Jeff's August Update

The month of August started off with some volunteer time at the Fayette County Fair, during which I wore the mascot suit for the Buy Local program. I started to work heavily on the Local Share Proposal for Washington County Gambling funds, in which we are applying for expanded docks and an improved riverfront in Fredericktown. I met with a representative of the Army Corps of Engineers, who explained the necessary permits. We made a presentation to the local municipality, and got the support of the elected officials. I also attended a workshop held by the Washington County Redevelopment Authority, to gain some insight into the application process, and to get some hints. They told us to look for matching funds, instead of asking for all funding from them. Therefore I began to research some other grants that can be applied for to help finance our project. This project will continue to be a priority as we move into September, but thankfully I have many interested community partners who are doing other aspects of it.

In August I also worked on tourism-related projects for the region. We had several more days of field research to find points of interest for the smart phone trail app. Once those attractions were loaded into the software, I sent the app out for proofreading. Hopefully it will be finalized and launched soon. I also wrote a series of one-day itineraries, that in the future can be posted to our website or to other travel publications, to advertise the region.

Economic development projects were a third thing I focused on in August. I compiled a list of available commercial properties in the town. The other corps interns will do the same in their towns. We also began to plan a workshop for property owners, to teach them how to better market their properties. For that workshop, I drafted a sign to hang in the windows of available commercial properties. Finally, we met with a representative from GTECH strategies, a Pittsburgh based group, to tour a brownfield site in Fredericktown. It was for mermine-related structures, and is now a large vacant site. It is hopefully not too polluted, and can be cleared of scrap metal and reused in the future.