Author name: Ron Gombeda

July marks The Guernsey County Community Development’s anniversary month. Thirty years ago, on July 31, our original articles of incorporation were filed as the Byesville Area Community Development Corporation. Since that initial filing our name and our focus has changed, but our goal hasn’t, which is to make Guernsey County a great place to live and work.

I have been a part of this organization since 2013, and I have been the executive director since 2015. I have experienced tremendous amount of growth during my tenure as an employee and then as the director. Not only has my organization grown, but I too have grown and changed as a person and a leader. My passion for helping people and my county has become my single-minded focus, and I strive to instill that passion into the people that I employ.

Because I have been here for over a decade, I can attest to our trials and errors when implementing programs and projects. Some work. Some don’t. But the point is that we at least try. Failure is not fatal, and success is not permanent. We continue to grow, we continue to help others, and we continue to try to be one of the best things about Guernsey County.

People will often ask me what we do at the CDC. I joke that it would be quicker to tell people what we don’t do. But what we do is vital in the growth of our community. Since we are approaching the 30^th anniversary of our founding, I believe it is important for people to know about our projects and programs:

• Built and maintain the Great Guernsey Trail, a 7 mile paved walking trail that runs from Cambridge to Lore City.
• Own and care for over 3,000 acres of greenspace land in Guernsey and Belmont counties for the purpose of habitat preservation and recreation.
• Employ 8 individuals to provide transportation for disabled veterans and for individuals that lack reliable transportation for the purposes of medical appointments, work, recreational reasons, etc. This is done in partnership with SEAT.
• Own and manage 23 residential properties as part of our affordable rental programs. Our rent peaks at $600 and most of our units range from $375 to $550.
• Own and manage 8 commercial properties as part of our low rent, business development program which currently provides space for 7 businesses.
• Provide paid work training through our workforce development programs for low-come adults, at risk young people, and individuals going through substance use disorder recovery. These programs currently employ 13 individuals across all three programs.
  • Through these programs we have helped 67 people find permanent employment with area employers.
• Promote tourism by running three races, such as a half-marathon and 10k, 5k, etc. which bring in over 1,000 people during a calendar year.
• Own and maintain Coal Ridge Park and Trails.
• Own and maintain Boyd’s Bottom Open Space and Trails system.
• Own and maintain Shon Lenzo Nature Space and Bobcat Disc Golf Course.
• Work with the Guernsey County Sheriff’s office and local governments to clean up and remove illegal dumps.
• Manage countywide litter cleanups which have disposed of 60,052 illegally dumped tires, picked up 7,624 bags of litter, and removed 500+ tons of illegally dumped items (furniture, trash, etc.).
• Remove log jams and stream debris for the purpose of ensuring a healthy watershed and to prevent flooding.
• Hang and care for the flags on Wheeling Ave.
• Applied for and received $4.7 million to extend and connect the Great Guernsey Trail to downtown Cambridge. This is part of the $7,939,171 in grant dollars that we have brought into the county since I became director in 2015.
• Provide affordable mowing services for small townships and communities that have small operating budgets. This allows those townships and communities to invest their limited revenue into other areas of need.
• Install ramps for individuals with mobility barriers.
• We own and are currently rehabbing St. Luke’s (Fletcher Chapel) which is an important historical building.
• Built and maintain the Trailside Skate Park, which provides skating enthusiasts a safe place to practice their sport.
• Actively restoring acres of negatively impacted wetlands.
• Partnered with local townships and villages to apply for Ohio Nature Works Grants to improve playground facilities.
• Implemented and operates a curbside recycling program.

As you can see our operations span a variety of critical need areas, but each one is designed with specific goals in mind and to ensure a great quality of life for our area residents.

We will continue through the month of July by positing images and stories on our Facebook (so make sure you like and follow our page) and I hope you will follow us on this month long journey as we celebrate 30 years of making Guernsey County a great place to live and work.