Buckeye Hills Regional Council is cutting ribbons across Southeast Ohio this fall, celebrating a run of community projects paid for through the Appalachian Community Grant Program in ceremonies stretching from mid-October into late November. The series marks finished investments in community revitalization, tourism and cultural heritage in towns across the region.
The first three celebrations are already in the books: the Ecotone Amphitheater in Sardis, in Monroe County, on Oct. 19; the Pomeroy Riverfront Revitalization in Meigs County on Oct. 20; and the Logan Streetscape in Hocking County on Oct. 21. Each ceremony brought together community leaders, project partners and residents to mark the completion of the work.
Two more ribbon cuttings remain on the calendar. The Underground Railroad Museum in Morristown, in Belmont County, will be celebrated on Nov. 13, and the Southeast Ohio History Center in Athens closes the series on Nov. 20. The Athens and Morristown projects lean into the region’s history — the Underground Railroad’s Ohio River crossings and a permanent home for Southeast Ohio’s historical record.
“The Appalachian Community Grant Program is a historic, once-in-a-generation investment in our region,” Buckeye Hills Executive Director Chasity Schmelzenbach said in the council’s announcement. “These projects are creating lasting change and opening doors for future generations. We’re excited to celebrate alongside the state and local leaders and partners who made these investments possible.”
Buckeye Hills Regional Council, based in Marietta, is the regional development district serving Southeast Ohio’s Appalachian counties, and it has shepherded the grant program’s local projects from application through construction. The council said the finished projects are designed to create new opportunities for both residents and visitors — riverfront access in Pomeroy, a performance space in Sardis, and a rebuilt streetscape in downtown Logan among them.
The grant program represents one of the largest state investments in Appalachian Ohio in a generation, aimed at the kinds of downtown, tourism and heritage projects that small communities struggle to fund from local budgets alone. Ribbon cuttings are the visible end of that pipeline: design, grant administration and construction, converted into places residents can actually use.
Community members, local officials and regional partners are invited to the remaining ceremonies in Morristown on Nov. 13 and Athens on Nov. 20. Buckeye Hills said each event will highlight the partnerships and local efforts that brought the investments to completion.
Photo: Tim Kiser, CC BY-SA