In 2022, Ohio House Bill 377 created the Appalachian Community Grant Program within Development's Governor's Office of Appalachia, a program of up to $500,000,000.00 in American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funding to drive transformational change in the 32-county Appalachian region. The program is designed to strategically invest in projects that will result in sustainable and transformational outcomes and include health care, infrastructure, and workforce components.
Only local government and government-related entities are eligible to apply as eligible lead applicants, but the program encourages a high level of collaboration to maximize the return on investment.
Due to the scale and complexity of selected projects and the timeline for completion (projects must be completed no later than October 31, 2026), the law permits the Director of Development to use $15,000,000.00 or more for planning - up to $30,000,000.00, depending on the need. A portion of the planning funds will be utilized for this request.
To assist applicants that may not have the immediate expertise and/or resources required to develop transformational project plans, Development conducted a rigorous Request for Proposal process to competitively identify several qualified planning firms to work directly with eligible lead applicants on project feasibility and design.
The Appalachian Community Grant Program solicitation - DEV23GOA01 - was open October 19, 2022, until November 16, 2022, and Development received 84 responses, two of which were withdrawn. Priority was placed on each planning firm's ability to coordinate high-caliber projects within a compressed timeframe:
• 47 applicants met the 60-point minimum scoring threshold.
• 28 applicants were invited to and participated in interviews.
• 23 of the 28 interviewed applicants offered staff with the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) certification.
• Eight firms that could not offer AICP-certified staff were also invited to participate in interviews because they scored within the top 20 of the submission pool. Six of the eight responded and were interviewed.
Included as a packaged request for Controlling Board consideration, Development is seeking approval to increase funding for four firms in support of the Appalachian Community Grant Program:
• CT Consultants, Inc. - increase of $10,000.00, from $772,000.00 to $782,000.00.
• Envision Group, LLC - increase of $268,080.00, from $250,000.00 to $518,080.00.
• Kleinfelder, Inc. - increase of $25,000.00, from $150,000.00 to $175,000.00.
• MS Consultants, Inc. - increase of $949,488.00, from $575,000.00 to $1,524,488.00.
This request is for an expansion of FY 2024 contractual partnerships approved by Controlling Board during the July 10, 2023, meeting - DEV0105145. Active contracts began on July 10, 2023, with an end date of June 30, 2024.
MS Consultants: Has a downtown Youngstown office which has 60+ employees working out of it. There is one planner in the Youngstown office who is almost exclusively working on this program and all of design/engineering work on this program is being managed by engineers located in Youngstown.
Kleinfelder:
Kleinfelder has an office in Zanesville. They have four people from that office assigned to ACGP projects, three of which live in Appalachia as well. They have 20 employees working out of their Bowling Green office on projects that they visit the region on job sites.
Envision:
Envision does not have an office in Appalachia. They have 9 people working in the region. They have been a partner firm with Eastgate and OMEGA Local Development Districts in the region in past projects.
CT Consultants:
CT has an Office located in Youngstown. Out of the four point people assigned to ACGP two reside in Appalachia. In the response to the RFP, CT highlighted they have assisted public and private clients with over 500 projects in Ohio's 32 Appalachian counties in the past 5 years. They also include detailed list of staff available in the region.
It is important to note that the communities were able to choose from the procured planners. Many communities encouraged these planners to apply because they were familiar with them and had experience in the region. We share the desire to invest as much as the resources for ACGP in Appalachia as possible.
Development leadership is requiring communities and planners to show that they will produce a competitive application for ACGP.
The portion of the ACGP for planning (up to 6%) is necessary in order to allow communities that do not have the capacity to develop a competitive application. Without this assistance the chances are greatly reduced that distressed and small communities would be able to part of ACGP.
Another factor, that is leading to additional requests for planning is the timeline.
Contracts for the ACGP must be executed by September 30, 2024 to meet ARPA compliance and to be completed by September 30, 2026. In order to meet the transformational requirements of H.B. 377, additional work for permits and preliminary design to be completed.