the future. So you know, just again looking at you guys and thinking about that and how you're using that past experiences, side jobs and stuff that's now kind of become a big part of your main job that you're doing in service of our community. I'm a big part of your main job that you're doing in service of our community. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:I can't tell you how valuable it is to treat everyone with respect in your life, because you never know what's going to come back around. I have countless opportunities, people out of my life for six years and all of a sudden they come back and next thing you know we're working together, and maybe it's not in a role with me directly, or maybe it's just there's a lot of things. When you get to this point, it just helps to be a facilitator at some point and when you get those connections and you have that trust within others and others have that trust within you, it pays dividends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, us within you, it pays dividends. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, there's some young person out there listening that just needs to remind you know, don't burn bridges, treat people well. You just never know how things are going to go, and sometimes it's just in the most comical of ways that things come back around and good, good deeds get rewarded in the end and and bad deeds sometimes come back and bite you.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I'm on the board, just as a little side story. I'm on the board for TriRivers, the media program out there, and I've been on there for about three years and every time I come to those meetings they're like, you know, they're all about curriculum and they're like oh, we're teaching the kids how to use Illustrator, we're teaching the kids how to use Illustrator, we're teaching the kids how to do 3D modeling, whatever it is. And I said let's press pause. Have you thought about teaching these kids soft skills? Have you thought about teaching them how to interact with somebody? Because you could have the best graphic designer, you could have the best video producer, you could have the best video producer, you could have everything. But if that person is impossible to work with and doesn't put off good vibes to make you sell yourself, then they're going to have a long hard road.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I agree, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Again had similar conversations, you know, I think all of us are seeing that and this is not a knock just on. You know, the Gen Z folks I mean there's some folks in Gen X millennials, you know that could use some work on the soft skills as well. I mean, because, in the end, relationships matter and how we treat people, how we make them feel, is going to get us a lot farther than some of our technical skills and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3:And keeping an open mind. We can't exclude someone just because, or an idea, just because it doesn't at that time align with ours, because you never know how it's going to in the big circle, how it's going to come back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So a little bit of a tangent there perhaps, but just interesting, as we're talking about how you got to where you are today and what's serving you and what experiences you're putting to work. I think it's worth mentioning. But we came here primarily to talk about some of the things that are going on and some of the projects that you're working on at different phases, that we can talk some about. I know both of you are working on some big projects, and so I wanted to chat about some of those and, just again, I think there's some lessons to unpack for those that are listening from other communities and maybe some informing, to do some educating or some myth-busting that we might even need to do for some of our local folks on some of these things. So you know again, we talked a little bit before we hopped on here about some of those, but I'll open the floor a little bit Again. We'll start with you, mike. You know what's going on that you're really excited about here at the city.
Speaker 1:I guess the main thing I'm excited about is the fact of how far we've come in a year and a half, and what I mean by that is when you're a new administration coming in and, for me, a completely new public employee. There's a lot of things to learn. There's a lot of things you don't just inherently know, but you figure it out along the way. And Rob I know I see Rob smiling over here, he was the same way there's a lot of things that you didn't expect, what this job would be, but you kind of get your footing, you kind of get some traction and I think one of the biggest assets that's that happened from 2024 was acquiring a grant administrator and I thank council for approving that Um, I think the mayor for having that forethought.
Speaker 1:Um, and and I work closely with her because my brain's kind of always working I ride my bike all over this town all the time and I'm always kind of thinking and planning like what would make this area better, what would make this better, and I've kind of also, I did a lot of that work last year and now I'm listening more, and one of those things is listening to council and listening to some things we're working on in the northwest area of town. But throughout this whole process, there's a lot of stuff in the background that you just don't see, and it's basically us swinging for the fences because I want us to go for any money that is available, grant wise, to improve this city, whether it be a new structure, whether it be a new street, whether it be something to help the homeless, whether it be something to help the needs of others. Whatever it is, we're taking advantage of it if we can. We're applying for anything and everything, and our grant administrator, zoe, has been wonderful.
Speaker 1:She's a fresh face, she's she's young, she's got the determination and the enthusiasm and the enthusiasm and it's, it's wonderful and the collaboration that has come with that. That's not just Harvard, within city halls, walls. I mean, since then we've reached out to Marion public health and Marion public health has been a huge asset to us. Aaron and Corey over there I can't tell you how refreshing it is and then Evelyn over at Regional Planning but I guess my message to the viewer is or the listener, I'm sorry would be reach out and have those relationships. It's just like we kind of mentioned earlier about having those soft skills. I mean literally be a nice person, be outreaching, be wanting to help somebody, and that has caused so much positive traction within our city and county to collaborate and get things done. And there are so many grants out there that there's no way in the world the city of Marion could afford right without grants. But we're doing everything we can and that's the top of my priority to do everything I can while the time I'm here to make Marion better and we have a team of people that are incredible at doing that. I think everybody's grabbing on with both hands and grabbing it and it's just. I was just talking to our engineers this morning and just we got, we got estimate of quantities for several projects in the works and these are all grant funded projects and we're swinging for the fences and, quite frankly, we're winning a lot of them. So we have some really good traction and that's pretty much my main focus and I just get excited about it every time.
Speaker 1:Another project I'm working on right now is a master plan for our downtown park, founders park um, I think it's very important to um, I think it's very important to have master master plans.
Speaker 1:I think I think some things in the past have just, we've had little pieces of this, little pieces of that and we just go, okay, let's put it here, let's put it there, and, uh, the mayor and I know we talked about before we even came on board, we talked about five-year plans and five-year plans are great. Sometimes you can't do that and sometimes you have to work by the seat of your pants, because I guess the one thing I'd want the public to know is when you see us applying for a grant for whatever it may be, let's just say the archway, that money was given to us for that purpose. We have to take advantage of anything and everything we can. So sometimes you get a lot of negative like oh, that would have been better, you know, fixing up my street or something like that. Well, that's not how these grants work. We just look at everything available and anything at all that we could apply for. We're doing it for the betterment of the city.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, tactically, talk a little bit about what that process looks like. I mean, I assume that there's not a central database that's like you know, grantfundingruscom or something where you go. These are through various agencies and organizations that you're going out and looking for these and then you know, even with a grant writer, I assume there's still some prioritization. There's some that you really want to go after, some that are kind of nice to nice to have if we get to it, sort of thing. Tell us a little more about what that process has looked like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. Our grant writer since coming aboard. I can't tell you how much of a help Evelyn has been over regional planning. Evelyn has been over at Regional Planning. She's got a lifetime of knowledge of working through grants and she has embraced our grant writer wholeheartedly Because she doesn't have the bandwidth to write all these grants either.
Speaker 2:She can know about them. But just you know again, there's a bottleneck on every organization and for her I know you know just kind of being around that it's just time to get to that sort of thing. So a great collaboration sounds like she looks at Zoe as like a godsend to help her out.
Speaker 1:I think we all do. Yeah, so, and I can't tell you I worked with Evelyn before I ever worked here years ago on some projects, and I'm so glad I got to know her a little bit better because she is such an asset to this community. But a little bit about the process. So there's several different avenues. You know we joined MORPC, which is the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. That just happened the beginning of this year and through that we can they kind of help us look for grants. They kind of we have an intern coming on that they're completely paying for this summer. That's going to help out. But they also have leads on grants. And you know they have a lot of commissions and I'm on the Greenways Commission. They put me on some board there. I have not attended one of those meetings yet, but that's something coming up. But once again, it's all about that networking. And on top of that there are websites, there are notifications we get from ODOT, there's federal notifications, there's state. There are notifications we get from ODOT, there's federal notifications, there's state.
Speaker 2:There's all this stuff and she keeps it all together and she's looking almost on a daily basis for all these new grants and all these locations. And so you've established with her because she's got to kind of know what to look for, to know what to look for, you know, and so you're, you're kind of having some conversation initially, probably to say, hey, here's some of our kind of big picture projects that we'd really like to get you know whether it's, you know, sewer infrastructure, it's, it's, uh, you know, redoing certain streets, it's beautification things, it's light post mean certainly, certainly.
Speaker 2:And then, she kind of can look for some of those specific things.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. So there are certainly are high priority things, but just because there's high priority things doesn't mean we should just sit around and wait for that to happen.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:So that's a constant thing. And then she's reading grants a year down the road Like if they just came up, because most grants are kind of a yearly thing. Some are bi-yearly or two years, like the Greenworks grant that we did with the Lincoln Park.
Speaker 1:So she's basically she's looking for those, but in the meantime she's not just she's. We're meeting every week saying you know, hey, I found a grant for trees. All right, let's talk to the parks department, let's see if we could use that grant. She's looking for a grant for the firefighters. She's working with the police department. It's not just isolated. To me there's such a bigger focus on the positivity of growth and just making the city a better place through every single grant.
Speaker 1:So, to answer your question yes, but sometimes those things aren't just gifted to you on a platter and says hey, we know that you want to do this, so we created a grant for this. It's not like that Sometimes we get lucky. We have a grant right out right now for the TAP grant that I'm super looking forward to. We should find out early next month if we got that.
Speaker 1:That's an ODOT grant, yeah that's an ODOT grant and that's one I worked pretty heavily. So just to expand a little bit on the grant writer, zoe and myself, our relationship I think by this point she's very in tune with my personality and with the kind of I kind of have a get up and go and I don't stop, and she doesn't stop, and now our engineers don't stop, and now everybody is just kind of infectious and it's not really a stressful thing, it's a thing that we look Excitement.
Speaker 2:It's excitement, yeah, passion.
Speaker 1:Like I remember when Zoe first started, she won three grants in a row and I was like, yes, I go, you need to put that on your wall. I said you need to create a list. I mean, you're so young, she young. She's 22, 23 years old, like she has her whole career ahead of her and what a start for something like that. And she has the passion to do this role and it's just, it's just all very exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well it's awesome, awesome to see it come together. It's great to hear you talk about those opportunities and, again from a local citizen's perspective, to know that the city administration council had the foresight to say, hey, we're going to go out on a little bit of a limb and this is an investment. We've got to spend money to make money, if you will. In the business world, we have to do that sometimes where we've got to invest in a new piece of equipment or person or whatever in order to bring value to the business, and it's the same way in the public sector here, where there was great foresight and you're always looking for that return on your investment, absolutely, and I think we're getting that.
Speaker 3:I really feel like we're getting that with this investment that we made with Zoe.
Speaker 2:I really do, yeah, well, I mean it certainly sounds like yeah, that I mean that, yeah, a tenfold return would not be out of the question whatsoever. I mean it could be multiples of that. Even. It sounds like, potentially, with some of these larger initiatives that you're tackling. You know, I'm sure there's hey, there's a $5,000, $10,000 win here and there, but there's also a $500, a million you know dollar projects that you're also. I think that's what you mean when you say you're swinging for the fences, where you're going after some big opportunities.
Speaker 2:And back to your earlier point, this takes some salesmanship, some marketing, some sizzle selling, if you will, right. I mean, you've got to and this is the grant writer's job I think I'm not really familiar with the process but again shed some light on this where it's not enough to just say, hey, here's the grant criteria, here's what we're going to do. Yes, you have to make sure you check all the boxes, but there's got to be an element of hey, we're really going to bring this to fruition. We're putting some passion behind it, we're putting some creativity behind it. We're doing something that's maybe never been done before. We're giving you a rendering, we're showing you what it's going to look like. We're creating this. So, because the people that are awarding these grants. They're human beings right.
Speaker 2:I mean, they have emotions and they want to see projects get done. They want to see exciting things happen. They want to be able to put you know something on their social media from their organization or department as well, to say, hey, we were part of getting this new initiative done, Am I?
Speaker 1:am I off track on that? No, I mean, that's the kind of thing you know, to go back. I don't want to talk about myself, but that's kind of the thing I did when I was at the consulting firm, and you know going you were the lipstick guy.
Speaker 2:right, I was the lipstick guy. I don't want that title, I don't want that title, but that's going to kill me.
Speaker 1:But seriously, you know, I churned out plans. I churned out construction plans for roadways, I did waterline plans. I did this, but there To apply that? Now I told Zoe, our grant writer. I said, hey, I want you to learn InDesign. Indesign is a publishing program.
Speaker 1:I said any grant that we can apply for that we can manually apply for, and it's not just an online thing. We need to bring our A game. We need to stand out from the crowd. Everything counts and that's how you sell it yourself and it's worked for me in the past and it's working for her. And you're exactly right. If you can go that extra mile, if you can create that pretty 3D package, rendering or conceptual plan that doesn't look like chicken scratch on a piece of paper and you're just applying for something like they can see the effort that pays dividends. Even if you do not win that, if that person's reviewing another grant in the future. I remember these guys because no one else is doing this like this. Yeah, I want that to set us apart in the city and help us win grants. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep Put that lipstick on it.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:The takeaway here All right, good. So, rob, giving you a little opportunity.
Speaker 3:I know you're working on some different projects and initiatives here as station. The current station is over 110 years old. It's a beautiful old building, but it's outlived the.
Speaker 3:You know its usefulness. It doesn't meet the needs of a modern fire department. Some of the questions about are you going to tear that building down? No, we do not want to tear that building down, We'd like to repurpose it. But, going forward with Station One, we're working with a law firm that's going to walk us through the process to make sure we do this thing correctly, the most efficiently, the most economical.
Speaker 3:You know, it was told us by buying this building that's already existing, that's only 10 years old, that we can use almost 100 percent of that building and hopefully bring the cost down. Now, obviously, the new bays will have to be ground up, bills added on to this, but I'm really excited about the thought of being able to save. The initial architect said maybe upwards of two million dollars that we could save because some of the infrastructure is already there the sewer lines, the water lines, the electric is already in place and using a lot of the building that's already there. And I'm really excited about this project. I'm just chomping at the bit to get started now.
Speaker 3:Now, you know, we're still probably close to a year away before we ever start working on that building Because again, we got it. We got to pick an architect, somebody that we like, that's going to do what we want, and then after that we will. They will help us work through picking what they call a construction manager at risk that will set a guaranteed maximum price for us that we will not go over. So we're going to stay in budget on this thing but we're going to really meet the needs that the communities demanded of their new fire station.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So this is a really interesting case study to look into, I think. And again, you know other communities that are maybe looking for city buildings. Or you know, fire station, police station, some of these are they looking at this? You know, oftentimes we think about those kind of specialized construction projects. They've got to go in a greenfield. Well, you know, especially within a city, there's often very limited greenfield sites that you know are contaminated some way, or just you know that exist whatever. If they've, you know if they're tight on land, and so some of these adaptive reuse, which is what we're doing with downtown buildings. You know this is a unique use case for kind of thinking outside the box a little bit on the administration's part here to look in.
Speaker 2:And what do we have? What do we have in our city that could potentially be used, reused, adapted, and then, is that going to save taxpayers money? Is it going to give us a better outcome of product money? Is it going to give us a better outcome of product? Does it keep this building from becoming blighted? You know, as you mentioned, it's a fairly new building but unfortunately, I used to work in that building many years ago but unfortunately, you know right, it went out of business and it's a vacant building sitting on a very prominent area of our city that we don't want to see go downhill. So I mean it checks a lot of boxes. So I'm curious if you could share now, I mean kind of after the fact, like how did that come to light and you know that this could be a possibility, and then what work has already been done to establish feasibility before that property was purchased?
Speaker 3:Well, a little history. Originally the thought was to build the new fire station out close to Marion General Hospital because the city owns that land out there and that was the original thought process. The land is leased to Ohio Health and they were reluctant to give up some of that space by reworking the lease because they want to expand as well, which is great. So we didn't want to, you know, infringe on that. So we started looking at other locations and the Rite Aid property came up. And then the next block over where there used to be the church at the corner of Columbia and Prospect was looked at as well. We felt that the Rite Aid property was better suited for us, for the fire department.
Speaker 3:And to go back even further, when we passed the levy for capital improvements, it's earmarked just for the fire department, whether it be brick and mortar or high capital items. You know fire trucks are extremely expensive. So when we passed that levy, the only pushback that I heard from the community was they weren't thrilled about their station one not being downtown. They weren't thrilled about the location at the hospital. So I guess by Ohio Health maybe being reluctant to rework that lease. It was kind of a blessing in disguise. It forced us to look outside the box. You know, at different locations and, like you said, luke, you know down in the downtown area there's not a lot of areas sometimes for a new fire station or a building of that size. So, yeah, I think this is just it's. It's all kind of come together and I'm and I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so there was some feasibility. It sounds like you involved an architect you know before.
Speaker 3:That was even secure and we've done the you know, the soil samples and it's it's going to be, I think, everything's passing to. You know, at this point, everything's cleared and this, this architect that you know, told us we can save some money. I think they're going to be one of them that we reach out to when we start looking for architects. They're going to be one, you know, because they've been involved with the process, not to say we're going to exclude anyone, but they're definitely going to be in the mix.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, it's exciting to see that come together. And then, yeah, obviously I have a fondness for the old fire station being a historic building, I mean very cool structure that you know look forward to that being something else in the future. It's a great location, you know, does seem very well located there. You know for folks that you know, don't know the site we're talking about.
Speaker 3:It's basically on the corner of three different streets and basically a block away from where the station is. A block and a half, I guess maybe from where the station is now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so great access in every direction to areas of the city, city you know similar flight path, if you will, to you know what everyone's accustomed to using now, which seems like a benefit from you know response time and all of that. So just really excited to see that come together. So I agree, it's interesting to hear the timeline. I mean, I know how long these things take by nature of the work that we do, but sometimes those in the public that are not doing this type of work don't necessarily understand all the steps that are involved to get it even to the starting line. So we're not yet to the starting line. It's got a ways to go, but it sounds like you know a year to do all that pre-work and then you know, I don't know, are we throwing around maybe a year of construction or something like that?
Speaker 2:So realistically, we're a couple of years, we're 2027.
Speaker 3:I think that's probably about as good an estimate as we can give right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so yeah. In any case, that's. That's exciting. Other things that are going on at the city that either of you want to mention.
Speaker 1:Other things. There's well, there's a lot of there's a lot of other things. We just won an award. I don't know if you heard.
Speaker 2:Right, yes, I sure did.
Speaker 1:But we won an award for strongest town in the United States and Canada. So that was really exciting. That came out of kind of nowhere. We had a gentleman that works over regional planning come over and ask the mayor. He said, hey, there's this contest coming up. Do you mind if I put the city in and he's like go for it? And then next thing you know we're off to the races. And it was such a fast week by week. New thing, new thing. And I can't tell you as a community, all the schools coming together sending out vote notifications, you know, pillar in the in, in in the credit union, just everybody and their brother out there. You could go just about anywhere. You saw any restaurant, whatever. You would see the little poster for strongest towns. Vote now and lo and behold.
Speaker 1:You know, I think I called it when we were in the final four. I said we're going to win this whole thing.
Speaker 2:I could feel it.
Speaker 3:He did I could feel it.
Speaker 1:And next thing, you know, I mean God bless all the people that helped on this. You know, I think this is a huge win for the city.
Speaker 1:And it's not just a huge win for the city, it's a huge momentum boost to not only just win this competition, but I think this is the motivation that keeps us going and keeps thinking outside the box and say, hey, what is this, what is this community need, what is this part of the city need? You know how can we have those conversations with those citizens? And I think a lot of that's being done right now. I'm currently working on a grand party that the mayor promised once we won this thing. So we're getting a committee together of not only just people in the know, but actual community citizens out there that would have a good input on how this thing should roll out.
Speaker 3:I think the surprising thing for me was that a town from Ohio won it last year.
Speaker 3:Maumee won it last year, so I was like they're not going to let Ohio win two years in a row. But I think that speaks to the resilience of not only this particular area but across the whole state of Ohio. You know the interest in rebuilding. You know kind of the rust belt thing that we went through with manufacturing. But you know kind of the rust belt thing that we went through with manufacturing. But you know for everybody to get on board and across the whole state I think is really exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. I mean I talked to a lot of people from other communities that were, you know, seeing the buzz about Marion and they were voting because it's like, hey, we, you know, we live elsewhere, maybe they were from Marion previously, maybe they just know some people from here, they're adjacent somehow or another. It's like they want to see prosperity being celebrated in Ohio and in the Midwest and you know, I think that there's a lot of work that's maybe silent in kind of the bigger news sources that's going on in communities like Marion. That is worth celebrating. And you know, the whole Strong Towns movement and platform is around a lot of the things that we're talking about and that is different agencies, organizations, public, private working together to make things happen. And some of those are big things. Some of these are really small things, but it takes getting the people to the table and having those conversations and just making the moves forward and, as you mentioned earlier, mike, just the momentum that is being created and that is starting to be felt.
Speaker 2:You know those ripples and waves started years ago, you know. Some of you know we've been working in downtown for seven years. You know those ripples and waves started years ago, you know, some of you know we've been working in downtown for seven years, you know, and I feel like are just starting to see the results of some of the things we've been working on. You know, you've been working hard for a year and a half and are just starting to see the early effects of some of those activities. And I think that as we get farther and farther you know again, just to you know, kind of think about a wave or a ripple, you know, like you get farther and farther away, it starts to become more and more noticeable and uh, and I think we're going to see more and more of that and I'm excited for the, the way that that helped to galvanize the community.
Speaker 2:There's, there's been a lot of uh, kind of tough situations in the past that I believe Marion has overcome and adapted and restored for good that maybe the labels haven't been taken off of us about. And we're really hopeful that this news and this contest helps to turn around some perceptions and starts to shine the light here to see the things that are going on. And we've got to change the narrative. Nobody else is going to come in and save us. Nobody else is going to come in and change the perceptions or narrative about Marion. We've got to change it and do the inside work here before the folks outside believe it, and I think this is a step forward to doing that and celebrating it.
Speaker 1:Take all of the excitement of winning and everything we prove to ourselves that people in this community want us to be better and are in for the long haul for this community.
Speaker 3:And I think if you take a step back and you realize that there's a lot of good that's going to happen in this community, and speaking of the long haul, as I touched upon in my introduction, one of the things that I've been tasked with is trying to clean up some of the blighted homes. Yeah, speak to that.
Speaker 3:If I can reach out to people outside of Marion, if you're also working with the same issue, the only thing I can say is don't give up. There's a lot of different paths that you have to take. You have to explore every option, whether you're working with your law director through the legal process, if you're working with regional planning, if you're working with the health department, the fire department, the inspection bureau. There's a lot of moving parts to getting some of these houses cleaned up and it's not a it's not a fast process, but but stick with it because it's. I'm a guy that likes to get stuff done and maybe not always the most patient person in the world, but I've learned that you just got to stay after this and and and work with what's out there, what's available to you. Explore every option thatore, every option that you can find, whether it's through grant writing to get more money to either help houses to be fixed up or to get the ones that need torn down torn down. And the thing I'm really excited about is this collaboration right now with Tri-Rivers Career Center, our local vocational school.
Speaker 3:If you're not familiar, they just tore down a house last week. There's an awesome video that Mike put on our website that shows a house being brought down. It's a live action video. It's really cool. But not only did Tri-Rivers tear this down, they bought this from the land bank. But not only did Tri-Rivers tear this down, they bought this from the land bank. They tore this house down to get rid of it, but they're also going to put a brand new home on that location for a family to move into. They will sell that back and use that money to put back in their construction trades program at Tri-Rivers.
Speaker 2:So it's just so many positive things are coming out of this, this, and I'm really excited about it. Yeah, it is. I mean, I think they've got a great opportunity to multiply those effects I mean my understanding, you know, from having my brother-in-law that works within the department that you know they're even looking to, you know, kind of gain some momentum with doing multiple projects, you know, and the need is certainly there and I know that the city is very open to these types of collaborations and again, it's just such a good example of bringing the right people to the table with the skills, with the opportunities, and what a great win-win, you know.
Speaker 3:I mean.
Speaker 2:Tri-Rivers is teaching scores of students that are getting to be part of this. Now that gets to be part of their DNA. They're involved in the rebuilding of Marion. They can take their friends and family by there and say I helped build that. That used to be a vacant home that needed torn down. I helped make it a meaningful place for someone to raise a family. And they're getting involved. They're learning the trades along the way. It's benefiting the school, it's benefiting the city, it's benefiting the block and the neighborhood and the street and again those ripple effects just keep multiplying.
Speaker 3:And not only are they going to build new homes, but I know the lead instructor wants to also find houses that are able to be rehabbed and teaches students not only new construction but what it takes to rehab a house, and that part of it is just awesome.
Speaker 2:Exactly so I mean again for those out there listening be encouraged. There's people out there in your community that want to do good encouraged. There's. There's people out there in your community that want to do good. It's literally just a matter of reaching across the aisle sometimes and getting getting them involved and looking for those win win scenarios. So I know that we could talk all day here about you know things about it about.
Speaker 2:But you know that's a little bit of a taste. You know we'll we'll do another follow up episode here, a little ways down the line and kind of check in on how some of these are going and lessons learned and things that we can share again both locally and beyond. But I appreciate you guys taking out a little bit of time here to have some conversation and thanks for the work that you're doing. I'm excited to see see, as we move forward, the benefits that are going to come to all of us. Thanks, luke, for having us.
Speaker 3:I love Marion. Yeah, we really really appreciate the opportunity to get the word out.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely so. I will mention, as I always have organizations or individuals on. You know ways to follow along on the progress. I'll let you speak to that. Mike, you know there's social media channels. You've brought some innovative things in terms of being more transparent getting more information out there.
Speaker 1:Go ahead and share those if you want. Yeah, absolutely On our Facebook page. Right now, we're using our Facebook page as kind of like a news resource. We're trying to let everybody know if there's road closures or anything like that happening, but also some of the big things that are happening and as we move along, you know, when we win these projects, we're going to announce these to the community. When it's the right time and we got all our ducks in a row All this stuff is going to be released to the community.
Speaker 1:It's going to be explained, it's going to be highlighted, it's going to be there for the citizens to see what we're doing. Everything we're doing is completely, I mean, it's exactly what the mayor, it's exactly what the citizens should want, it's exactly. You know, we're just trying to make the city better one step at a time, and I know a lot of it is. We mentioned earlier a little bit about the grant process, of how you can't pick and choose what the grant is, but the bottom line is we're going to take advantage of anything we can get.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah. So keep an eye on that Facebook page. You got YouTube, but pretty much all of that is funneling to the Facebook page, so people should follow along there. City of Marion love your city I is the way it's designated on Facebook and follow along. So again, thanks again, guys. Thank you to our listeners and viewers for tuning in. Hopefully you learned some things. Hopefully you continue to be educated and inspired through this process. We appreciate you. If you heard something that resonated, please share it with someone else who could find some value, and we'll catch you next time on the podcast. Thank you, thanks.
Speaker 3:Lou, who could?
Speaker 2:find some value and we'll catch you next time on the podcast Thanks. Thanks for listening to the main street re-imagined podcast. To learn more about main street re-imagined Henry development group or our work in downtown Marion Ohio, please visit main street re-imaginedcom If you want to connect or if you know someone who we need to interview. Shoot us an email at info at mainStreetReimaginedcom. Until next time, keep dreaming and don't be afraid to take the leap.