Garrettsville – Almost three months after the fire that devastated a portion of downtown Garrettsville, the charred remains of what once was, have been removed. Fill dirt and fencing, banners displaying support and hope now line a portion of Main Street.
As the cleanup process was taking place, the Garrettsville Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors have been working to establish guidelines on how the monies raised and held in the GarrettsvilleStrong fund will be distributed.
Working with a Cleveland-based business attorney (who donated his time), Portage County Auditor Janet Espisito and the Ohio Attorney Generals office, the board finalized the disbursement guidelines for the fund – which as of June 13th was sitting at over $65,526.
While multiple businesses were affected, there were four property owners whose buildings were lost or damaged on March 22. On Wednesday, June 18th the board met with those property owners to sit down and review the GarrettsvilleStrong disbursement guidelines, answer any questions and address any concerns that they may have regarding the fund prior to the information being made public.
The #GarrettsvilleStrong Fund is comprised of monies acquired by direct donations or through fundraising efforts and earmarked for the rebuilding of the Main Street area destroyed by the fire on March 22, 2014.
These monies will be made available to the property owners of record at the time of monetary request for the sole use of rebuilding. Each Current Property Owner received a letter stating how the funds will be allocated, how payments shall be processed and their options should the owner decide not to rebuild.
Monies from the fund will be allocated based on the ground level lot size per the Portage County auditors office tax map. With fundraisers scheduled to continue throughout 2014 it is the Board’s hope that these funds will help defray some of the expenses that the property owners will incur as they rebuild Main Street.
The entire document is available online at http://garrettsvillearea.com/library.html
