2023

Café Overlook in the Franklin County courthouse complex celebrates a successful first anniversary with a steady stream of regular and new customers daily. Still, the restaurant’s most significant accomplishments lie a little deeper.  Since the spring of 2022, the restaurant has doubled as a workforce development program, hiring employees who are social services clients. The employees earn a livable wage of at least $15 an hour and have benefits while learning job readiness skills. Once they graduate from the program, they also receive help finding a stable career in or outside the restaurant industry.

This morning, the Franklin County Commissioners announced that they had voted unanimously to provide a $400,000 grant to the YWCA of Columbus to support its Family Center which provides emergency shelter services for families without homes.
 

The Franklin County Commissioners last week voted to approved $4.25 million in funding for the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC), including $250,000 to support the Public Art Master Plan project which will produce a public art plan for Central Ohio in order to ensure that there is more art on display for all of our residents.
 

This morning, the Franklin County Commissioners released their annual State of the County Report, and an interactive website that give the community valuable insight into how their Franklin County government is working for them.  The report is available at Report.FranklinCountyOhio.gov, and broken into sections based on the commissioners’ six core principles of good governance, Safety and Security, Economic Development, Health and Human Services, Environmental Sustainability, Fiscally Responsible Government, and Racial Equity.  This year’s report shows that the county has maintained its double Triple A bond rating throughout the pandemic, one of only about 3% of local governments with a credit score that high.  It notes that the county’s “rainy day” fund is $85 million, and details some of the ways that the commissioners have allocated more then $200 million in American Rescue Plan funds.
 

This morning, the Franklin County Commissioners unanimously approved a contract with the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Healthy Homes program for $15.5 million to support the creation of more than 200 new units of affordable housing in the Linden neighborhood.  In addition to supporting the construction of 33 new houses, the funding will be leveraged to secure additional funding for hundreds of additional units that will be available for low-income families to rent.
 

The 2022 Local Food Action Plan Annual Report was adopted and launched by the City-County Local Food Board on Friday, April 14, 2023.

The Franklin County Commissioners announced this morning new grants totaling $1,683,000 to community partner organizations for the purpose of promoting equity in healthcare for Franklin County residents.  The nine grant recipients and their initiatives were chosen from among more than 50 applicants because of their focus on reducing disparities in health outcomes primarily for populations that have been historically underserved by high-quality healthcare and health services.
 

The Franklin County Commissioners honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., including his dream that America could one day live up to its creed that all people are created equal, and his enduring legacy of service.  The commissioners encourage all Franklin County residents to set aside time today for service to the community in honor of King’s legacy and to continue to make our county a wonderful place to live.
 
All county offices are closed today in observance of the holiday.
 

The Franklin County Board of Commissioners selected John O’Grady to serve as president of the board for 2023.  This is his fourth term of office and his sixth stint as board president.